Employment Counsel (London, United Kingdom)

Figma
London, GB
Hybrid

Who this role is best for

Aimed at mid-level UK-qualified employment lawyers with 8+ years PQE who have experience in both law firms and in-house roles, particularly in EMEA jurisdictions.

Best fit for

  • Experienced employment lawyer with EMEA-wide expertise and in-house experience.
    — “UK-qualified with 8+ years PQE, including experience at a top-tier law firm and in-house legal department practising employment law
  • Candidate comfortable advising on complex employee relations and investigations.
    — “Advise senior stakeholders on complex employee relations, disciplinary, grievance and investigation matters
  • Professional skilled in scaling employment policies in growing organizations.
    — “Experience designing and scaling employment policies, programmes, processes, and documentation in a growing organisation

Things to consider

  • Mandatory camera use during video interviews and in-person onboarding.
    — “we require all candidates keep their cameras on during video interviews
  • Role involves managing employment-related litigation and external counsel coordination.
    — “Manage employment-related litigation including strategy, discovery, drafting, and coordination with external counsel

How to stand out

  • Highlight experience with employment law in France and Germany.
    — “Significant experience with employment law in France and Germany
  • Showcase past work on international expansion or M&A.
    — “Experience with international expansion and M&A
  • Demonstrate use of technology and AI in legal processes.
    — “leveraging technology and AI-enabled tools where appropriate
Pace · SteadyCollaboration · HighAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · TeamLevel · Senior

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • advising on complex employment matters
  • scaling employment legal function
Typical background
8+ years PQEtop-tier law firmin-house legal department

Skills & requirements

Required

Employment LawUk-qualifiedCommercial JudgementEmployment PoliciesCross-functional Collaboration

Preferred

FrenchGermanInternational Expansion

Stack & domain

Employment LawLegal AdviceDraftingLegal DocumentationEmployee RelationsInvestigationsLegal PoliciesLegal ComplianceLitigationLegal RequirementsLegal RisksCommunicationAi-enabled ToolsLeadershipCommercial JudgementCollaborationProblem-solvingCuriosityTeamworkLegalEmploymentComplianceRegulatoryFinance

About the role

Original posting from Figma via Greenhouse

Figma is growing our team of passionate creatives and builders on a mission to make design accessible to all. Figma’s platform helps teams bring ideas to life—whether you're brainstorming, creating a prototype, translating designs into code, or iterating with AI. From idea to product, Figma empowers teams to streamline workflows, move faster, and work together in real time from anywhere in the world. If you're excited to shape the future of design and collaboration, join us!

As Employment Counsel (EMEA), you will serve as Figma's primary employment legal advisor across EMEA, partnering closely with People and business leaders to support our international workforce and help scale our global employment legal function.

This is a full time role that can be held from our London Hub or remotely in the United Kingdom.

What you’ll do at Figma:

Serve as the primary employment legal advisor for EMEA and support other regional and global employment matters, partnering closely with People and business leaders on strategic employment and workforce matters 

Draft, revise, and update employment and benefits-related documentation and agreements as needed

Advise senior stakeholders on complex employee relations, disciplinary, grievance and investigation matters and recommend appropriate outcomes

Identify and operationalise compliance-based requirements and build scalable employment-related policies, playbooks, templates, and self-serve tools in collaboration with partner teams to help scale the legal function and the business 

Support Figma's international growth, including expansion into new jurisdictions, workforce scaling initiatives, and evolving employment compliance requirements

Manage employment-related litigation including strategy, discovery, drafting, and coordination with external counsel

Identify and address developing employment legal requirements and potential future legal risks to the business

Collaborate with other cross-functional business teams including legal, accounting, procurement, and communications

We’d love to hear from you if you have/are:

UK-qualified with 8+ years PQE, including experience at a top-tier law firm and in-house legal department practising employment law

Significant experience providing practical, commercially focused employment law advice across EMEA, including employee relations, investigations, works councils and consultation requirements, restructurings, redundancies, dismissals, and other complex employment matters

Proven ability to build trusted relationships with People, Legal, and business leaders, exercise strong commercial judgement, and influence decision-making in complex situations

Experience designing and scaling employment policies, programmes, processes, and documentation in a growing organisation, including leveraging technology and AI-enabled tools where appropriate

Exceptional communication skills, intellectual curiosity, and a collaborative approach, with a strong desire to learn, improve, and help build effective solutions

While not required, it’s an added plus if you also have:

Significant experience with employment law in France and Germany; fluency in French or German 

Interest in employment law outside of EMEA 

Experience with international expansion and M&A

At Figma, one of our values is Grow as you go. We believe in hiring smart, curious people who are excited to learn and develop their skills. If you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with the points outlined in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyways. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

At Figma we celebrate and support our differences. We know employing a team rich in diverse thoughts, experiences, and opinions allows our employees, our product and our community to flourish. Figma is an equal opportunity workplace - we are dedicated to equal employment opportunities regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity/expression, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements.

We will work to ensure individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to apply for a role, participate in the interview process, perform essential job functions, and receive other benefits and privileges of employment. If you require accommodation, please reach out to accommodations-ext@figma.com. These modifications enable an individual with a disability to have an equal opportunity not only to get a job, but successfully perform their job tasks to the same extent as people without disabilities. 

Examples of accommodations include but are not limited to: 

Holding interviews in an accessible location

Enabling closed captioning on video conferencing

Ensuring all written communication be compatible with screen readers

Changing the mode or format of interviews 

To ensure the integrity of our hiring process and facilitate a more personal connection, we require all candidates keep their cameras on during video interviews. Additionally, if hired you will be required to attend in person onboarding.

By applying for this job, the candidate acknowledges and agrees that any personal data contained in their application or supporting materials will be processed in accordance with Figma's Candidate Privacy Notice.

Source: Figma careers (Greenhouse)

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