Counsel, Employment

OpenAI, Inc.; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

Relocation assistance

Job summary

OpenAI, Inc. in San Francisco is seeking an experienced employment lawyer to help build and scale our global employment function.

You will work with senior counsel on US and international matters, draft policies, and provide practical guidance for a fast-growing AI company. The role requires 7+ years of employment law experience, a California JD and license, and the ability to translate complex rules into clear business advice.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of employment law experience at a law firm or in-house legal team.
• Strong knowledge of US employment law, including California law.
• Ability to translate complex legal requirements into practical recommendations.
• Experience advising on high-stakes employment matters in a fast-growth environment.

Responsibilities

• Shape OpenAI's employment legal approach as the company scales.
• Collaborate with senior employment counsel and cross-functional partners.
• Own stakeholder relationships and provide clear, practical advice.
• Advise on international employment matters and M&A workforce implications.
• Translate legal developments into useful guidance, training, and offices hours.
• Manage employment disputes and related matters with outside counsel as needed.
• Draft and negotiate employment documents and agreements.

Skills

Employment law

Policy development

Stakeholder management

Strategic thinking

Communication

Judgment

Education

J.D. & CA license

Job description

About the Team

OpenAI's Legal team plays a crucial role in advancing our mission by tackling innovative and fundamental legal issues in AI. The team includes professionals with expertise spanning technology, AI, privacy, IP, corporate, employment, tax, regulatory, and litigation. If you're passionate about meaningful and unique work as a technology lawyer, this team is for you.

About the Role

We are seeking an employment lawyer to help build the legal foundations for OpenAI's next stage of growth. Working closely with our employment counsel team and colleagues across the company, you will shape practical approaches to challenging employment issues in a fast-growing AI company. This is a hands-on role for a thoughtful lawyer who enjoys variety, moves quickly, and wants to help build a strong employment legal function as the business scales.

You will collaborate with experienced employment counsel on US and international employment issues, the employment aspects of mergers and acquisitions, and emerging questions about AI in the workplace. A central part of your work will be turning lessons from individual matters into practical policies, guidance, and approaches that work at scale. You will also own stakeholder relationships and manage counseling matters, exercising sound judgment and taking responsibility for outcomes. You will join a bright, collaborative team that values initiative and shared learning, with opportunities to learn from senior colleagues, deepen your expertise, and take on increasingly complex matters over time.

This role is based in San Francisco, CA. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance to new employees.

In this role, you will:

• Help shape OpenAI's employment legal approach as the company scales, developing practical policies, playbooks, and processes that address recurring issues and support sound, timely decisions.


• Collaborate with senior employment counsel and cross-functional partners on a broad range of US employment matters, including recruiting and hiring, performance management, employee conduct, leaves of absence, accommodations, and separations.


• Own designated stakeholder relationships and counseling matters, providing clear, practical advice and working independently while drawing on the team's experience and judgment as appropriate.


• Advise on international employment matters and support the employment aspects of mergers and acquisitions, including diligence and workforce integration, collaborating with local and specialist counsel as appropriate.


• Partner on strategic projects and emerging legal questions, including the use of AI in employment and workplace practices.


• Translate legal developments and lessons from your work into useful guidance, training, brown bags, and office hours for stakeholders across the company.


• Manage employment disputes, administrative charges, and related matters in collaboration with colleagues and outside counsel, as appropriate.


• Draft and negotiate employment documents and agreements, and identify practical ways to strengthen how the company handles employment matters as it grows.

You might thrive in this role if you:

• Have 7+ years of relevant employment law experience at a law firm, an in-house legal team, or a combination of both, with a record of excellent work and increasing responsibility.


• Have strong knowledge of US employment law, including California law, and sound judgment in advising on a broad range of workplace matters.


• Analyze unfamiliar issues quickly and translate complex legal requirements into clear, practical recommendations that account for business needs and employee experience.


• Enjoy building in a fast-growth environment: spotting gaps, developing practical solutions, and seeing them through to implementation.


• Bring initiative, a strong work ethic, and consistent follow-through; manage competing priorities and deliver high-quality work at a fast pace.


• Take ownership of your work, welcome feedback, and value the opportunity to learn from experienced colleagues; exercise sound judgment about when to act independently, collaborate, or elevate.


• Build trusted relationships through clear communication, discretion, and empathy, and contribute to a collaborative team that shares knowledge and supports one another.


• Are curious about technology, comfortable with ambiguity, and motivated by OpenAI's mission.


• Have a JD and are licensed or qualified to practice in California.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience advising on international employment matters and the employment aspects of mergers and acquisitions.


• Experience providing AI-specific employment law advice, including advising on AI enablement, automation, and employee privacy in workplace or product contexts.

About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity.

OpenAI is an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.

For additional information, please see OpenAI's Aff… Statement

Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law, and qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment consistent with those laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, for US-based candidates. For unincorporated Los Angeles County workers: we reasonably believe that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: protect computer hardware entrusted to you from theft, loss or damage; return all computer hardware in your possession (including the data contained therein) upon termination of employment or end of assignment; and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non-public information. In addition, job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations.

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