Senior Legal Counsel

Summary

Wikimedia envisions a world where the sum total of human knowledge is available to everyone.  The Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit home of Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, and other free educational projects, serves as the hub of a global movement of hundreds of thousands of contributors collaborating to collect and share the sum of all human knowledge with the world. Protecting the privacy of Wikimedia readers, contributors, and donors is a key element of our work as an organization.

Our Legal team counsels the Foundation as they create tools and features for Wikipedia, secure the websites, and collaborate with volunteer developers to design and build the future of the projects. We are looking for Senior Legal Counsel to support the Fundraising, Product and Engineering teams in a product counsel capacity, with a special focus on marketing and product development needs across departments. 

Description

As the Senior Legal Counsel, you will be responsible for providing holistic in-house legal guidance to the Fundraising, Product, and Engineering teams, ensuring the Foundation can innovate while protecting the privacy of its global community. In this role, you will navigate evolving regulations in marketing and AI, advise on the development of the Wikimedia technical platform, and help build a global legal ecosystem where free knowledge can thrive.

This role reports to the Associate General Counsel and will focus on Wikimedia’s current and future legal work as it relates to marketing and fundraising engagement, and disintermediation.

You are responsible for:

• Analyzing current and forthcoming regulations related to marketing, customization, and other fundraising initiatives to support Advancement, Product and Technology teams on marketing and mobile app development
• Collaborating with the Foundation's lawyers and public policy professionals to address the impact of Generative AI and create a global legal ecosystem in which free knowledge can thrive with minimal disintermediation
• Identifying and executing opportunities to advance the Wikimedia mission within a complex, shifting technological and legal landscape
• Supporting the Product and Engineering teams in developing a data governance model that allows for novel features while maintaining high privacy standards, for example in the space of reader engagement

Skills and Experience:

• J.D. from accredited U.S. law school or equivalent foreign degree preferably paired with significant U.S. legal experience
• Experience with product, privacy, marketing and other internet law issues, advising a user-facing digital technology or internet company (e.g., as in-house counsel), preferably with global reach
• 5-7 years experience with legal review of go-to-market, fundraising, technical products or online services
• Significant experience working with engineering colleagues as a counselor and advisor to achieve organizational goals
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills and attention to detail, full fluency in written and spoken English

Qualities that are important to us:

• A deep commitment to a free and open internet, open-source movement, and the Wikimedia mission
• Comfortable working in a highly transparent, multicultural, and collaborative environment
• A fast learner with the sound judgment needed to handle complex projects independently in a fast-paced setting
• High personal integrity with a strong public service orientation

Additionally, we’d love it if you have:

• Experience with marketing, fundraising and campaign customization, and online communities.
• A degree or work experience in marketing, campaign management, computer science, engineering, or related experience, and have a good understanding of fundraising, marketing and software engineering processes and issues.
• Ability to speak other languages, experience living or working outside the United States, or past work on international legal issues

The Wikimedia Foundation is the nonprofit organization that operates Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia free knowledge projects. Our vision is a world in which every single human can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. We believe that everyone has the potential to contribute something to our shared knowledge, and that everyone should be able to access that knowledge freely. We host Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects, build software experiences for reading, contributing, and sharing Wikimedia content, support the volunteer communities and partners who make Wikimedia possible, and advocate for policies that enable Wikimedia and free knowledge to thrive. 

The Wikimedia Foundation is a charitable, not-for-profit organization that relies on donations. We receive donations from millions of individuals around the world, with an average donation of about $15. We also receive donations through institutional grants and gifts. The Wikimedia Foundation is a United States 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization with offices in San Francisco, California, USA.

As an equal opportunity employer, the Wikimedia Foundation values having a diverse workforce and continuously strives to maintain an inclusive and equitable workplace. We encourage people with a diverse range of backgrounds to apply. We do not discriminate against any person based upon their race, traits historically associated with race, religion, color, national origin, sex, pregnancy or related medical conditions, parental status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, genetic information, or any other legally protected characteristics.

The Wikimedia Foundation is a remote-first organization with staff members including contractors based 40+ countries*. Salaries at the Wikimedia Foundation are set in a way that is competitive, equitable, and consistent with our values and culture. The anticipated annual pay range of this position for applicants based within the United States is $109,920 to $167,448 with multiple individualized factors, including cost of living in the location, being the determinants of the offered pay. For applicants located outside of the US, the pay range will be adjusted to the country of hire. We neither ask for nor take into consideration the salary history of applicants. The compensation for a successful applicant will be based on their skills, experience and location.

*Please note that we are currently able to hire in the following:
US States: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia*, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico*, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming (*US Territory or Federal District)
Countries: Brazil, Canada, Colombia, France, Germany, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya*, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Poland, Singapore*, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Our non-US employees are hired through a local third party Employer of Record (EOR) and must have current work authorization in their location. (*citizens/permanent residents only)
We periodically review this list to streamline to ensure alignment with our hiring requirements.

All applicants can reach out to their recruiter to understand more about the specific pay range for their location during the interview process.

If you are a qualified applicant requiring assistance or an accommodation to complete any step of the application process due to a disability, you may contact us at [email protected] or +1 (415) 839-6885.

More information

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