Employment Counsel

at  Couchbase

Every day we tackle new and exciting challenges to empower developers to build modern cloud, mobile, and edge applications that deliver a premium user experience. Couchbase delivers unmatched performance, scalability, flexibility and financial value across cloud, on premises, hybrid, mobile and edge deployments. The database market is undergoing a generational shift and is one of the largest market opportunities in enterprise software due to big trends like the need for digital transformation, acceleration to the cloud and innovation at the edge. Join Couchbase to be a part of a greater change. Here you’ll have the opportunity to learn and grow with some of the most innovative, passionate and humble individuals in the database industry.
Location: London, UK
Provides mission-critical legal support to HR and the Couchbase (CB) business units on employment-related matters globally. The team works collaboratively to help us achieve our business objectives while mitigating legal risk, exercising sound judgment, and solving problems expeditiously. In addition to addressing our employment law matters, this role also manages HR compliance, and plays a critical role in advising on internal investigations, as well as the entire range of employee relations and workplace matters.
Job Description
The person who will fill this role will report directly to the Associate General Counsel - Corporate and Employment and provide expertise and be the go-to subject matter expert in areas including employee relations, compliance, company policy, litigation and outside counsel management, and employee benefits. In addition to working closely with the AGC and Chief Legal Officer on EMEA employment matters, with the advice of local foreign counsel, this individual will also be responsible for Asia-Pacific with some support for U.S. employment matters as needed. The ideal candidate for this role will have the confidence, experience, and skills to work independently, but also enjoy working collaboratively with a top-notch legal team and the CB internal clients and stakeholders that our Legal team supports.
This will be a full-time position based in London with travel to the CB office approximately once a week expected. Some in-office time required.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Take a consultative and collaborative approach to handling complex and varied employment law issues.
• Work closely with our People team and other key stakeholders in our offices around the globe on employment law issues in our 20+ countries.
• Be the subject matter expert and provide practical, actionable advice for a number of these countries, as well as collaborating on other global employment law projects.
• Advise our People team and business leaders on a full range of employment-related issues, including but not limited to hiring, contractual issues, policies, compensation and benefits (including an employee share scheme), HR compliance, restrictive covenants, performance management, misconduct investigations, employee relations, terminations and employment litigation.
• Support the team in developing processes and templates to address employment issues in a practical and efficient way.

Required Qualifications

• UK-qualified solicitor, or J.D. from an accredited U.S. law school and an active member in good standing of at least one state bar;
• At least 2-4 years of full-time employment law experience, ideally with a combination of experience in-house and at an international law firm; and
• Experience working on employment matters in multiple jurisdictions;
• Exceptional analytical and writing skills, with a business-centric focus on risk.
• Excellent time management skills and experience managing a diverse workload and competing stakeholder demands.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to articulate and explain complex legal issues clearly and concisely.
• Enthusiasm for new challenges and for working with a range of different stakeholders.
• Comfortable with ambiguity, constant change, and a fast-paced culture.

• Take a consultative and collaborative approach to handling complex and varied employment law issues.
• Work closely with our People team and other key stakeholders in our offices around the globe on employment law issues in our 20+ countries.
• Be the subject matter expert and provide practical, actionable advice for a number of these countries, as well as collaborating on other global employment law projects.
• Advise our People team and business leaders on a full range of employment-related issues, including but not limited to hiring, contractual issues, policies, compensation and benefits (including an employee share scheme), HR compliance, restrictive covenants, performance management, misconduct investigations, employee relations, terminations and employment litigation.
• Support the team in developing processes and templates to address employment issues in a practical and efficient way