VP of Legal, General Counsel and Head of Compliance San Francisco, CA

VP of Legal, General Counsel and Head of Compliance San Francisco, CA
Hybrid (In-office minimum 3 days per week: 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 Head of 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 companys 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, employment law, product and commercial counseling, and regulatory and privacy programs for a techfirst digital health business. Youll mature legal operations, shepherd strategic M&A transactions, strengthen IP and datarights position, and partner crossfunctionally to enable developer velocity and scalable gotomarket execution.
15+ years of experience spanning toptier law firms and inhouse roles across venturebacked startups/highgrowth 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; Led or coled M&A transactions and strategic investments, including diligence, negotiation and drafting (LOIs, merger/asset purchase agreements, disclosure schedules), regulatory approvals, closing mechanics, and postclose integration.
~ Designed and operated riskbased compliance programs; experience with monitoring/auditing, internal investigations, and regulator interactions (e.g., OCR, FTC, state AGs).
~ Business partner who views value in facilitating the business.
~ JD with strong academic credentials and active bar membership in good standing.

Legal Excellence: Deep command of healthcare, privacy, AI, and data protection laws; adept at risk assessment, pragmatic counseling, and contract strategy; understands payer/employer/provider dynamics in digital healthcare delivery.
Healthcare Regulatory & Compliance Oversight: Manages OCR/state AG/FTC interactions and remediation; integrates legal and compliance for a unified approach.
Executive Partnership & Business Acumen: Trusted advisor to the CEO, senior leadership team, and board; anticipates business needs, translates regulation into enablement, and makes timely decisions under uncertainty.
Team & Talent Management: Scales teams with clear roles, reporting lines; sets vision, coaches talent, and builds crossfunctional relationships across legal team and other key business functions; implements career paths, performance management, and professional development; Operational Excellence: Scales workflows/processes, and quality controls; scales knowledge management and training; Strategic & Commercial Acumen: Structures strategic partnerships and complex deals; leads M&A diligence and contracting; understands complex payment flows and regulatory trends.
Crisis Management & Communication: crafts clear communications for executives, board, regulators, customers, and media; 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, Section16 filings, earnings disclosure and RegFD compliance, insider trading policy and 10b51 plans, exchange listing standards, proxy statement and annual meeting processes; Own privacy, AI, data protection, and healthcare regulatory strategy; oversee HIPAA compliance, and incident response readiness.
Lead commercial legal for enterprise sales and partnerships; 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.
Monitor emerging laws, regulations and industry trends (privacy, AI, healthcare, reimbursement) and translate into product, security, and gotomarket guidance.
Lead bestinclass public company legal operations: Deliver accurate, timely SEC reporting, proxy and annual meeting execution, earnings disclosure and RegFD compliance, board/committee governance, and listing standards compliance.
Scale an integrated Legal & Compliance function: Refine operating model and governance unifying legal, privacy, and compliance, with measurable impact and effective boardlevel reporting.
Elevate regulatory and privacy posture: Mature and oversee a riskbased compliance program for HIPAA, GDPR, state privacy laws, AI governance, and healthcare regulations; ensure audit readiness and effective monitoring, training, and remediation.
Own legal workstreams for M&A, strategic alliances and licensing, complex data/AI collaborations, and key vendor arrangements.
Strengthen IP position and data rights: Develop and execute an IP strategy aligned to digital care and AI roadmap; drive invention harvesting and a steady cadence of highquality patent filings; protect trade secrets, datasets, models, and clinical content; maintain robust trademark/brand protection.
Scale commercial velocity: Support and scale processes to handle increased contracting volume and speed, and improve negotiating leverage.
implement career paths, performance and compensation frameworks, and succession planning; mature legal operations to drive efficiency and quality.
Solutus Legal Search is proud to have been exclusively retained to assist our client with this special engagement. Resumes submitted directly to our client will be forwarded to Solutus Legal for evaluation.