Sr. Counsel, Employment

Databricks•Seattle, WA

10d

About The Position

The Senior Counsel, Employment provides sophisticated, practical legal advice to Databricks’ People Team and business leaders. The role focuses particularly on HR AI adoption, compensation and benefits, pay equity, global mobility, employee privacy, and M&A matters, including diligence, employee-related deal terms, and workforce integration. The position is based in the U.S. and advises directly on U.S. matters while leading and project-managing complex global projects. Regular cross-functional partners include recruiting, privacy and product legal, security, tax, people operations, compensation and benefits, and corporate development. The successful candidate is a pragmatic, resourceful advisor and enthusiastic AI user who brings strong project-management discipline and can move quickly while maintaining high legal and operational precision. The role also collaborates on resolving U.S. disputes. This is a full-time position reporting to Databricks’ Senior Director and Associate General Counsel of Global Employment Legal, and working closely with employment lawyers and legal professionals across multiple regions. The preferred primary locations are unspecified; candidates based in San Francisco, Mountain View, New York City, Boston, Chicago, or Denver will also be considered.

Requirements

JD from a top-tier law school.
Member of a state bar in good standing.
10+ years of relevant employment-law experience, with substantial experience advising sophisticated organizations.
Experience with compensation, benefits, pay equity, executive compensation, recruiting, global mobility, and immigration.
Experience supporting mergers, acquisitions, and strategic investments, including employment and benefits diligence, employee-related deal terms, and workforce integration.
Experience leading multi-jurisdictional or global projects and coordinating stakeholders across regions, functions, and levels of seniority.
Exceptional drafting skills, including the ability to produce precise, clear, audience-appropriate agreements, policies, memoranda, guidance, and executive communications.
Strong project-management skills, including the ability to define scope, create structure from ambiguity, manage dependencies, maintain momentum, and deliver high-quality work on deadline.
Ability to quickly and independently assess unfamiliar or time-sensitive situations, identify material risks, and develop practical options to resolve them.
Ability to build strong relationships quickly and work effectively with executive stakeholders.
Demonstrated ability to operate effectively in a fast-moving, high-growth technology company and make progress with incomplete information.
Genuine enthusiasm for AI and emerging technology.
Client-service orientation, a bias for action, and the highest level of integrity and business ethics.

Nice To Haves

In-house experience, including firm secondee experience, is strongly preferred.
Experience advising on employee privacy, workforce data, HR technology, and AI tools is strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

Advise on cash compensation programs, bonus and incentive plans, clawback policies, equal-pay requirements, pay equity reviews, compensation governance, and related internal and external disclosures.
Lead or support pay equity projects, including scoping, reviewing data and processes, coordinating stakeholders, reviewing analyses, and developing remediation or communication plans.
Provide legal advice on employee benefits, including retirement plans, welfare and wrap plans, severance plans, leave-related benefits, and country-specific benefits and protections, partnering with benefits counsel and regional employment legal team members as appropriate.
Draft, review, and update employment-related plans, policies, agreements, templates, and employee communications with precision and attention to detail.
Advise recruiting and talent acquisition teams on candidate-facing issues, offer letters, employment agreements, compensation terms, background checks, hiring practices, and negotiations, often on time-sensitive matters.
Advise on global mobility and immigration matters, including employee transfers, international assignments, work authorization, permanent residence processes, employer-of-record and professional-employer-organization arrangements, cross-border moves, and related onboarding or exit issues.
Support employment-related aspects of mergers, acquisitions, and strategic investments, including employment and benefits diligence, workforce mapping, employee-related deal terms, retention and vesting arrangements, transition and separation arrangements, and post-closing workforce integration.
Advise on employee privacy and data-use issues, including employee and candidate data, access and disclosure requests, workforce technology, monitoring, data transfers, and employment implications of business and HR systems.
Review and advise on HR AI tools and workflows, including vendor diligence, recruiting, use-case design, employment-law and privacy risks, bias and discrimination considerations, governance controls, documentation, and responsible implementation.
Lead global employment-related projects, including international expansions, from scoping through implementation; develop workplans, identify stakeholders and dependencies, coordinate regional counsel and outside advisors, manage timelines and budgets, document decisions, and drive issues to resolution.
Monitor legal developments affecting compensation, benefits, pay equity, recruiting, mobility, privacy, AI, and other relevant employment areas, and translate developments into practical guidance, process changes, and training for internal clients.
Identify and implement process improvements that help the Legal and People Teams scale, including playbooks, decision frameworks, repeatable workflows, knowledge-management practices, and automated or AI-enabled solutions.
Serve as a hands-on problem solver for sensitive, high-priority, and cross-functional issues, exercising sound judgment about when to escalate matters to legal leadership or engage specialized counsel.
Respond to U.S. demand letters, administrative charges, and other disputes, including investigating claims, communicating with opposing counsel, negotiating resolutions, and drafting separation and settlement agreements.