Director, Employment and Compliance

BambooHR is seeking an experienced employment attorney to join our Legal leadership team as Director, Employment & Compliance. This role is equal parts employment lawyer, HR compliance leader, companywide senior strategic advisor, and cheer captain. You'll lead BambooHR's employment-law and HR-compliance work, oversee the team responsible for day-to-day HR compliance and compliance-audit activities, advise teams across BambooHR on employment compliance requirements, and play a senior leadership role in BambooTrust, our enterprise-wide trust, risk, and compliance effort.

You'll also help BambooHR develop a distinctive voice on employment law and HR compliance, serving as a thought leader both inside the company and externally. We're looking for someone with serious legal chops who can make complicated things understandable, exercise excellent judgment, and move important work forward with high standards and low friction. Joie de vivre and a spirit of fun and/or whimsy are strongly preferred. Fealty to our mission and values is non-negotiable.

Supervisory Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a team of experienced legal and compliance professionals.
• Establish priorities, operating rhythms, and clear accountability for the Employment & Compliance function.
• Coach and develop team members, providing substantive guidance while enabling appropriate autonomy and ownership.
• Recruit, develop, evaluate, and retain high-performing team members.
• Foster strong collaboration across Legal, Human Resources, and partner functions.
• Ensure the team operates with high standards, sound judgment, appropriate urgency, and collegiality.

Duties / Responsibilities

Employment Law

• Serve as a senior in-house subject matter expert on employment law, providing practical, business-oriented counsel on employment laws, regulations, employee relations matters, and employment practices across applicable jurisdictions.
• Partner closely with Human Resources and Employee Relations on complex employee matters, including internal investigations, workplace concerns, accommodations, leaves, discipline, and terminations.
• Counsel senior leaders on complex and sensitive employment matters, balancing legal risk, business objectives, employee experience, and BambooHR's values.
• Manage employment disputes, claims, administrative proceedings, and litigation, engaging and directing outside counsel as appropriate.
• Identify emerging employment-law risks and translate legal developments into clear, actionable guidance for leaders and teams across BambooHR.
• Serve as an internal and external thought leader on employment law through appropriate company and industry engagement, speaking, writing, education, or other opportunities.

HR Compliance

• Lead the team responsible for BambooHR's day-to-day HR compliance and compliance-audit work, establishing priorities, standards, and accountability for the function.
• Build and continuously improve scalable employment compliance practices across multiple states and, as needed, support international growth.
• Own the annual production, review, and rollout of BambooHR's employee handbook, partnering with Human Resources and other stakeholders to keep it current, practical, accessible, and aligned with applicable employment requirements.
• Oversee employment compliance monitoring, testing, audits, remediation, and related operational processes, ensuring identified issues have clear owners and are addressed effectively.
• Advise Product, Engineering, and customer-facing teams on HR compliance requirements, helping teams understand how HR compliance requirements affect BambooHR's business, products, services, and customer interactions.
• Partner with Product and Engineering to translate HR compliance requirements into practical considerations for product development and business processes, while maintaining clear boundaries with separately owned areas such as privacy and security.
• Monitor emerging HR compliance trends and regulatory developments and proactively recommend changes to policies, practices, controls, and business processes.
• Develop practical guidance, tools, and education that make employment compliance understandable and usable—not merely technically correct.
• Partner with Human Resources on new employee onboarding and manager training relating to employment law and HR compliance.
• Develop and deliver ongoing employment compliance education for employees and managers, including training on new requirements, recurring areas of risk, and significant policy changes.
• Establish consistent, scalable approaches to employment compliance across the organization and serve as a trusted resource when teams are navigating gray areas.

