Skip to content
SkydioSkydio

Senior Employment Counsel

Senior Employment Counsel role advising People Operations on all employment matters including manufacturing workforce issues, compliance, investigations, and international expansion. Requires JD, California bar admission, and 10+ years experience.

About the job

How You’ll Make an Impact

  • Be the primary legal partner for the People Operations team, owning day-to-day employment counseling while managing outside counsel on specialized, high-risk, or international matters
  • Anticipate employment-law risks early and address them pragmatically
  • Provide People Operations clear, scalable guidance on recruitment/pre-hire issues, leaves of absence, reasonable accommodations, investigations, wage and hour, performance management, HR policy, and separations
  • Ensure manufacturing, field operations, and corporate employment practices are consistent, compliant, safe, and operationally realistic
  • Handle administrative agency (e.g. EEOC and DOL) and pre-litigation employment matters
  • Draft and comment on training and provide select training to people leaders
  • Assist in the development and documentation of sales commission and other incentive compensation plans
  • Responsible for OFCCP compliance reports and similar filings
  • Advise Benefits on compliance with relevant law and review and provide comments on contracts for company benefits
  • Own employment related aspects of setting up foreign subsidiaries
  • Negotiate contracts (including DPAs) with contractors, recruiting organizations, HR vendors, and similar orgs
  • Assist in drafting and updating the Employee Handbook
  • Assist in administering and managing employee equity
  • Oversee HR and payroll audits as needed
  • Manage other projects as required or assigned

What Makes You a Great Fit

  • Hold a JD and are admitted to practice in California
  • 10+ years of in-house experience (or similar law firm experience providing advice and counsel to startups)
  • Experience advising companies with hourly employees, especially in California manufacturing
  • Must be able to work onsite at least 3 days per week: at least 2 days at our Hayward manufacturing site and at least 1 day at our HQ in San Mateo
  • Know how to triage and ruthlessly prioritize
  • Manage multiple projects with competing deadlines, maintaining ownership and a high standard of accuracy and follow-through
  • Thrive in collaborative settings, understanding that building strong relationships across departments is vital to success
  • Comfortable with ambiguity, eager to problem solve, and take the initiative to drive projects to completion

Compensation

  • The annual base salary range for this position is $225,000 - $275,000
  • Equity in the form of stock options
  • Comprehensive benefits packages including group health insurance plans, paid vacation time, sick leave, holiday pay, and 401K savings plan

Skills

Employment Law, California Labor Law, Wage And Hour Compliance, Eeoc/Dol Compliance, Ofccp Compliance, Employee Relations, Contract Negotiation, Hr Policy Development, Equity Administration, Foreign Subsidiary Setup

Similar jobs

Legal jobs
Anthropic

Anthropic

San Francisco, CA

Discovery Operations Lead, Litigation & Regulatory
$220k+/yrOn-site8+ YOELegal

Leads discovery operations and information governance across the full EDRM lifecycle, managing legal holds, enterprise data sources, vendors, technology, and active litigation or regulatory matters. The role requires deep hands-on discovery experience, RelativityOne expertise, strong project management, and technical fluency with AI and modern infrastructure.

Fetch

Fetch

United States

Senior Commercial Counsel
$230k+/yrRemote7+ YOELegal

Senior Commercial Counsel responsible for independently negotiating, drafting, and closing high-volume revenue and vendor agreements (MSAs, SOWs, data-sharing). Partners with Sales and Finance teams using business-forward judgment, builds custom AI workflows, and improves legal processes at scale in a fast-paced tech environment. Requires 7+ years in-house tech commercial contracts experience.

Airbnb

Airbnb

California

Senior Counsel, Litigation
$210k+/yrOn-site8+ YOELegal

Senior litigation counsel will own high-stakes disputes, investigations, and strategic counseling from assessment through resolution, manage outside counsel, and advise Airbnb business partners on legal risk. The role requires 8+ years of litigation experience, a J.D., and active California bar membership.

Carta

Carta

San Francisco, CA

Senior Lawyer - Venture Financings
$208k+/yrOn-site7+ YOELegal

Senior legal counsel will manage early-stage venture financing transactions for founders and venture capital funds, negotiate financing documents, supervise paralegals, and develop technology-enabled legal workflows. California licensure and 7+ years of relevant experience are recommended.

Databricks

Databricks

Bellevue, WA
Sr. Counsel, Privacy Compliance Program Lead
$208k+/yrOn-site7+ YOELegal

Senior privacy counsel will lead and mature a global privacy compliance program, advise on evolving privacy and AI regulations, assess risk, negotiate data-protection terms, and build governance processes. The role requires 7+ years of legal experience, substantial privacy-program leadership, a J.D., and bar membership.