Senior Counsel, Employment

GAQ426R351

About the Team:

The mission of Databricks Legal is to apply legal resources and expertise to help Databricks achieve its growth and strategic objectives, while thoughtfully protecting Databricks with a reasonable balance of risk versus opportunity.

What we look for:

The Senior Counsel, Employment (APAC) will provide legal counseling to the Databricks People Team on all matters related to its growing workforce in Australia, India, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and elsewhere in the Asia Pacific region. You will also help support global employment-related projects.

This is a full-time position reporting to Databricks’ Senior Director and Associate General Counsel of Global Employment and Litigation, joining a team of 5 international lawyers and a paralegal. As the team’s first APAC-based hire, you will have the opportunity to forge essential relationships with local People Team and business partners, while establishing foundational processes and compliance frameworks for existing and new locations.

Responsibilities:

- Provide pragmatic, risk-balanced employment advice across the APAC region on matters including: hiring and recruiting, contingent worker arrangements, labor relations, investigations, performance management, discipline and termination, redundancies and restructuring plans, leaves of absence, disability accommodations, flexible working requests, pay practices, compensation and benefits (including sales compensation plans and bonus programs), restrictive covenants, and protection of confidential information

- Manage pre-litigation employment disputes and agency matters, including investigating claims, negotiating resolutions, and drafting separation and settlement agreements

- Direct employment litigation with outside counsel, including selecting counsel, controlling budgets, directing litigation strategy, and reviewing work product

- Proactively monitor legal developments across APAC jurisdictions and translate regulatory changes into actionable guidance for the People Team and business stakeholders

- Draft employee-facing policies, handbooks, and other resources

- Prepare and lead training events on employment law-related matters

- Support M&A by conducting employment-related due diligence, identifying risks and mitigation, and advising on workforce integration

- Establish and maintain credibility and trust with internal clients, legal team members, and other partners

Required qualifications:

- Qualified attorney with 8+ years of relevant experience post-qualification

- Native or business-level English speaker with high-level written English skills

- Employment law practice at a top international law firm

- In-house employment counsel role at a multinational company (firm secondment experience acceptable; technology industry preferred)

- Experience supporting business operations across multiple locations

- Experience supporting multi‑jurisdictional projects

- Experience providing advice directly to clients

- Strong work ethic and the highest level of integrity and business ethics

- Great attention to detail and judgment, including for when to elevate matters to legal leadership

About Databricks

Databricks is the data and AI company. More than 10,000 organizations worldwide — including Comcast, Condé Nast, Grammarly, and over 50% of the Fortune 500 — rely on the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform to unify and democratize data, analytics and AI. Databricks is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices around the globe and was founded by the original creators of Lakehouse, Apache Spark™, Delta Lake and MLflow. To learn more, follow Databricks on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Benefits

At Databricks, we strive to provide comprehensive benefits and perks that meet the needs of all of our employees. For specific details on the benefits offered in your region, please visit https://www.mybenefitsnow.com/databricks.

Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

At Databricks, we are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive culture where everyone can excel. We take great care to ensure that our hiring practices are inclusive and meet equal employment opportunity standards. Individuals looking for employment at Databricks are considered without regard to age, color, disability, ethnicity, family or marital status, gender identity or expression, language, national origin, physical and mental ability, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, veteran status, and other protected characteristics.

Compliance

If access to export‑controlled technology or source code is required for performance of job duties, it is within Employer's discretion whether to apply for a U.S. government license for such positions, and Employer may decline to proceed with an applicant on this basis alone.

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