Principal Counsel & Associate Director, Enterprise Data Privacy Office

The Enterprise Data Privacy Office (EDPO) Office (the Privacy Office) is responsible for ensuring that FINRA meets or exceeds its legal and ethical obligations with respect to the security and use of information it collects while executing its responsibilities, fostering the confidence of firms, regulators, staff, and the investing public. The Principal Counsel & Associate Director, EDPO, is responsible for interpreting, advising on, monitoring and managing various privacy programs and activities at FINRA, at all times acting in an independent and confidential manner. This role is responsible for privacy, legal, and programmatic privacy work. This is professional level work in which the incumbent is defining their assigned roles, increasing their skills, and independently working, relying on the Senior Director and Counsel as a point of escalation.

Essential Job Functions:

• Counsels senior leaders across the organization regarding complex privacy matters, data loss events, and privacy policy violations raised to the Enterprise Data Privacy Office (EDPO) Office.
• Proactively identifies areas for improvement in FINRA’s privacy policies and programs based on changing state, federal, and global legal requirements and best practices; develops recommendations based on desired outcomes; engages security and business stakeholders, senior leaders, and end users across the enterprise, as appropriate to identify potential impacts; briefs EDPO management on findings and recommendations; and leads activities relating to implementing necessary improvements.
• Provides subject matter legal counsel, which may include reviewing and negotiating privacy provisions in vendor contracts, as requested by the Office of General Counsel Transactions (CTG) attorneys; providing interpretive guidance to the Office of Governmental Affairs and all FINRA departments regarding proposed federal and state legislation and potential impacts on FINRA operations; identifying appropriate changes to the existing policies and program to comply with legal requirements; and reviewing, drafting, and maintaining, as appropriate, FINRA’s internally and externally facing privacy policies, including relevant application or system privacy policies.
• Leads several privacy program activities, which may include refining and implementing the privacy assessment program, identifying and establishing standard and bespoke privacy risk mitigation recommendations for projects, creating a privacy compliance/audit function, providing guidance and coaching on developing a privacy risk register, managing and enhancing the program around department level privacy leaders and department privacy policies; and conducting comprehensive investigations of potential violations of FINRA privacy policies, including interviewing relevant players, drafting summaries for case files, and working with relevant control departments to determine outcomes.
• Builds strategic relationships with FINRA privacy leads across the organization to gain familiarity with the parameters and nature of each FINRA Department’s specific restricted information programs and privacy controls; provides tailored expert advice to those department leaders and exercises independent judgment in evaluation requests to privacy policy or program changes. Responsible for updating and implementing the policy guiding the privacy leads, running routine information meetings with the privacy leads and their delegates, and working with the Departments to ensure department level policies are up to date and accurately reflect expected privacy practices.

Education/Experience Requirements:

• A law degree and appropriately licensed to practice law in all applicable jurisdictions based on the relevant licensing requirements.
• A minimum six (6) years of experience in a legal role in privacy law or operations or in policy development and implementation, preferably in a regulatory environment; corporate privacy program experience desirable; experience in a non-profit or government environment highly desirable.
• Excellent oral/written communication, critical thinking, research, and analytical skills.
• Strong legal research skills required.
• Project management experience highly desirable.
• Experience handling sensitive or confidential information.
• Must have demonstrated experience effectively managing multiple deadlines and priorities; excellent organizational skill is required.
• Ability to function effectively both independently and in a team environment is required.
• CIPP/US or CIPM or the willingness to obtain a certification is required.
• Proficiency in the use of Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Outlook required; experience with Microsoft Project, Power BI, Microsoft PowerPoint, and Adobe Acrobat is preferred.

For work that is performed in CA, CO, HI, MN, VT, IL, Jersey City, NJ, New York City, NY, MA, WA, MD, Washington, DC, NJ State and NY State, please refer to the chart below for the salary range for the corresponding location. In addition to location, actual compensation is based on various factors, including but not limited to, the candidate’s skill set, level of experience, education, and internal peer compensation comparisons.

CA: Minimum Salary $128,000, Maximum Salary $242,600

CO/HI/MN/VT*: Minimum Salary $111,400, Maximum Salary $202,100

IL*: Minimum Salary $122,800, Maximum Salary $222,400
Jersey City, NJ/NYC, NY: Minimum Salary $133,700, Maximum Salary $242,600

MA/WA: Minimum Salary $111,400, Maximum Salary $232,500

MD/Washington, DC: Minimum Salary $128,000, Maximum Salary $232,500

NJ State: Minimum Salary $122,800, Maximum $242,600

NY State: Minimum Salary $111,400, Maximum Salary $242,600

*Including positions performed outside the state but reporting to an office or manager in that state.

