Employment Counsel

About the role

We are a rapidly scaling, publicly traded frontier-technology company, and our workforce is growing faster than the systems that support it. As Employment Counsel, you are the day-to-day legal engine of the Labor & Employment function — the first call for our People and Recruiting teams and the owner of the documentation, advice, and process that keep a fast-moving company compliant across a growing map of states and countries.

This is a builder's role, not a caretaker's one. You will inherit real ambiguity and turn it into order: standing up templates, playbooks, and self-serve resources where none exist today. You own the living, breathing employee lifecycle from hire to exit.

Responsibilities

• Employee lifecycle documentation. Own offer letter, severance and separation agreement, and related lifecycle document templates to allow for producing signature-ready work product at volume. Draft state by-state adaptations and bespoke terms.
• Daily advisory to People & Recruiting. Be the first line of response for HRBP and Recruiter questions on ADA interactive processes, FMLA and state leave overlaps, wage-and-hour classification, and everyday employee relations matters.
• Track and log recurring questions, and build FAQs, guidance and trainings to build team skills and confidence for handling repeated matters efficiently and directly.
• Performance management & exits. Partner with HR to advise on and mitigate risk, and manage the execution of standard, non-complex separations.
• Discovery, records & legal holds. Draft objection letters and responses to employment subpoenas; direct the compilation of personnel files for production; run initial privilege and confidentiality reviews; and draft and manage legal holds consistent with company policy.
• Contractor & consultant compliance. Standardize the risk-management onboarding and offboarding workflow for consultants, and lead classification, IP, regulatory, security, and tax compliance.
• Multistate compliance & outside counsel coordination. Keep us current across our active jurisdictions (currently including California, Washington, Colorado, Maryland/Virginia, Minnesota, Florida and Texas among others) and serve as the point of contact who scopes questions for, and coordinates the work of, non-US outside counsel.

Requirements

• JD and an active bar membership in good standing in any U.S. jurisdiction.
• Roughly 3–5 years of labor and employment experience, with a meaningful foundation built at a law firm — you have the basics down cold and can jump in without a runway.
• A strong command of federal and multi-state employment law (Title VII, ADA, ADEA, FMLA, FLSA, and state leave and wage-and-hour regimes); California experience is a plus.
• A genuinely strong drafter who produces clean, practical, signature-ready documents at speed.
• Comfortable with ambiguity and self-directed — a grinder who builds structure where none exists rather than waiting for settled process.
• A high business-partner EQ: you give plain-English, actionable advice that non-lawyers can act on, and you build trust with People and Recruiting quickly. You never lose sight of moving the business forward.