Vice President of Legal, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer - San Francisco, CA (929-SLS)
About the position Our client, a publicly traded HealthTech company has exclusively retained Solutus Legal Search to assist the executives with their search for a General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer to lead its high-performing legal function. This legal executive will report directly to the Founder & CEO and will manage a team of 12 legal professionals. As the company's senior legal and compliance leader, and principal advisor to the executive team and board, you will lead with business acumen - safeguarding the company from risk while enabling innovation and growth. You will own public company legal and compliance operations including corporate securities/governance, IP protection, and employment law, product and commercial counseling, and regulatory and privacy programs for a tech-first digital health business. You'll mature legal operations, shepherd strategic M&A transactions, strengthen IP and data-rights position, and partner cross-functionally to enable developer velocity and scalable go-to-market execution. Responsibilities • Serve as primary legal and healthcare compliance advisor to the senior leadership team and board; prepare and deliver board materials on legal, compliance, and risk matters. • Lead public company legal operations: manage SEC reporting, Section 16 filings, earnings disclosure and Reg FD compliance, insider trading policy and 10b5-1 plans, exchange listing standards, proxy statement and annual meeting processes; partner with Finance, IR, and Internal Audit on disclosure and controls. • Own privacy, AI, data protection, and healthcare regulatory strategy; oversee HIPAA compliance, and incident response readiness. • Lead commercial legal for enterprise sales and partnerships; maintain templates, playbooks, and negotiation strategy across payer, employer, partner, and provider agreements. • Oversee corporate matters, including governance, equity and financing support, M&A, and (as needed) and securities compliance. • Scale and manage healthcare compliance program operations: policies, training, monitoring/auditing, investigations, corrective action plans, and regulatory exam management. • Scale and direct legal operations: AI implementation, tooling roadmap, outside counsel strategy, and budgeting. • Manage litigation and disputes, subpoenas, and regulatory inquiries, coordinate with Security, Clinical, and Product teams on risk mitigation. • Recruit, develop, and retain a high-performing team. • Monitor emerging laws, regulations and industry trends (privacy, AI, healthcare, reimbursement) and translate into product, security, and go-to-market guidance Requirements • 15+ years of experience spanning top-tier law firms and in-house roles across venture-backed startups/high-growth companies and public companies in technology (digital health strongly preferred). • Proven success scaling legal teams in tech companies: building org structures, processes, and legal operations to support rapid growth. • Lead teams of 10+ professionals across legal, compliance, privacy, and legal ops in remote/hybrid environments. • Healthcare, AI and privacy expertise with a strong understanding of the digital health regulatory landscape and emerging AI governance. • Strong corporate law experience including entity formation and governance, board/committee support, capitalization and equity programs, venture/private financings, corporate policies/secretarial practices; capital markets familiarity a plus. • Led or co-led M&A transactions and strategic investments, including diligence, negotiation and drafting (LOIs, merger/asset purchase agreements, disclosure schedules), regulatory approvals, closing mechanics, and post-close integration. • Designed and operated risk-based compliance programs; experience with monitoring/auditing, internal investigations, and regulator interactions (e.g., OCR, FTC, state AGs). • Experience partnering with founder-led organizations. • Strong interpersonal skills, responsiveness, working with a sense of urgency • Business partner who views value in facilitating the business. • JD with strong academic credentials and active bar membership in good standing. Apply tot his job