BambooTrust, Risk & Governance

• Serve as a senior leader within BambooTrust, BambooHR's enterprise-wide trust, risk, and compliance effort, helping connect people, priorities, risks, and decisions across the organization.
• Serve as legal secretary to the company's executive Trust Council and chair the company's senior trust committee.
• Lead BambooHR's policy governance program, including policy drafting, review, approval, publication, training, and lifecycle management.
• Modernize and scale the company's policy-management and enforcement mechanisms so employees can readily understand what is expected of them and how policies apply to their work.
• Facilitate effective cross-functional governance, helping leaders identify ownership, make decisions, resolve ambiguity, and follow through on trust and compliance priorities.
• Partner with Finance, Information Technology, Security, Human Resources, and other functions on cross-functional compliance initiatives and applicable controls, including Sarbanes-Oxley requirements.
• Support enterprise compliance risk assessments and reporting while partnering with the leaders who own specialized compliance domains.
• Partner with relevant stakeholders to develop and deliver BambooTrust education and training for new employees, managers, and the broader workforce.
• Help ensure BambooTrust principles are reflected in onboarding, manager development, company training, policies, and day-to-day decision-making.
• Serve as a visible champion for ethical decision-making and carry the flag for BambooHR's "Do the Right Thing" value. 
• Help BambooTrust operate as an effective enterprise program rather than a collection of well-intentioned people attending recurring meetings.

What Success Looks Like in the First 180 Days

Within the first 180 days, you'll establish yourself as a trusted employment-law advisor to BambooHR's leaders and HR org; take effective leadership of the HR compliance team and its day-to-day compliance and audit work; assess and sharpen our employment compliance priorities; strengthen the annual employee-handbook process; and improve how Product, Engineering, Human Resources, and customer-facing teams engage with HR compliance.

You'll also become an influential leader within BambooTrust, strengthen BambooTrust and employment law and HR compliance training for new employees and managers, and maintain a clear operating rhythm for policy governance, compliance monitoring, and risk identification. Finally, you'll begin building BambooHR's external voice on employment law and HR compliance.

Must-Have Experience and Abilities

• Juris Doctor (JD) from an accredited law school.
• Active admission to the bar in at least one U.S. jurisdiction.
• 8+ years of relevant legal experience, with substantial experience in employment law, compliance, litigation, or a combination of these areas.
• Meaningful experience counseling business leaders on complex employment and regulatory matters.
• Strong understanding of employment compliance requirements, regulatory frameworks, and risk management.
• Experience managing employment disputes, investigations, administrative proceedings, and litigation, including effective management of outside counsel.
• Demonstrated ability to lead a compliance or legal function and manage professional-level team members.
• Exceptional written, verbal, negotiation, presentation, and interpersonal communication skills.
• Strong business judgment and the ability to translate complex legal issues into clear, practical recommendations.
• Demonstrated ability to lead through influence and collaborate effectively across functions and organizational levels.
• Strong organizational skills and the ability to manage multiple high-priority matters in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.
• High ethical standards, discretion, sound judgment, and the ability to handle sensitive and confidential information.
• Demonstrated commitment to BambooHR's mission and values.
• The ability to be fun.

Any Required Education

• Juris Doctor (JD) from an accredited law school.
• Active bar admission in at least one U.S. jurisdiction.

Any Physical Requirements

• Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer.
• Regular use of standard office equipment and technology.
• Ability to communicate effectively in person, by phone, and through video conferencing.
• Ability to occasionally travel for business meetings, company events, or other business needs.
• Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of the role.

Additional Nice-to-Have Experience and Abilities

• Experience developing or leading compliance, policy governance, or risk-management programs.
• Regulatory experience in fintech, financial services, human capital management, SaaS, or another regulated industry.
• Experience supporting international employment or compliance matters.
• Experience partnering with Product and Engineering organizations on legal or regulatory requirements.
• Experience developing employee handbooks, manager training, compliance education, or similar workforce programs.
• Experience speaking, writing, presenting, or otherwise serving as an external thought leader in employment law or HR compliance.
• Experience supporting a public company and/or operating within a public-company governance environment.