About the Job:
The Associate Director, Privacy Counsel plays a critical leadership role within FMI’s privacy program and serves as a trusted advisor across FMI’s operations. This role is responsible for independently interpreting and advising on U.S. and ex‑U.S. data protection laws, including HIPAA (as a Covered Entity), GDPR, U.S. state consumer and genetic privacy laws, and related regulatory frameworks. This role exercises significant judgment and autonomy in guiding business, clinical, research, and commercial stakeholders, and in shaping and operationalizing FMI’s enterprise privacy strategy. The Associate Director, Privacy Counsel partners closely with legal, compliance, product, commercial, medical, information security, marketing, and business teams to enable responsible data use while protecting patient, customer, and research participant trust.
Key Responsibilities:
Serve as a privacy subject matter expert for FMI, providing legal guidance on privacy matters with minimal reliance on outside counsel
Maintain deep, current knowledge of applicable U.S. and ex‑U.S. privacy laws, particularly in healthcare, genetic privacy, research, and biopharma collaboration contexts
Advise FMI on matters related to informed consent, HIPAA authorization, research protocols, and secondary data use
Advise FMI on de-identification, pseudonymization, and anonymization standards and evolving regulatory expectations
Support investigation, analysis, remediation, and notification activities related to privacy and cybersecurity incidents
Support legal colleagues in drafting, reviewing, and negotiating data use and data protection terms in commercial agreements, vendor agreements, data sharing agreements (e.g., BAAs, DPAs, DUAs), research agreements, clinical trial agreements, and other collaboration agreements
Collaborate closely with the privacy team and broader legal and compliance department to advance and continually improve FMI’s privacy program, including assisting with the development of policies, procedures, training, and awareness activities
Participate in certain internal FMI committees as a standing team member
Prepare materials and make presentations, as necessary or requested
Independently triage workflow, set clear priorities and expectations with stakeholders, and efficiently deliver results
Manage and coordinate with outside privacy counsel, as needed on a case-by-case basis
Other duties as assigned
Comply with FMI's attendance policies
Qualifications:
Basic Qualifications:
Juris Doctor (JD) degree from an accredited law school and active U.S. bar membership in good standing
7+ years of progressive legal experience, with at least 5 years working in data privacy law advising healthcare or life sciences organizations
Preferred Qualifications:
Prior experience at a top-tier law firm
Prior in-house privacy experience at a healthcare company or institution (e.g., diagnostics, medical device, pharma/biotech, hospital system, healthcare provider)
Experience advising business and legal colleagues on data privacy laws, regulatory guidance, and industry guidelines, including but not limited to HIPAA, GDPR, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Act, CCPA and other state privacy laws, and genetic information privacy and security laws
Experience working in privacy program at a HIPAA Covered Entity or advising HIPAA Covered Entity clients on privacy matters
Experience working in a privacy program of a Controller that complied with GDPR or advising clients on GDPR compliance matters
CIPP/US or CIPP/E certification
Ability to apply a risk-based analysis to privacy issues and demonstrate creativity and flexibility in developing solutions that satisfy both business requirements and legal obligations
Demonstrated ability to prioritize numerous requests for assistance and offer superior advice in a timely, thoughtful, and complete manner
Ability to:
establish and maintain strong relationships within FMI’s business and legal teams;
engage…