Legal Counsel, Security & Technology

Appian is seeking a highly motivated and tech-savvy attorney, who will serve and provide legal counsel for our Information Security team. Reporting to Appian’s Chief Information Security Officer, you will work closely with our technical team to directly lead security negotiations with customers.  You will also play an important role in shaping processes to help the Legal Department scale as Appian continues to grow, and to drive important legal compliance initiatives relating to product development, privacy, and data protection.

Additionally, this position will work closely with legal reviews of modern security and privacy projects for our architecture, and provide continued support in compliance initiatives, including data usage, security, and commercial and government contracts. 

This role is based at our Headquarters in McLean, VA. Appian was built on a culture of in-person collaboration, which we believe is a key driver of our mission to be the best. Employees hired for this position are expected to be in the office 5 days a week to foster that culture and ensure we continue to thrive through shared ideas and teamwork. We believe being in the office provides more opportunities to come together and celebrate working with the exceptional people across Appian.

About the Job:

• Responsible for reviewing and negotiation of complex customer security requirements. 

• Represent Appian on calls and communications with Appian’s customers and prospects to explain Appian’s security posture and to negotiate information security terms.

• Provide counsel and trusted legal advice to engineers, product managers, and security specialists on Appian’s platform, including compliance with applicable data security and privacy laws and regulations, security by design, and security frameworks and industry certifications.

• Provide practice business judgement when negotiating global agreements with service providers and technology partners, while advising executive leaders on updated policies and terms. 

• Collaborate with engineers and compliance professionals to develop and iterate on legal-security processes, including updates to security policies, plans, procedures, and organisational standards.

• Work cross functionally with Legal and technical teams to create disclosure of term agreements based on Appian’s product terms and stance on privacy and data security.

• Stay informed on global cybersecurity Law developments and draft clear, concise memos for non-legal stakeholders. 

• Develop and facilitate employee training based on new legal developments and industry specific regulations within PaaS, IaaS, and SaaS.

• Provide advice on legal compliance in case of an incident or data breach.

• Evaluate the legal risks associated with the company's technology developments and vendor partnerships to ensure compliance and mitigate potential liabilities.

About you:

• Juris Doctor degree and admitted to practice in at least one US jurisdiction required 2+ years combined experience in law firm, government, and/or in-house legal department, preferably in the technology industry, with significant relevant transactional and cloud technology counseling experience (PaaS or SaaS deployment model experience preferred)

• Demonstrated experience with key regulatory requirements in the SaaS/Paas/IaaS space, including privacy, data protection and cybersecurity issues is required

• High work precision, with strong ability to redline and negotiate complex customer security agreements.

• Comfortable as the primary legal adviser to multiple stakeholders such as security and engineering groups in a fast-paced environment

• Ability to organize, prioritize and manage deadlines in a fast-paced and demanding work environment.

• Team Player

• Willingness to coordinate within different time zones

• Bonus: Expertise in global security, privacy, and regulatory frameworks, for example: NIST, ISO, FedRAMP, PCI-DSS, GDPR, CCPA, CPRA, or HIPAA, as well as any experience in incident response.

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