Privacy Engineering Director

About DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo is a remote-first company of over 300 employees dedicated to enhancing online trust through privacy-focused products. Established in 2008 and profitable since 2014, it generates over $100 million USD annually. Its user base spans millions across platforms including Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android, with offerings such as a privacy-centric browser, search engine, subscription services, and private integrated AI chat tools like Duck.ai.

Role Overview

As a Privacy Engineering Director within the Privacy Functional Team, you will spearhead complex and high-impact privacy initiatives across DuckDuckGo's products. Your expertise will drive solutions amidst ambiguity and critical challenges regarding privacy, particularly involving private browsing, private search, agentic computing, and related projects.

Key Projects

• Develop a privacy engineering framework tailored for agentic browsing products, addressing unique user data challenges in AI-enhanced workflows.
• Design scalable technical mechanisms to support private search indexing while maintaining robust privacy guarantees.

Responsibilities

You will lead end-to-end delivery of advanced privacy engineering projects, refine privacy triage and review workflows, automate engineering efforts to minimize toil, and mentor emerging privacy engineers. Additionally, you will contribute strategically to the company’s overall privacy policies and direction.

Candidate Profile

• A minimum of 10 years of experience overseeing privacy audits, reviews, or technical privacy programs at consumer-facing companies with user bases exceeding one million.
• At least 4 years in leadership roles within privacy engineering, involving creation of infrastructure tools, data minimization technologies, or other privacy-centric systems.
• Previous senior leadership experience (Director, Head, or VP level) with direct responsibilities in management and hiring as well as significant technical oversight.
• Demonstrated capability to direct multifaceted, cross-departmental projects independently.
• Excellent communication skills to translate privacy principles into actionable engineering decisions amidst diverse stakeholder priorities.
• Experience enhancing organizational procedures through identifying bottlenecks, implementing automation, and establishing scalable review processes.
• A strong passion for privacy and bolstering online trust standards.

Compensation and Benefits

The annual salary for this role is $243,800 USD, accompanied by stock options. Compensation is standardized transparently across equivalent roles and regions. Health benefits apply only to U.S.-based employees. Additional support includes paid parental leave, office setup assistance, and co-working stipends as detailed in the company’s Team Member Support Guide.

Hiring Process Notes

• Applicants must consent to participate in video meetings.
• Travel approximately twice yearly for company-wide meetings and team retreats, each lasting 4-5 days, with flexibility for extenuating circumstances.
• A full-time commitment of approximately 40 hours weekly is expected, with flexible hours and no core schedule.
• Employment is contingent upon successful background checks.
• Applicants must provide truthful and complete information; false data may result in withdrawal or termination.

Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility

DuckDuckGo commits to equal opportunity employment, strictly prohibiting discrimination or harassment based on various protected characteristics. The hiring framework is designed for accessibility, and accommodations for medical conditions or disabilities can be requested via email.

Use of AI in Hiring

The recruitment process employs artificial intelligence tools for application reviews, fraud detection, and summarizing candidate information. Human judgment remains paramount in decision-making. Applicants acknowledging this AI usage may request alternative evaluation methods by contacting the company.