Senior Employment Counsel, International Lifecycle

Justworks•International Falls, MN

1d•€98,000 - €127,000•Remote

About The Position

At Justworks, you’ll enjoy a welcoming and casual environment, great benefits, wellness program offerings, company retreats, and the ability to interact with and learn from leaders in the startup community. We work hard and care about our most prized asset - our people. We’re helping businesses get off the ground by enabling them to focus on running their business. We solve HR issues. We’re data-driven and never stop iterating. If you’d like to work in a supportive, entrepreneurial environment, are interested in building something meaningful and having fun while doing it, we’d love to hear from you. We're united by shared goals and shared motivations at Justworks. These are best summed up in our company values, which are reflected in our product and in our team. Our Values If this sounds like you, you’ll fit right in. Who You Are Do you enjoy turning complex international employment issues into clear, practical guidance that helps teams move with confidence? Are you energized by helping a global EOR business handle sensitive employment lifecycle matters with sound judgment, consistency, and care? You are an experienced employment lawyer who understands that strong EOR legal support requires both legal judgment and operational follow-through. You know how to evaluate lifecycle risk, partner with local experts, align stakeholders, and help teams reach practical outcomes in complex and time-sensitive employment matters. You bring clear communication, business-oriented judgment, and a steady approach to sensitive employee lifecycle issues. As part of the International Legal team, the Senior Employment Counsel, International Lifecycle will provide legal support for complex employment lifecycle execution across Justworks’ EOR offering, with particular focus on sensitive, complex, or escalated matters such as terminations, performance management, leave, and employee relations. You will serve as the legal point of contact for selected lifecycle matters that require Legal involvement, partnering closely with regional employment counsel on local-law requirements and with Operations, Customer Service, Payroll, Benefits, Product, Sales, and outside counsel as needed to drive practical resolution. A major focus of this role will be building the standards, playbooks, escalation paths, decision frameworks, documentation expectations, and training that help operational teams handle routine lifecycle matters effectively and identify when Legal should be involved. This is a role for someone who can move fluidly between matter execution and scalable process-building, creating solutions out of insights learned from real patterns to make Justworks' EOR lifecycle support clearer, stronger, and easier to operate.

Requirements

Juris Doctor (JD) or equivalent law degree and admitted to practice in at least one relevant jurisdiction.
Minimum of 5+ years of substantive employment law experience, preferably including in-house experience, international employment counseling, EOR, PEO, global mobility, HR technology, or other cross-border employment operations.
Deep experience advising on employee lifecycle matters, including complex terminations, performance management, leave, employee relations, employment documentation, recurring compliance, and dispute risk across multiple jurisdictions.
Experience supporting an EOR business, global employment platform, international HR operations, or multi-country employment counseling is strongly preferred.
Proven ability to build legal standards, risk frameworks, escalation paths, playbooks, policies, knowledge bases, and SOPs that enable non-legal teams to operate with consistency.
Strong understanding of how employment-law requirements should be translated into operational workflows, product requirements, customer guidance, and internal controls.
Sound judgment in managing legal, operational, customer, employee, financial, and reputational risk in sensitive employment matters.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain complex legal concepts to non-legal stakeholders in a practical and concise way.
Demonstrated ability to work cross-functionally and influence stakeholders.
Demonstrated time management, organizational, and analytical skills, including the ability to manage multiple complex matters across time zones.
Experience managing outside counsel and obtaining practical, cost-effective legal advice across multiple jurisdictions.
Fluent in English; proficiency in another relevant language is a plus.
Occasional travel is required.

Responsibilities

Lead the Legal workstream for sensitive, complex, or escalated EOR lifecycle matters that require Legal involvement, including complex terminations, redundancies, settlements, protected leave, accommodations, pay equity claims, employee relations issues, performance management, and employment disputes, in partnership with regional employment counsel and outside counsel as needed.
Serve as the legal point of contact for complex termination and offboarding matters that require Legal involvement, helping teams evaluate risk, define strategy, align stakeholders, prepare required documentation, and move matters from intake through resolution.
Partner with regional employment counsel to translate local legal requirements into practical guidance for Operations, Customer Service, Payroll, Benefits, Product, Sales, and other teams, while driving consistency across markets.
Build and maintain lifecycle standards, playbooks, escalation paths, controls, decision frameworks, and training based on recurring matter patterns, with a focus on enabling operational teams to handle routine matters consistently and ensuring higher-risk matters reach Legal at the right time.
Advise Product and Operations on lifecycle legal requirements, risk parameters, workflow logic, case-management controls, customer-facing guidance, knowledge bases, and standard operating procedures.
Support Customer Service and Sales on complex EOR lifecycle questions from prospective and existing customers, including termination risk, performance management, leave, documentation, timing, and market-specific constraints.
Develop and deliver practical training and guidance on EOR lifecycle matters for internal stakeholders and, as appropriate, external audiences, with a focus on helping teams understand applicable requirements, roles, responsibilities, and escalation paths.
Manage outside counsel on complex lifecycle matters, market-specific escalations, employment disputes, and operational guidance, with a focus on practical, cost-effective advice.
Monitor lifecycle-related legal and operational developments across key markets and help update internal guidance, training, and processes as needed.
Perform other related duties as assigned.