Candidates can expect salary offers that range from the minimum to the mid-point of the salary range. FINRA provides full pay ranges so that the candidate can consider their growth potential while at FINRA.

#LI-Hybrid

To be considered for this position, please submit an application. Applications are accepted on an ongoing basis.

The information provided above has been designed to indicate the general nature and level of work of the position. It is not a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities and qualifications required.

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FINRA strives to make our career site accessible to all users. If you need a disability-related accommodation for completing the application process, please contact FINRA's Employee Relations team at 240.386.4865 or by email at EmployeeRelations@finra.org. Please note that this process is exclusively for inquiries regarding application accommodations. 

Employees may be eligible for a discretionary bonus in addition to base pay. Non-exempt employees are also eligible for overtime pay in accordance with federal, state, or local law. As part of its dedication to employee wellness, FINRA provides comprehensive health, dental and vision insurance. Additional insurance includes basic life, accidental death and dismemberment, supplemental life, spouse/domestic partner and dependent life, and spouse/domestic partner and dependent accidental death and dismemberment, short- and long-term disability, long-term care, business travel accident, disability and legal. FINRA offers immediate participation and vesting in a 401(k) plan with company match and eligibility for participation in an additional FINRA-funded retirement contribution, tuition reimbursement, commuter benefits, and other benefits that support employee wellness, such as adoption assistance, backup family care, surrogacy benefits, employee assistance, and wellness programs.

Time Off and Paid Leave*

FINRA encourages its employees to focus on their health and wellness in many ways, including through a generous time-off program of 15 days of paid time off, 5 personal days and 9 sick days, unless otherwise required by law (all pro-rated in the first year). Additionally, we are proud to support our communities by providing two volunteer service days (based on full-time schedule). Other paid leave includes military leave, jury duty leave, bereavement leave, voting and election official leave for federal, state or local primary and general elections, care of a family member leave (available after 90 days of employment); and childbirth and parental leave (available after 90 days of employment). Full-time employees receive nine paid holidays.

*Based on full-time schedule

Important Information

FINRA’s Code of Conduct imposes restrictions on employees’ investments and requires financial disclosures that are uniquely related to our role as a securities regulator. FINRA employees are required to disclose to FINRA all brokerage accounts that they maintain, and those in which they control trading or have a financial interest (including any trust account of which they are a trustee or beneficiary and all accounts of a spouse, domestic partner or minor child who lives with the employee) and to authorize their broker-dealers to provide FINRA with duplicate statements for all of those accounts. All of those accounts are subject to the Code’s investment and securities account restrictions, and new employees must comply with those investment restrictions—including disposing of any security issued by a company on FINRA’s Prohibited Company List or obtaining a written waiver from their Executive Vice President—by the date they begin employment with FINRA. Employees may only maintain securities accounts that must be disclosed to FINRA at one or more securities firms that provide an electronic feed (e-feed) of data to FINRA, and must move securities accounts from other securities firms to a firm that provides an e-feed within three months of beginning employment.

You can read more about these restrictions here.

As standard practice, employees must also execute FINRA’s Employee Confidentiality and Invention Assignment Agreement without qualification or modification and comply with the company’s policy on nepotism.

Search Firm Representatives

Please be advised that FINRA is not seeking assistance or accepting unsolicited resumes from search firms for this employment opportunity. Regardless of past practice, a valid written agreement and task order must be in place before any resumes are submitted to FINRA. All resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at FINRA without a valid written agreement and task order in place will be deemed the sole property of FINRA and no fee will be paid in the event that person is hired by FINRA.

FINRA strives to make our career site accessible to all users. If you need a disability-related accommodation for completing the application process, please contact FINRA's Employee Relations team at 240.386.4865 or by email at EmployeeRelations@finra.org. Please note that this process is exclusively for inquiries regarding application accommodations.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, citizenship status, color, disability, marital status, national origin, race, religion, sex, veteran status or any other classification protected by federal, state, or local laws.

FINRA abides by the requirements of 41 CFR 60-741.5(a). This regulation prohibits discrimination against qualified individuals on the basis of disability and requires affirmative action by covered prime contractors and subcontractors to employ and advance in employment qualified individuals with disabilities.

FINRA abides by the requirements of 41 CFR 60-300.5(a). This regulation prohibits discrimination against qualified protected veterans and requires affirmative action by covered prime contractors and subcontractors to employ and advance in employment qualified protected veterans.

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