Employment Counsel

Overview

Instacart is seeking an experienced and self-motivated Employment Counsel to handle a wide variety of employment matters that are core to the company’s business and growth. You’ll work closely with teams like human resources, communications, product, and operations to provide expert legal advice and help tackle novel and thorny cross-disciplinary issues related to worker classification and traditional employment laws. Because Instacart maintains a global workforce including in Canada, China, and Australia, this role will also involve advising on employment issues across multiple foreign jurisdictions. You must have the ability to operate independently in a fast-paced environment, prioritize a dynamic and varied workload, and possess excellent judgment. You’ll also need to be proactive and engaged, able to work well cross-functionally both internally and externally, excited about technology and e-commerce, and ready to roll up your sleeves and dig into tough problems!

Instacart’s Legal Team provides top notch service and counseling to various parts of Instacart’s business. You will be joining a proactive and deeply engaged legal team that values collaboration and innovative problem-solving. We take a practical, efficient, solution-oriented approach to everything we do and aim to build strong and trusting relationships with our team, leadership, and cross-functional partners. We are looking for highly motivated teammates who are ready to dig in and hit the ground running.

About The Job

• Handling and resolving a wide variety of litigation and pre-litigation employment matters in state and federal courts and administrative forums, especially matters involving worker classification.
• Managing outside counsel, including providing tactical guidance to ensure alignment with Instacart’s broader legal strategies.
• Ability to manage high volume portfolio that could encompass a variety of employment matters, including: litigation; unemployment claims; administrative audits; agency charges; and workers’ compensation claims.
• Partnering closely with Human Resources and business partners to evaluate legal risks and provide subject matter knowledge on a broad range of employment issues, including wage and hour, recruiting and hiring, training, employee performance management, leaves of absence, disability accommodations, and HR best practices.
• Drafting and revising a variety of employment-related agreements and other written content such as offer letters, contractor agreements, vendor agreements, and more.
• Helping to develop and implement scalable self-service tools and processes for the HR and Operations teams as the company grows.
• Collaborating with cross-functional teams to structure contractor and employment law compliance across U.S. and international jurisdictions.
• Thinking ahead, seeing around corners, and helping to prepare for and address contractor and employment issues that may arise in the future.

About You

Minimum Qualifications

• J.D. from a top-tier law school.
• Active membership with at least one state bar (preferably California but not required).
• A minimum of 5-7 years of related experience in employment litigation and counseling at a leading law firm, including advising on international workforces.
• Deep experience with employment laws in multiple states (including California) and foreign jurisdictions (including Australia, Canada, China, EU, and UK) across a wide range of issues.
• Proven track record of providing pragmatic and reasoned advice to HR and business partners.
• Excellent writing and communication skill.
• Ability to efficiently handle and organize multiple projects at a time in a fast-paced environment.
• Ability to make quick but informed decisions and to advocate for a position that mitigates risk while advancing the business’ goals.
• Willingness to roll up your sleeves, get into the legal nitty gritty, and the ability to exercise sound judgment when approaching novel problems without clear answers.

Preferred Qualifications

• Related experience working at an in-house legal department (especially at a tech company or retailer, a plus).
• Demonstrated experience with worker classification and employment laws in U.S. and international jurisdictions.
• Demonstrated success in strategizing, handling and managing complex disputes to successful resolution.
• Experience developing legal strategies and solutions in novel contexts.

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