Senior Product Counsel, Mortgages

Overview

Serve as dedicated product counsel for Zillow Home Loans mortgage products, providing full lifecycle legal support from design through launch and iteration, within the Business Lines Legal Team.

What you'll do

• Serve as the primary day-to-day legal point of contact for an assigned set of ZHL mortgage products, providing full lifecycle counsel from concept and design through launch and iteration
• Advise product and engineering teams on the state and federal mortgage regulatory framework, including RESPA, TILA, ECOA, UDAAP, and state mortgage licensing
• Partner directly with AI/ML engineering teams on compliance guardrails for AI-enabled and agentic product features, including hands-on testing of model outputs and development of evaluation criteria for legal and regulatory compliance
• Provide practical, risk-calibrated guidance on product design and disclosures, including how and where mortgage content, pre-approval, and loan application experiences are surfaced across ZHL's platforms
• Embed with business partners on issues of first impression, pilot programs, and other key initiatives, delivering legal risk analysis and recommendations directly to senior management
• Draft, review, and negotiate the commercial and data-rights agreements that support your products, such as vendor, technology, and services agreements
• Proactively partner with cross-functional teams and shared services (compliance, privacy, fair lending, marketing, and communications) to identify and resolve legal matters as they arise
• Educate product, engineering, and business partners on mortgage and lending legal requirements so teams can make informed decisions while maintaining velocity

What you'll need

• 7+ years of relevant experience with a national or regional law firm or in-house legal department, with meaningful consumer finance, mortgage, or product counseling experience
• A JD with active state bar admission in at least one jurisdiction
• Substantive command of the mortgage and consumer lending regulatory framework, with the depth to advise directly on the statutes above as they apply to live product decisions
• Experience advising on product development, and the judgment to give practical guidance where the regulatory answer is not fully settled
• Experience drafting and negotiating commercial agreements such as vendor, technology, or services agreements
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to convey the implications of legal issues and risk clearly to non-lawyers
• Strong organizational skills and the ability to independently manage competing, time-sensitive projects
• Sound judgment about when to decide, when to consult a subject matter expert, and when to elevate a matter for broader alignment
• A team-first attitude and a demonstrated ability to build trusted relationships and collaborate across departments and levels

Nice to have

• In-house experience at a mortgage lender, fintech, or prop tech company
• General familiarity with adjacent regulatory frameworks such as GLBA and TCPA
• General familiarity with emerging state and federal AI/algorithmic regulation

Details

• Remote position; employees may work from any of the 50 United States, with limited exceptions
• Base pay: $164,400–$262,600 annually in CA, CT, MD, MA, NJ, NY, WA and DC; $156,200–$249,400 annually in CO, HI, IL, ME, MN, NV, OH, RI, VT and VA; eligible for equity awards