Why This Job is Featured on The SaaS Jobs
Privacy and data protection have shifted from back office compliance to a product shaping function in SaaS, particularly for platforms operating across multiple jurisdictions. This Senior Privacy Counsel role stands out because it sits close to engineering, product, and security, where privacy by design decisions influence customer trust, enterprise readiness, and the ability to ship features responsibly. The remit also touches AI governance, reflecting how SaaS companies are increasingly expected to operationalise emerging regulation alongside traditional privacy frameworks.
For a long term SaaS legal career, the work described builds durable experience in designing scalable privacy programs, translating regulatory requirements into practical controls, and supporting commercial contracting through data protection provisions and playbooks. The cross functional exposure is also a strong signal of scope, covering incident response, DPIAs, internal training, and stakeholder enablement, all common pressure points as SaaS products expand internationally and handle more sensitive data.
This role best suits a senior counsel who prefers influencing through partnership rather than operating as a backstop, and who is comfortable moving between policy detail and product level trade offs. It will appeal to someone motivated by multi jurisdictional problem solving and ongoing collaboration with technical and go to market teams.
The section above is editorial commentary from The SaaS Jobs, provided to help SaaS professionals understand the role in a broader industry context.
Job Description
What's the opportunity?
Intercom’s Legal team is seeking a dedicated Senior Privacy Counsel to lead the company on global legal matters involving privacy, data protection and cybersecurity, as well as to help support other compliance initiatives including AI governance and product development. You will advise and partner with our engineering, product, security, sales, marketing, H.R. and other teams throughout the organization to manage legal risk and compliance with global privacy laws and regulations. You will develop and effectuate strategies and initiatives that focus on building a scalable privacy and data protection program, as well as educate and train key stakeholders on prioritizing data protection as a core value for Intercom. The position may be based in: San Francisco, California, London, England or Dublin, Ireland.
What will I be doing?
- Serve as a subject matter expert and resource on privacy, data protection and security with a multi-jurisdicitional lens
- Work with teams across offices on various privacy, data protection and security compliance initiatives
- Partner very closely with your colleagues on Intercom’s legal team on a number of cross functional projects with privacy, data protection and regulatory implications
- Draft external privacy notices and disclosures, and manage/update internal policies and procedures to ensure compliance with global privacy and data protection laws
- Provide guidance and interpretation on legal requirements to the engineering and product teams with respect to existing and new product features and functionality for privacy-by-design initiatives
- Provide guidance to the H.R. team on employee privacy and data protection concerns and processes
- Respond to customer and employee questions about their individual data rights and Intercom’s processing activities
- Draft data protection impact assessments, partnering with product counsel and security, where needed
- Keep up to date on privacy and data protection law developments and provide analysis and guidance for implementation into business processes
- Counsel and advise commercial teams and business partners on data protection related provisions in contracts, including partnering with commercial counsel on drafting and maintaining data processing agreement templates and playbooks
- Partner with the Security team on company policies, risk assessments, projects and breach incidents
- Support projects in other key compliance areas involving our Code of Conduct and other policies
What skills do I need?
- 10+ years relevant experience as an attorney or counsel with law firm and in-house legal departments, advising a multinational technology company on global data privacy regulation and laws
- Deep experience with global privacy regulations, which include GDPR, the ePrivacy Directive and CCPA-CPRA. Working understanding of Australian Privacy Act, HIPAA, PIPEDA, LGPD and desire to learn other jurisdictions’ laws and upcoming regulations, as needed, to support the business
- Foundational knowledge of key security programs such as SOC2, ISO and HIPAA.
- CIPP/E or CIPP/US certification
- Comfort in influencing and educating an organization on the importance of privacy and implementation of privacy initiatives, and capable of building relationships and gaining respect of senior leaders in the organization
- An ability to multi-task and handle a variety of projects and tasks simultaneously
- Attention to detail, a sense of passion to support Intercom’s privacy initiatives and the ability and confidence to assess and balance risk in a fast-paced environment
- California state bar licensed attorney or ability to be registered as in-house counsel if licensed in another jurisdiction; or qualified in Ireland and/or the UK
Benefits
Dublin/London
We are a well treated bunch, with awesome benefits! If there’s something important to you that’s not on this list, talk to us!
- Competitive salary and equity in a fast-growing start-up
- We serve lunch every weekday, plus a variety of snack foods and a fully stocked kitchen
- Regular compensation reviews - we reward great work!
- Pension scheme & match up to 4%
- Peace of mind with life assurance, as well as comprehensive health and dental insurance for you and your dependents
- Flexible paid time off policy
- Paid maternity leave, as well as 6 weeks paternity leave for fathers, to let you spend valuable time with your loved ones
- If you’re cycling, we’ve got you covered on the Cycle-to-Work Scheme. With secure bike storage too
- MacBooks are our standard, but we also offer Windows for certain roles when needed.
#LI-Hybrid
