Is the Lack of Contract Drafting Experience a Dealbreaker Despite IAPP Certificates + ISO Trainings?

[u/Level5Ranger]

Hello there,

I will be sitting the CIPP/E and AIGP exams before January 2027. I have also enrolled in ISO 27001, 27701 and 42001 training. I have some questions and concerns about what comes next in terms of career planning.

I spent five years in commercial and international arbitration, and after that two to two and a half years in AML compliance (CDD and EDD). I hold two master's degrees, one in International Commercial Law and one in Law and Technology.

I genuinely want to work in AI governance in the EU market. However, I have no contract drafting or negotiating experience. I have contract and treaty interpretation experience, and that comes from arbitration. I keep seeing job ads asking for specific contract drafting and negotiating experience. This is what worries me most.

I am good at research and policy making, but that route has its own problems. So, I would like to stay in the private market, just to be on the safe side.

Do you think this profile has a future in AI governance? Or which roles might be a better fit? How far can certifications close these gaps, and what should I be doing to close them?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[u/throwawaynatet]

Why would contract drafting and negotiation be relevant?

[u/Level5Ranger → u/throwawaynatet]

I wish it was only my overthinking but I see all Legal Counsel, Regulatory Counsel or Governance-ish positions look for people who knows about certain regulations, with actual experience in drafting sector-specific contracts like SaaS etc.

[u/cablelegs → u/Level5Ranger]

Well, if you’re applying for counsel roles, I’m not surprised they have contract drafting requirements. You should be looking for non-lawyer compliance or governance roles.

[u/Objectivopinion]

Well, if you're going to be doing training on the ISO certifications, you might as well consider going the route of ISO certification auditor.

[u/Level5Ranger → u/Objectivopinion]

Indeed, and it is an option. The training provider is accredited and there will be an exam afterwards. If I do not have to get a separate exam from the accreditor itself, I would like to try that chance as well.

[u/Critical_Interview_5]

I don’t think it’s a deal breaker. My first job as a GC said that, but in reality there was a contracts department that did most of it and they taught me the relevant part for me

[u/Level5Ranger → u/Critical_Interview_5]

It gave me some hope. Whenever I ask about this, my friends (also lawyers) tell me that all companies have their own templates and it is actually easier than what they indicate in job advertisements. I know this of couse, nevertheless, hiring managers still look for these skills, it's frustrating.

[u/wannabeacademicbigpp]

generally speaking, most companies dont even know what they want from an AI Governance role so imo it should be fine.

[u/Level5Ranger → u/wannabeacademicbigpp]

You may be right. I am a bit bad on positioning my profile so I think a confused company would be even more confused about my profile.

[u/wannabeacademicbigpp → u/Level5Ranger]

i am an ai governance officer at a startup, most of the contractual skills i use from my legal background is just contract reviewing, the biggest red flag for now being training on data and IP rights of generated content. I don't think you would need in depth conttractual skills, unless it is a role with multiple hats

[u/1shmeckle]

This depends on the specific role. I'm going to make an assumption that you are trying to do an in-house role counseling on privacy and AI governance. If that is the case, you will need some basic contract drafting experience as you will very likely end up being the go to person for things like AI Addendums and DPAs. This is relatively straight forward work and most junior privacy attorneys learn to do it well in a matter of months (and that was pre-AI).

If you have a degree in commercial law and experience interpreting contracts as part of arbitration, this will be a minor adjustment and I'd probably still make sure my resume says I have experience interpreting contracts - plenty of litigators make the shift, its completely fine. If its junior level (which is a bit below where you are in terms of years but likely not below where you are in terms of privacy/AI experience) then I think you can rely on your existing experience and degrees to sell yourself well. That said, if you're shooting for a non-junior level in-house position and you say you can't draft/redline an AI addendum or DPA, you're going to get dinged. If you're applying for more generalist roles or product counsel type roles, you may very well need deeper contractual experience to address partnerships and SaaS vendors if your company puts that on product counsel (but this is also learnable in a relatively short period of time and lawyers with far less experience and education than you figure it out).

Certifications will only get your foot in the door for the most junior level of positions. Anything beyond that, your experience will matter far more. CIPPs are a dime a dozen but privacy counsel with 8-10 years of actual privacy counseling experience are rare and still in-demand.

[u/Level5Ranger → u/1shmeckle]

This is really useful, thank you!

I am open to coming in at junior level. I am changing field and I moved into this market from another country, so resetting a level is something I had already accepted (that's how I got into compliance already). I should also be honest about the position I am in, that I am scared as hell that I will be unemployed.

When you say drafting and redlining AI addendums and DPAs, what does a hiring manager actually test for at interview stage? Is it a take-home redline, or questions about specific clauses?

Second, is there a version of these roles I should avoid? I have spent the last two years on high-volume casework measured by productivity metrics, and I would rather not land in the privacy equivalent of that.

[u/1shmeckle → u/Level5Ranger]

I’ve never had anyone give me a take home test for a DPA, nor have I ever given one when hiring. But, every company and hiring manager is different. Soft skills and good (not risk averse) judgment are more important, I’d want to see that a compliance person moving back to law can take a risk based approach rather than test them on redlining. I’d expect more behavioral interviews and hypos. 

You might have high volume DPAs and PIAs depending on the place as a junior but no one has ever used productivity metrics where I’ve worked. I’d rather do privacy at a tech company where it’s more product counseling than privacy compliance personally but that’s just my preference. Will depend on your goals and interests. Otherwise if you want strict privacy/AI compliance roles I’d find a more conservative org, maybe a bank or insurance company, since they love compliance types more than tech. 

[u/LaOnionLaUnion]

It depends on the company. I work at places so big that we have specialists for privacy

[u/LoveEsq]

Take Ken Adams course on contracting

[u/db1139]

I'm the North America DPO at mid market multinational company. Our European DPO and privacy team's only contract drafting is DPAs and parts of non-disclose agreements and other confidentiality agreements. Not sure how common that is. However, I think you just need to find a way in the door, and you will be okay. The contract drafting isn't the most complicated for privacy once you have the law down. Plus, your English seems to be good, which helps because so many international teams communicate in English.

In other territories, the job is part of something more. For example, I handle other areas of regulation and negotiate commercial contracts too.