Lead Legal Counsel, Employment

Responsibilities

• Provide senior, practical employment-law advice across the employment lifecycle, including recruiting, onboarding, compensation, performance management, leave, employee relations, organizational changes, separation, and post-employment matters.
• Advise People Business Partners, Team Member Relations partners, and business leaders on complex employee-relations concerns, investigations, litigation, compensation, and works council strategy.
• Draft, review, maintain, and negotiate employment agreements, separation agreements, policies, templates, and related documentation across multiple jurisdictions.
• Advise on employment compliance requirements across EMEA and determine when local counsel is needed.
• Monitor employment, privacy, and related legal developments and translate them into practical recommendations and guidance.
• Advise on GDPR and other privacy requirements relating to team-member data.
• Support employment litigation, appeals tribunals, agency investigations, disputes, and contentious matters.
• Manage outside counsel, including selecting and coordinating local counsel across jurisdictions.
• Develop and improve scalable employment-law processes, systems, playbooks, templates, and documentation.
• Serve as a subject-matter resource, mentor junior legal colleagues, and contribute to training and knowledge sharing.
• Collaborate transparently in a remote, globally distributed, asynchronous environment.

Requirements

• Substantial experience advising multinational companies with works councils across multiple regions.
• JD, LLB, or local equivalent, with admission to an applicable governing body in an EMEA jurisdiction.
• Deep knowledge of employment compliance requirements across EMEA and judgment about when local counsel is required.
• Experience handling employment agreements, separation agreements, policies, disputes, litigation, appeals tribunals, agency investigations, works councils, and outside counsel.
• Familiarity with GDPR and local privacy requirements relating to employee data.
• Experience building or significantly improving legal processes, systems, playbooks, templates, and documentation at scale.
• Strong issue-spotting, risk-assessment, judgment, communication, and relationship-building skills.
• Ability to independently manage a high volume of complex legal matters with limited supervision.
• Practical problem-solving, business judgment, attention to detail, and ability to work across functions, time zones, and cultures.
• Comfort working remotely and asynchronously and willingness to use GitLab in day-to-day work.

Benefits

• Flexible paid time off
• Team member resource groups
• Equity compensation and employee stock purchase plan
• Growth and development fund
• Parental leave
• Home office support