Vice President, Deputy CLO - IP & Privacy - 944 in Oxford

Quantinuum is seeking an experienced intellectual property, privacy, and data protection leader to join its global Legal team as Vice President, Deputy CLO, Intellectual Property and Privacy in our London, Cambridge or Oxford, UK location. Reporting to the Chief Legal Officer, this leader will establish, lead, and scale Quantinuum’s global privacy, data protection, data governance, and intellectual property legal function, including leading and scaling a team of attorneys and legal professionals, serving as a senior advisor on product counseling, hardware, software, open source, patent, trademark, copyright, privacy, and data governance matters.

The role will be an established partner to Legal, Compliance, Security, IT, Engineering, Product, People, Commercial, Procurement, Finance, and executive leadership, with demonstrated success working closely with technical teams. This role requires meaningful public company experience, deep knowledge of global privacy and data protection regimes, strong intellectual property judgment, practical and decisive legal judgment, a strong sense of urgency, and the ability to translate complex legal and regulatory frameworks into plain-English, actionable advice that helps teams make sound decisions quickly.

It also requires the ability to build scalable teams, policies, processes, controls, and governance frameworks that support Quantinuum’s continued growth as a global, public technology company operating at the forefront of quantum computing. Quantinuum seeks an outstanding intellectual property, privacy, and data protection leader with broad global exposure, strong legal and regulatory judgment, meaningful public company experience, and significant experience advising high-growth, multinational technology organizations.

In-house legal experience is strongly preferred, and experience establishing or materially scaling an intellectual property, privacy, data protection, or data governance function in a newly public or similarly high-growth public company environment is preferred, including experience leading and scaling teams of attorneys and legal professionals. The successful candidate will bring a proven track record across product counseling, hardware and software legal support, open source, patent, trademark, copyright, privacy law, data protection, data governance, cybersecurity governance, AI and emerging technology governance, regulatory compliance, commercial contracting, incident response, team leadership, talent development, and cross-functional risk management in multiple jurisdictions.

Success in this role will require clear communication, strong collaboration, and the ability to build trusted relationships across Quantinuum’s Legal, Compliance, Security, IT, Engineering, Product, People, Commercial, Procurement, Finance, and leadership teams. The successful candidate will be agile, strategic, pragmatic, solutions oriented, and comfortable operating in a fast-paced, transparent, and highly technical environment where facts may evolve and decisions often must be made with imperfect information.

The successful candidate must be a clear, credible, and practical communicator who can build trusted relationships internally and externally, influence senior stakeholders, partner effectively with technical teams, and translate complex intellectual property, privacy, technology, legal, and regulatory frameworks into plain-English, actionable guidance that enables timely, well-informed business decisions.

They will have demonstrated success working with technical teams, including engineering, product, research, hardware, software, and security stakeholders, and will be able to translate complex intellectual property, privacy, data, technology, regulatory, and business issues into plain-English guidance, make timely and risk-calibrated recommendations, help teams make decisions quickly, stand by sound legal judgment, and challenge constructively when needed.

They will be steady, decisive, pragmatic, and comfortable operating with urgency in a fast-paced environment, with the ability to move complex and sensitive matters forward even when information is incomplete, provide actionable recommendations quickly, and appropriately balance privacy risk, intellectual property protection, security needs, business objectives, customer trust, and regulatory expectations.

They must take pride in providing timely, high-quality intellectual property, privacy, and data support and building scalable systems that help the company make sound innovation, data, technology, and business decisions efficiently.

Key Responsibilities:

• Establish, lead, and scale Quantinuum’s global privacy, data protection, data governance, and intellectual property legal function, including developing, managing, and scaling a high-performing team of attorneys and legal professionals; setting strategy, priorities, policies, processes, playbooks, reporting, training, and operating rhythms aligned with business objectives, public company expectations, and effective partnership across the company.
• Serve as the company’s senior privacy advisor on global data protection requirements, including GDPR, UK GDPR, U.S. state privacy laws, CCPA/CPRA, Singapore PDPA, Japan APPI, and other emerging privacy and data governance frameworks.
• Partner cross-functionally with Security, IT, Engineering, Product, Compliance, Commercial, Procurement, People, Finance, and business teams to embed privacy-by-design, data protection, and intellectual property considerations into products, services, hardware and software development, internal systems, vendor relationships, research collaborations, commercial transactions, and operational processes.
• Develop and maintain privacy policies, notices, templates, standard operating procedures, data subject rights processes, data retention practices, cross-border transfer mechanisms, data processing agreements, and privacy governance documentation.
• Advise on privacy, cybersecurity, data protection, AI governance, responsible data use, and emerging technology issues involving quantum computing, software platforms, cloud-based offerings, scientific research, customer deployments, internal AI tools, and quantum-AI hybrid applications.
• Provide strategic product counseling and intellectual property support across hardware, software, open source, patent, trademark, copyright, licensing, commercialization, and research initiatives, working closely with technical teams to identify, protect, and responsibly leverage company innovation.
• Lead or support DPIAs, LIAs, data mapping, vendor privacy and security assessments, privacy due diligence, incident readiness, breach response, regulatory inquiries, and privacy-related investigations.
• Draft, review, and negotiate privacy-focused agreements and provisions, including DPAs, cross-border data transfer terms, vendor privacy and security addenda, SaaS and hosting terms, research data use agreements, customer privacy terms, and data-sharing arrangements.
• Build privacy training, escalation paths, decision frameworks, and practical guidance that enable responsible business execution while maintaining legal and regulatory compliance across jurisdictions.
• Provide pragmatic, plain-English, and actionable legal advice that helps technical, product, commercial, and leadership teams understand legal and regulatory tradeoffs, make timely decisions, and move work forward responsibly.
• Manage privacy outside counsel, consultants, budgets, accruals, and related legal spend with fiscal discipline, accountability, and a focus on clear business outcomes.

