Senior Counsel, Employment

Motive
United States
Remote

Who this role is best for

Aimed at experienced employment law professionals who can navigate multi-jurisdictional complexities and build scalable policies.

Best fit for

  • Experienced employment lawyers with a track record in high-growth tech environments
    — “experience supporting a distributed or multi-jurisdictional workforce across multiple U.S. states”
  • Candidates who can balance legal rigor with business-oriented solutions
    — “strong business judgment and the ability to provide clear, practical, and risk-calibrated advice”
  • Individuals with a background in drafting complex employment agreements
    — “strong technical drafting skills for preparing employment-related agreements”

Things to consider

  • The role requires legal expertise across multiple U.S. and international jurisdictions
    — “distributed or multi-jurisdictional workforce across multiple U.S. states as well as international jurisdictions”
  • Compensation varies significantly based on geographic location
    — “The compensation range for this position will depend on where you reside”

How to stand out

  • Highlight experience in advising on equity incentive plans for distributed teams
    — “Experience advising on equity incentive plans and equity matters across a distributed workforce”
  • Demonstrate ability to translate legal requirements into practical business guidance
    — “the ability to translate complex legal requirements into clear, actionable guidance”
  • Emphasize prior work in shaping employment practices for fast-growing companies
    — “This role will shape employment practices, support business growth”
Pace · SteadyCollaboration · MediumAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · Team

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

What success looks like

  • advising on complex employment matters
  • managing legal risk
  • developing scalable employment policies
Typical background
10+ years of employment law experienceJ.D. and active license to practice law

Skills & requirements

Required

Employment LawLegal GuidanceLegal Risk ManagementEmployment Policies

Preferred

International Employment LawLitigation Management

Stack & domain

LegalEmployment Law

About the role

Original posting from Motive via Greenhouse

Who we are:

Motive empowers the people who run physical operations with tools to make their work safer, more productive, and more profitable. For the first time ever, safety, operations and finance teams can manage their drivers, vehicles, equipment, and fleet related spend in a single system. Combined with industry leading AI, the Motive platform gives you complete visibility and control, and significantly reduces manual workloads by automating and simplifying tasks.

Motive serves nearly 100,000 customers – from Fortune 500 enterprises to small businesses – across a wide range of industries, including transportation and logistics, construction, energy, field service, manufacturing, agriculture, food and beverage, retail, and the public sector.

Visit gomotive.com to learn more.

About the Role:

Motive is seeking a Senior Counsel, Employment to provide practical, strategic legal guidance across the employee lifecycle for a distributed, multi-jurisdictional workforce. Reporting to the AGC, Corporate, this role will advise People, managers, business leaders, and executives on employment matters, manage legal risk, and help build scalable employment policies and processes in a fast-growing technology company.

The ideal candidate brings sound judgment, strong employment-law expertise, and the ability to translate complex legal requirements into clear, actionable guidance. This role will shape employment practices, support business growth, and contribute to broader Legal team initiatives.

What You'll Do:

Advise People, managers, business leaders, and executives on a broad range of employment matters, including hiring, performance management, employee relations, accommodations, leaves, investigations, discipline, compensation, classification, restrictive covenants, and separations.

Provide guidance on federal, state, provincial, local, international and other applicable employment laws and regulations.

Draft, review, and update employment-related agreements, policies, procedures, training materials, and communications, with a comprehensive annual review and update cycle.

Partner with People, Recruiting, and business stakeholders to develop practical, consistent, and legally compliant approaches to workforce and employee-relations matters.

Manage and oversee employment-related claims, agency charges, audits, investigations, and litigation in partnership with internal and external counsel.

Monitor legal and regulatory developments and recommend updates to policies, processes, training, and business practices.

Support workforce programs, organizational changes, and other cross-functional legal projects and strategic business priorities.

Manage outside counsel effectively and help ensure matters are handled efficiently and with appropriate risk calibration.

What We're Looking For:

J.D. and active license to practice law in at least one U.S. state.

10+ years of relevant employment-law experience in a law firm and in-house legal department.

Deep knowledge of employment law and demonstrated experience advising on employee relations, contingent workers, restrictive covenants, workplace investigations, wage and hour matters, leaves, accommodations, and employment-related disputes.

Experience supporting a distributed or multi-jurisdictional workforce across multiple U.S. states as well as international jurisdictions, preferably in a technology or high-growth company.

Strong business judgment and the ability to provide clear, practical, and risk-calibrated advice.

Brings strong technical drafting skills for preparing employment-related agreements.

Experience advising on equity incentive plans and equity matters across a distributed workforce.

Ability to manage complex matters independently while collaborating effectively with cross-functional stakeholders and external counsel.

Excellent written and verbal communication skills, close attention to detail, and the ability to prioritize competing demands in a fast-paced environment.

A self-motivated individual with a solutions-oriented, low-ego approach and willingness to contribute beyond a narrowly defined specialty.

AI-first perspective, with interest in building and leveraging AI-driven tools.

Someone with a great sense of humor and no ego who shares our vision that the legal team can be both a center of excellence and fun at the same time! 

Pay Transparency

Your compensation may be based on several factors, including education, work experience, and certifications. For certain roles, total compensation may include restricted stock units. Motive offers benefits including health, pharmacy, optical and dental care benefits, paid time off, sick time off, short term and long term disability coverage, life insurance as well as 401k contribution (all benefits are subject to eligibility requirements). Learn more about our benefits by visiting Motive Perks & Benefits.

The compensation range for this position will depend on where you reside. Motive uses three geographic zones to determine pay range. For this role, the compensation ranges are: San Francisco, California$175,000—$241,000 USDU.S. metropolitan areas: Los Angeles, San Diego, New York City Area, Seattle, Washington D.C.$153,000—$210,000 USDOther locations in the United States$153,000—$210,000 USDCreating a diverse and inclusive workplace is one of Motive's core values. We are an equal opportunity employer and welcome people of different backgrounds, experiences, abilities and perspectives. 

Please review our Candidate Privacy Notice here.

UK Candidate Privacy Notice here.

The applicant must be authorized to receive and access those commodities and technologies controlled under U.S. Export Administration Regulations. It is Motive's policy to require that employees be authorized to receive access to Motive products and technology. 

Regarding US-based roles, depending on your role and primary work location, Motive Technologies, Inc. (“Employer”) discloses candidates may be required to execute a non-compete covenant with the Employer. This requirement does not apply to lawyers, interns, or employees working in CA, MN, MT, ND, OK, or where otherwise prohibited by law.

Non-compete covenant terms in all other jurisdictions will be subject to the applicable statutory requirements, including but not limited to, procedures, industry related prohibitions, or salary and compensation thresholds.

All job postings are for existing vacancies. Please note; some interviews or new-hire training sessions may be held in person at one of our global offices.

Source: Motive careers (Greenhouse)

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