Assistant General Counsel - Privacy and Technology

Empowered to live. Inspired to work.
Compeer Financial is a member-owned cooperative located in Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin. We bring together team members with a variety of backgrounds and experiences to help provide financial services to support agriculture and rural communities. Join us in a culture that not only promotes meaningful work and professional development, but provides a flexible, hybrid work environment and excellent benefits, which empower you to thrive both personally and professionally.

How we support you:

• Hybrid model – up to 50% work from home
• Flexible schedules including ample flexibility in the summer months
• Up to 9% towards 401k (3% fixed Compeer contribution plus up to 6% match)
• Benefits: medical, dental, vision, HSA/FSA, life & AD&D insurance, short-term and long-term disability, wellness program & EAP
• Vacation, sick leave, holidays/floating holidays, parental leave, and volunteer paid time off
• Learning and development programs
• Mentorship programs
• Cross-functional committee opportunities (i.e. Inclusion Council, emerging professional groups, etc.)
• Professional membership/certification reimbursement and more!

Casual/seasonal & intern team members are not eligible for benefits except for state-mandated programs.

To learn more about Compeer Financial visit www.compeer.com/careers. 

Where you will work: This position offers a hybrid work option up to 50% and is open to any Compeer office location in Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

The contributions you will make: Provides legal counsel for privacy, technology, information law, and data governance, leading the legal approach for these practice areas and providing recommendations to leadership on matters of enterprise significance. Holds the organization’s designated Privacy Officer role and owns the legal design, standards, and requirements supporting the privacy program and related legal frameworks, with accountability for their legal adequacy. Provides enterprise-level legal counsel and leadership across technology and data contracting; information law and data governance, including artificial intelligence; and cybersecurity incident and breach response, independently making risk-based legal decisions, including approval of legal risk exceptions to contracting standards and directing outside counsel.

Come join our growing legal and compliance team! 

A typical day: 

• Owns the legal design and standards of the third-party risk management framework, including the legal requirements, risk thresholds, and governance standards applicable to significant vendor and third-party relationships.
• Structures, drafts, and negotiates the organization’s most complex technology, data, and services agreements and establishes contracting standards; provides legal counsel on high-risk third-party and vendor arrangements, including data processing, security, artificial intelligence (AI), and privacy matters; approves legal risk exceptions when contractual terms deviate from organizational standards; and leads legal, compliance, and privacy due diligence on significant vendors.
• Serves as the organization’s designated Privacy Officer, leading the organization’s legal approach to privacy and data protection and owning the privacy program framework’s legal design and standards in support of the enterprise privacy program; provides legal counsel on privacy and data protection compliance, including the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and state privacy laws.
• Oversees the legal aspects of privacy operations, including privacy statements, notices, and policies; responses to data subject access requests; and legal guidance to teams on data collection, use, ownership, and licensing, escalating when the business proceeds against privacy recommendations.
• Owns the legal framework for information law and data governance, including records and information law, data use and sharing, and the governance of data as an enterprise asset; developing legal posture and recommendations where the law is emerging or unsettled.
• Provides legal counsel on data ownership, licensing and use restrictions; artificial intelligence governance, including AI-driven decisioning, model data, and emerging AI-law obligations; intellectual property rights related to data and model development; electronic signatures and records, including authentication risk, admissibility, and eVaulting; and the legal aspects of artificial intelligence tools and data-driven products.
• Serves as the organization’s primary legal advisor for data breach and cybersecurity incidents as a member of the security incident response team, owning the legal dimensions of the cybersecurity program and serving as the accountable legal lead for information-security incidents, data breaches, and the organization’s breach-response and notification documentation, and escalation under the oversight of legal leadership.
• Monitors, researches, and interprets legal and regulatory developments affecting the organization, drafting legal opinions and guidance for leadership and teams and providing education on legal matters to reduce reliance on outside counsel.
• Provides counsel across the department’s practice areas as needed, including coverage of other attorney matters.

The skills and experience we prefer you have: 

• Juris Doctor from an American Bar Association accredited law school.
• Admission to practice law in at least one U.S. state, with a professional license in Minnesota, Wisconsin or Illinois or the ability to obtain one within the first year.
• Expert-level experience in a law firm, corporate legal department, or regulated financial institution, or an equivalent combination of legal and relevant professional experience sufficient to perform the essential functions of the role, with substantial experience in privacy, technology
  transactions, or information law.
• Experience advising on intellectual property data use and analytics, insurance data security requirements, including electronic signature and electronic records law, including authentication, admissibility, and eVaulting.
• Experience serving in a formally designated privacy-officer capacity or demonstrated readiness to serve.
• International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) certification (CIPP/US, CIPM, or CIPT) or equivalent employment history, strongly preferred.
• Experience advising on data breach or cybersecurity incident response, or technical expertise in data security, information technology, or SaaS and cloud solutions, preferred.
• Experience in financial services or another regulated industry, preferred.
• Expert knowledge of privacy and data protection law, including the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, state and federal privacy laws applicable to financial institutions, and AI governance, and data breach notification laws, and the ability to set the organization’s legal strategy and posture where the law is unsettled.
• Skill in structuring, drafting, and negotiating complex technology agreements, including SaaS, AI, cloud, licensing, and data processing arrangements.
• Functional knowledge of common cybersecurity, AI, privacy, and IT risk management frameworks, such as the NIST Cybersecurity Framework/CIS Controls, NIST Privacy Framework, ISO 27001, and AI Risk Management Framework. 
• Skill in applying legal principles to complex, ambiguous business problems and making risk-based legal decisions.
• Strong oral and written communication skills to communicate complex topics to a variety of audiences and to draft sophisticated legal documents.
• Strong negotiation, influencing, and relationship-building skills with business leaders and external counterparties.
• Familiarity with using AI-enabled tools to support legal research, drafting, and workflows.
• Analytical, critical thinking, and decision-making skills; ability to remain objective in balancing business needs and risk; and ability to manage competing priorities and work independently.

How we will take care of you:

Our job titles may span more than one career level (associate, senior, principal, etc.). The actual title and base pay offered is dependent upon many factors, such as: training, transferable skills, work experience, business needs and market demands. The base pay range is subject to change and may be modified in the future. This role is eligible for variable compensation and other benefits.

Compeer Financial is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Must be authorized to work for any employer in the United States. Compeer is unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment visa at this time.

Click here to view federal employment laws applicable for applicants.