Senior Counsel, Employment

GAQ127R142

The mission of Databricks Legal is to apply legal resources and expertise to help Databricks achieve its growth and strategic objectives while thoughtfully protecting Databricks with a reasonable balance of risk versus opportunity.

What we look for

The Senior Counsel Employment will provide legal counseling to the Databricks People Team on U.S. employment matters and collaborate to resolve U.S. disputes. You will also lead global employment-related projects.

You will have excellent written and verbal communication skills and practical business judgment exhibit a high level of organization and flexibility and have the skills and drive to support and accelerate this leading technology company addressing cutting-edge legal issues and organizational challenges.

This is a full-time position reporting to Databricks Senior Director and Associate General Counsel of Global Employment Legal joining a team of 4 international lawyers and a paralegal.

Responsibilities

• Provide pragmatic risk-balanced advice to Databricks People Team (including employee relations and business partners) on employment law matters for Databricks U.S. workforce including: hiring and recruiting investigations discipline and termination leaves of absence disability accommodation wage and hour anti-discrimination compensation and benefits (including sales compensation plans and bonus programs) non-competition and non-solicitation protection of confidential information contingent staffing credentialing and background checks (including related to public sector and regulated customers) file and data subject access requests restructuring plans and other topics
• Respond to demand letters administrative charges and other disputes including investigating claims communicating with opposing counsel negotiating resolutions and drafting separation and settlement agreements
• Monitor new U.S. laws regulations and decisions affecting the substantive legal areas above and provide strategic proactive advice to the People Team and cross-functional partners
• Draft employee-facing policies handbooks and other resources
• Prepare and lead training events on employment law-related matters
• Manage outside counsel handling employment litigation and global projects including management of budgets driving litigation strategy and collaborating on pleadings and other documents
• Support employment-related aspects of mergers acquisitions strategic investments and divestitures including due diligence and related workforce integration efforts
• Support employment-related aspects of commercial and procurement deals including those relating to background checks and access requirements
• Partner closely with privacy legal to consider employment-related impacts from business technology
• Establish and maintain credibility and trust with internal clients legal team members and other partners
• Provide sophisticated pragmatic advice and counsel on both day-to-day and individual employee issues and strategic and organizational plans
• Identify and implement process improvements that help the legal team the People Team and the business scale for growth including through automated and AI solutions.

Qualifications & Experience Required

• JD from a top-tier accredited institution; licensed to practice law in Washington State California Colorado Illinois Virginia New York or Massachusetts
• 10 years of employment law and litigation experience; in-house experience (including as a firm secondee) strongly preferred
• Fluency in translating legal advice into practical risk-balanced business-oriented advice
• Experience supporting business operations and partnering with the People Team/HR and other professionals across multiple locations
• Experience supporting multi-jurisdictional projects
• Experience providing advice directly to clients including executive stakeholders
• Strong work ethic and the highest level of integrity and business ethics
• Ability to quickly and independently assess employment-related situations and develop practical options to respond to and resolve risks
• Ability to build strong relationships quickly and work with all levels of the business with ease
• Exceptional judgment and attention to detail including judgment for when to escalate matters to legal leadership
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Tech sector experience preferred including cloud services data and AI
• A desire to work on complex legal issues and in new global regions as we continue to expand
• Experience working with a client-service focus and a bias for action
• Strong aptitude and appetite for identifying developing and implementing critical process improvements

Required Experience:

Senior IC