You Must Have:

• Minimum Juris Doctor, LLB, or equivalent law degree preferred; admitted to practice and in good standing in at least one relevant jurisdiction if practicing as an attorney.
• Minimum 15+ years of legal, intellectual property, privacy, data protection, or related regulatory experience, including significant in-house experience advising technology companies on IP, privacy, product, and data matters.
• Excellent knowledge of major privacy and data protection regimes, including GDPR, UK GDPR, U.S. state privacy laws, CCPA/CPRA, and other applicable global privacy frameworks; familiarity with Singapore PDPA, Japan APPI, AI regulatory frameworks, and emerging technology governance preferred.
• Experience advising technical and product teams on intellectual property issues arising from the development and commercialization of complex technology, including hardware and software architectures, embedded and cloud-based software, open source strategy and compliance, invention disclosure and patent portfolio development, trade secret protection, trademark and brand protection, copyright ownership, licensing models, customer and partner IP terms, and practical guidance on when to protect, disclose, license, or commercialize technology.
• Demonstrated experience leading, managing, mentoring, and scaling teams of attorneys and legal professionals in a fast-paced, global, highly technical business environment.
• Strong understanding of cybersecurity governance, incident response, data security, vendor risk management, data retention, cross-border transfer mechanisms, data subject rights, privacy impact assessments, and privacy-by-design practices.
• Exceptional writing skills, attention to detail, and ability to draft clear, practical, and original legal documents, policies, communications, and executive-ready guidance.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, including the ability to help non-experts and technical stakeholders understand intellectual property, privacy requirements, technology risks, legal tradeoffs, recommended actions, and decision paths in clear, practical, plain-English terms.
• Hands-on, detail-oriented, outward-looking, and collaborative, with an inclusive, non-bureaucratic approach and strong commitment to enabling responsible business execution.
• Experience supporting geographically dispersed teams, multiple jurisdictions, and stakeholders across different time zones.

We Value:

• In-depth knowledge of intellectual property, global privacy, and data protection law gained through law firm and/or in-house experience, including experience advising multinational technology, software, cybersecurity, AI, cloud, quantum, hardware, scientific research, or other highly technical companies.
• Public company experience, including advising on privacy-related governance expectations, disclosure-sensitive matters, incident response, executive-level decision-making, and the development of scalable legal and compliance processes in a public or newly public company environment.
• Preferred experience building, formalizing, or significantly scaling a privacy, data protection, or data governance function in a newly public or public company environment, including creating practical infrastructure, operating processes, policies, templates, reporting mechanisms, escalation paths, and decision frameworks that make the function an established partner across the company.
• Experience partnering cross-functionally to maintain privacy, data protection, cybersecurity, AI governance, export control-adjacent, vendor management, commercial contracting, HR data, and regulatory compliance across multiple jurisdictions.
• Experience advising on product, engineering, security, and commercial initiatives involving data collection, data use, product telemetry, customer data, employee data, research data, marketing data, vendor data, and cross-border transfers.
• Substantial experience counseling product, engineering, research, hardware, and software teams on intellectual property matters, including open-source strategy and compliance, patent portfolio development and protection, trademark and brand protection, copyright, licensing, invention capture, freedom-to-operate considerations, and commercialization of technology.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, high-growth environment with changing priorities, evolving global requirements, and a need for sound judgment, responsible urgency, decisiveness, and risk-calibrated decision-making when facts are still developing.
• Pragmatic, business-oriented style with a demonstrated ability to translate complex legal and regulatory requirements into plain-English, actionable advice, policies, processes, playbooks, controls, and decision frameworks that help teams understand tradeoffs, make timely decisions, and move the business forward responsibly.
• Collaborative approach to leadership, knowledge sharing, team development, and scaling legal teams, with demonstrated experience developing attorneys and legal professionals and comfort operating in a global, cross-functional environment that values accountability, integrity, and partnership.

What is in it for you? Working alongside a highly talented team, with leading names in the quantum computing industry. We offer a highly competitive package, equity, 28 days of paid holiday (in addition to public holidays), a workplace pension, a positive approach to flexible working and enhanced parental and adoption benefits.

About Us: Quantinuum is the world leader in quantum computing. The company’s quantum systems deliver the highest performance across all industry benchmarks. Quantinuum’s over 650 employees, including 400+ scientists and engineers, across the US, UK, Germany, and Japan, are driving the quantum computing revolution. By uniting best-in-class software with high-fidelity hardware, our integrated full-stack approach is accelerating the path to practical quantum computing and scaling its impact across multiple industries. By joining Quantinuum, you’ll be at the forefront of this transformative revolution, shaping the future of quantum computing, pushing the limits of technology, and making the impossible possible.

Please note that employment with us is subject to successfully passing our pre-employment screening checks. We are an inclusive equal opportunity employer. You will be considered without regard to age, race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry, marital status, affectional or sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, nationality, sex, or veteran status.

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.