Director, Employee Relations & Compliance, EMEA

Legora; Greater London; On-site; USD 159,000 - 238,000; Full time

Job summary

Legora is seeking an accomplished Director of Employee Relations & Compliance for EMEA, based in London. You will own complex ER casework and jurisdictional compliance across Germany, the UK, Sweden, Italy, Spain and France, building ER capability as Legora scales.

You’ll report to the EMEA People Director and influence leadership while aligning with global standards. This is a senior, hands-on leadership role demanding strategic and operational excellence.

Qualifications

• Significant experience leading Employee Relations (ER) or HR compliance across multiple EMEA markets.
• Deep, practical knowledge of employment law and ER practice in several markets.
• Proven track record of investigations, disciplinaries and terminations with due process.
• Experience building an ER or compliance function from the ground up.
• Confident senior, independent voice capable of influencing leadership.

Responsibilities

• Lead ER casework end to end across all markets in EMEA, including investigations, grievances, disciplinaries, and terminations.
• Own compliance across six markets: statutory notices, works councils, filings, and EU directives.
• Build and calibrate dedicated ER capability across EMEA, scaling with the business.
• Partner with People Partners, Operations, and Rewards to reflect local needs in policy and tooling.
• Provide quality checks for local ER work and drive consistent, legally sound outcomes.

Job description

About Us

Legora is redefining how legal work gets done. Not built for lawyers, built with them. We work alongside the world’s best legal teams, who expect excellence, precision, and speed, and we hold ourselves to the same bar.
Our AI-native workspace lets legal professionals move faster, think more clearly, and operate with sharper precision. By analysing thousands of documents in minutes and powering end-to-end workflows, we cut through complexity, teams can focus on what matters: judgment, strategy, and outcomes.
1,000+ customers across 50+ countries trust us, including Cleary Gottlieb, Goodwin, Linklaters, White & Case, Dentons, and Barclays. We’ve scaled to $100M+ in ARR, with teams across Europe, North America and APAC, and continue to expand through acquisitions including Qura, Walter AI and Graceview.
We partner with world-class performers: including Aaron Judge and the New York Yankees, Ludvig Åberg (and his caddie), and campaigns featuring Jude Law.
Joining Legora means three things.

• We lean in: ownership over titles, outcomes over intentions.

• We fight for excellence: high standards, direct, ego-free feedback.

• We grow together: as a team and with our customers.

Mission before ego. Everyone contributes. No one coasts.

If you’re driven by impact, pace, and raising the bar. This is the place.

The Role

This is our first Director of Employee Relations & Compliance for EMEA: a senior, hands-on role owning ER casework, employment law compliance and jurisdictional risk across Germany, the UK, Sweden, Italy, Spain and France.

Based in London, you'll be the standing authority on ER practice in the region. You'll own complex casework end to end, build dedicated ER capability where none exists today, and extend the strength we already have in Stockholm. You'll report to the EMEA People Director, with a path to running an independent function reporting to the CHRO as it scales.

What You’ll Do

ER leadership and casework

• Own complex casework end to end across every market: investigations, grievances, disciplinaries, PIPs and terminations for cause, to a consistently high, legally sound standard.

• Be the escalation point when a matter turns complex, contested or legally weighted, for Local People Advisory and the wider People org.

• Hold the bar on case handling: written scoping, contemporaneous documentation, balance-of-probabilities findings, and independent second review of any outcome that could end employment.

Compliance and jurisdictional risk

• Own employment and ER compliance across all six markets: statutory notice and consultation, works council and union engagement, mandatory filings and register-keeping, and local implementation of the EU Whistleblowing Directive (disclosures run through a separate channel).

• Maintain the EMEA jurisdiction playbook and horizon-scan for legal changes, flagging implications to leadership early.

• Engage Employment Counsel at the right moment with a clear written scope, not as a late rescue.

• Note: comp-related compliance (pay equity, gender pay gap, benefits) sits with Rewards.

Team and capability building

• Build dedicated ER capability across EMEA, prioritised by risk and case volume, on the foundation of the Stockholm team.

• Certify and calibrate anyone running a formal ER process, keeping casework consistent as the team grows.

Stakeholder partnership and consistency

• Act as the quality check for Local People Advisory across EMEA (who sit in People Operations), signing off local ER and compliance work without managing those roles day to day.

• Partner with People Partners, People Operations, People Tech and Rewards so policy and tooling reflect what EMEA markets need.

• Turn case patterns into a regular, actionable view for People leadership.

• Work with your NORAM and APAC counterparts on one shared case taxonomy, system and calibration forum, representing EMEA's regulatory and cultural nuance in global standards.

What You’ll Bring

• Significant experience leading ER, HR compliance or similar at a fast-scaling company, ideally across multiple EMEA jurisdictions.

• Deep, practical knowledge of employment law and ER practice across several of these markets, and comfort working outside your home jurisdiction.

• A track record of investigations, disciplinaries and terminations that hold up to scrutiny: calm, neutral and thorough under pressure.

• Experience building an ER or compliance function from the ground up: process, hiring, and getting a distributed team to one standard.

• Confidence as a senior, independent voice, comfortable escalating to and influencing leadership.

• Based in or willing to relocate to London, able to travel across EMEA.

What Success Looks Like

• Every formal ER matter across the region handled fairly, consistently and to a legally sound standard.

• A resourced, capable EMEA ER team, built out from London to the markets that need it.

• The wider People org treats this function as the standing authority on ER and compliance, not a bottleneck.

• A function ready to stand on its own, with a credible case for direct CHRO reporting.

Legora is an Equal Opportunity Employer

At Legora, we believe great teams are built on diversity of thought and experience. We’re proud to be an equal opportunity employer and committed to creating an inclusive, high-performance culture where everyone can do their best work. We welcome people of all backgrounds and don’t discriminate based on race, color, religion, national origin, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.