Employment Counsel

Key Responsibilities - Employment

• Serve as the lead legal advisor for complex and highrisk employment matters across India and APMEA including sensitive investigations restructurings workforce transitions and executive separations providing clear strategic recommendations to HR and senior leadership.
• Set the regional employment law strategy: monitor and interpret legislative and regulatory developments (including Indias new labour codes and key APMEA changes) assess business impact and drive structured implementation plans for policy process and system changes.
• Oversee the design governance and continuous improvement of employment documents and frameworks (employment agreements playbooks investigation protocols templates SOPs) to ensure consistency and compliance across multiple jurisdictions.
• Provide secondline escalation and supervision on personnelrelated investigations and disputes including POSH whistleblower retaliation and other conduct matters; guide Internal Committees and HRBPs on investigation strategy documentation and remediation.
• Act as the employment law and culture champion: partner with HR leadership to shape people programs (performance ER engagement restructurings) ensuring practices are aligned with Freshworks values risk appetite and global standards.
• Lead or colead crossfunctional initiatives on employment compliance workplace conduct and data privacy collaborating with Security Privacy and Compliance teams on risk assessments audits and controls.
• Manage external counsel relationships on significant or multijurisdictional matters including scoping oversight of work product and budget management while building internal capability to reduce dependency over time.
• Coach and mentor professionals supporting employment work helping prioritise matters reviewing outputs where needed and developing bestpractice guidance and knowledge resources for the broader Legal and HR teams. 

Key Responsibilities Corporate

• Act as a key governance advisor to the Board of Directors and senior leadership overseeing and monitoring Board activities to ensure robust compliance with the Companies Act and all applicable corporate governance and securities requirements.
• Own the legal and governance framework for Board committee and shareholder meetings ensuring timely convening and lawful conduct of the AGM and other statutory meetings in line with prescribed timelines secretarial standards and regulatory expectations.
• Oversee accurate and timely filing of all statutory returns and regulatory submissions (including to the MCA and other applicable regulators) establishing controls and calendars to rigorously monitor deadlines and mitigate compliance and enforcement risks.
• Lead the endtoend governance process for Board and committee meetings including annual calendars notice and agenda setting review of papers drafting of resolutions finalisation of minutes and secure maintenance of records while facilitating access for internal and statutory auditors or regulators as required.
• Partner with executive leadership finance and company secretarial functions to continuously strengthen corporate governance practices board reporting and subsidiary governance ensuring alignment with global best practices for highgrowth tech/SaaS companies.

Qualifications :

• Law degree (LL.B.) from a recognised university; LL.M. company secretary or additional governance qualification preferred.
• Approximately 1216 years of postqualification experience with substantial time spent on employment law and corporate governance in a top law firm and/or inhouse at multinational or listed companies ideally in tech or SaaS.
• Deep handson expertise in Indian company employment and labour laws combined with meaningful experience advising on or coordinating multiple employment matters across APMEA jurisdictions.
• Proven track record handling highstakes matters (senior exits restructures collective issues sensitive investigations regulatory complaints or inspections) with minimal supervision.
• Demonstrated experience influencing and counselling senior stakeholders (Board HR leadership CXOs business heads) including pushing back where required while maintaining trustedadvisor status.
• Strong familiarity with POSH regimes whistleblower/ethics frameworks and privacy requirements impacting employees (GDPR/CCPA/DPDP) including ownership of related policies and training.
• Experience leading crossfunctional projects building or scaling compliance programs and developing playbooks templates and training for global teams.

Core Competencies

• Strategic Employment & Governance Counsel  Operates as a subjectmatter expert and thought partner to HR Finance and leadership on complex crossborder governance & employment issues connecting legal risk to business and people strategy.
• Leadership and Influence  Demonstrates executive presence frames options and tradeoffs clearly and can drive decisions in rooms with senior stakeholders and multiple jurisdictions represented.
• Program and Framework Ownership  Designs and owns regionwide frameworks (governance process investigations ER playbooks templates training) ensuring consistency and scalability rather than only casebycase advice.
• Complex Risk Judgement  Comfortable making calls in ambiguous situations prioritising among competing risks (legal reputation employee relations operational) and documenting rationale.
• People Development and Collaboration  Coaches junior team members and upskills HR/people managers through training and daytoday partnering building a strong first line before legal escalation.
• Change Agility  Navigates fastchanging regulatory business and technology environments quickly integrating new laws (e.g. labour codes AI in HR) into policies and practice.

Additional Information :

At Freshworks we have fostered an environment that enables everyone to find their true potential purpose and passion welcoming colleagues of all backgrounds genders sexual orientations religions and ethnicities. We are committed to providing equal opportunity and believe that diversity in the workplace creates a more vibrant richer environment that boosts the goals of our employees communities and business. Fresh vision. Real impact. Come build it with us.

Remote Work :

No

Employment Type :

Full-time