General Counsel

Overview

This role leads the organization’s legal function and serves as a strategic, business-oriented advisor to the Chief Executive Officer and executive leadership team. The position also leads the Compliance and Quality Program departments, aligning regulatory requirements, industry accreditation, operational quality, and legal risk management with business goals.

Responsibilities

• Advise the CEO and executive leadership on strategic business decisions, customer relationships, growth initiatives, profitability, and risk tolerance; provide commercially practical recommendations.
• Develop and implement legal strategies that support organizational objectives and risk management priorities.
• Support executive leadership in corporate governance and policy oversight matters.
• Lead the Compliance and Quality Program departments, including regulatory compliance, data privacy requirements, operational quality, and accreditation standards with the Professional Background Screening Association (PBSA).
• Establish measurable goals, metrics, and key performance indicators for Compliance and Quality Program teams aligned with organizational objectives and strategy.
• Own and improve scalable contracting processes; negotiate significant client, vendor, technology, and partnership agreements while reducing cycle time and unnecessary one-off terms.
• Manage and advise business stakeholders across the contracting lifecycle, including issues pertaining to contract suspension, renewal, and termination.
• Oversee legal aspects of consumer reporting operations, including Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) permissible purpose, dispute resolution, file disclosures, reinvestigations, identity matching, and adverse action processes.
• Develop, implement, and maintain practical compliance tools, documentation, training, and guidance for internal teams and clients; translate complex regulatory obligations into workable business processes.
• Partner with Operations, Sales, Product, and Technology teams to improve fulfillment quality, customer satisfaction, retention, and operational efficiency while managing legal exposure.
• Improve corporate governance compliance documentation, registrations and licensing, controls, monitoring, and performance reporting; identify and address recurring process or regulatory risks.
• Provide executive oversight of PBSA re-accreditation audits, including readiness, documentation, internal audits, corrective actions, and required responses.
• Provide practical counsel to Human Resources and business leaders on employment and labor law, policies, corporate matters, commercial disputes, and organizational risk.
• Support product strategy, new technology and AI initiatives, vendor relationships, strategic partnerships, privacy and information security, and other cross-functional projects.
• Build an accountable, collaborative culture across Legal, Compliance, and Quality through transparent communication and effective cross-functional partnerships.
• Maintain a visible, hands-on leadership style; personally handle material contracts, sensitive regulatory issues, and business-critical legal matters as appropriate.
• Coach and develop team members in regulatory expertise, practical judgment, customer focus, and operational excellence.
• Lead litigation strategy, dispute resolution efforts, and claims management to protect organizational interests and mitigate legal exposure.
• Manage budgets for Legal, Compliance, and Quality Control departments, including forecasting, outside counsel, litigation strategy, and performance reporting with regular updates to the CEO.
• Monitor federal, state, and local regulatory developments affecting background screening and consumer reporting, including the FCRA, and turn emerging risks into practical business actions.

Supervisory Responsibility

• Directly leads and develops the Compliance, Legal, and Quality Program teams.
• Establishes clear accountability, goals, and performance expectations while fostering collaborative, hands-on leadership.

Requirements

• Exceptional business judgment and commercial acumen, balancing legal risk with customer and vendor relationships, revenue, profitability, and operating priorities.
• Deep, directly applicable knowledge of the background screening industry, including the FCRA, regulatory compliance, privacy, and consumer reporting agency operations.
• Communicates clearly with executives and cross-functional teams, translating complex legal issues into concise, actionable recommendations.
• Effective negotiation of material customer, vendor, and strategic partnership contracts, with emphasis on speed, consistency, and appropriate risk allocation.
• Integrity, accountability, sound judgment, and a practical, solutions-oriented approach.
• Ability to build effective teams and trusted working relationships across departments, with senior management, and with executive leadership.
• Ability to work independently in a hands-on manner; prioritizes material risks, manages outside counsel efficiently, and supports responsible innovation and growth.

Required Education and Experience

• Juris Doctor (JD) degree from an accredited law school.
• Active bar membership in good standing.
• Minimum of 10 years of relevant legal experience, including meaningful in-house counsel and leadership responsibilities; prior General Counsel title is not required.
• Experience leading compliance, legal operations, or quality assurance in a regulated business-to-business services environment, with strong commercial contracting and litigation-management capabilities.
• Significant direct background screening or consumer reporting industry experience and strong working knowledge of the FCRA are strongly preferred and will receive priority consideration.

Travel Requirements

• Occasional travel up to 10% of the time.
• Use of a personal vehicle may be required.

Physical and Mental Demands

• Prolonged periods of sitting and standing at a desk and while working on a computer.
• Ability to lift up to 20 pounds on an occasional basis.
• Regular and predictable attendance.
• Regular interaction with other team members, including spontaneous and planned video meetings.
• Ability to effectively perform responsibilities under occasionally stressful situations, including meeting daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and/or annual standards and workload expectations.
• Ability to work any shift and required overtime based on business needs.

Notes

All duties and responsibilities, including regular and reliable attendance, are essential job functions and are a requirement. This job description does not include the marginal functions of the job that are incidental to the performance of fundamental job duties. To perform this job successfully, the team member must possess the skills, aptitudes, and abilities to perform each duty proficiently, with or without reasonable accommodation. The requirements listed in this job description are the minimum levels of knowledge, skills, or abilities necessary for the job, with or without reasonable accommodation. This job description is subject to modification at any time.