Senior Director - Litigation & Employment Counsel

Handshake•San Francisco, CA

3d•$276,000 - $345,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Handshake's Legal team is a strategic, collaborative partner across the company — spanning product development, AI governance, commercial partnerships, data privacy, and employment. As the first dedicated counsel for Litigation & Employment, you'll build and lead this function from the ground up, reporting to the General Counsel. You'll define how Handshake manages dispute and employment risk, partner with Product, Engineering, and Operations on the litigation- and employment-adjacent questions that surface in the platform itself — contractor and gig workflows, employer/recruiter features, user disputes, payout infrastructure, and platform terms — and serve as a senior thought partner to the leadership team as Handshake calibrates risk and expands into new products and markets.

Requirements

JD and active bar membership in at least one U.S. state (California admission or registration eligibility)
12+ years combined law firm and in-house experience at a high-growth tech, gig platform, or marketplace company
Hands-on litigation experience across commercial, employment, and platform disputes, including first-chair trial or arbitration experience
Deep employment law expertise: wage and hour, leaves and accommodations, investigations, agency practice (EEOC, DFEH/CRD)
Strong grounding in worker classification law and compliance strategy for gig and contractor populations at scale
Track record advising Product, Engineering, and Operations on platform and marketplace legal questions
Exceptional judgment and communication skills, with genuine interest in the legal questions shaping the future of work

Nice To Haves

Experience as the first or early litigation/employment hire at a high-growth company
Familiarity with two-sided platform or marketplace businesses, including platform liability and trust & safety issues

Responsibilities

Own the company's litigation strategy and docket end-to-end — commercial, IP, employment, and platform disputes — directing pleadings, discovery, depositions, motion practice, mediation, arbitration, and trial
Serve as Handshake's in-house employment expert, advising the People team and managers on hiring, performance management, separations, leaves, accommodations, wage and hour, pay equity, and RIFs across a multi-state and growing international workforce
Manage agency investigations, single-plaintiff and class/representative claims (including PAGA), and severance negotiations, partnering with the People team on root-cause learnings
Maintain and evolve the employee handbook, offer letters, restrictive covenants, and required training programs, and lead rollout of new compliance requirements like AI-in-hiring rules