Employment Counsel

Fireworks AI; San Mateo (CA); On-site; USD 190,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity in startup

Competitive salary

Comprehensive benefits

Job summary

Fireworks AI is seeking an Employment Counsel to own employment and labor matters as we scale rapidly. You will serve as the primary legal partner to People Operations, advise on hiring, terminations, equity, and policy, and help navigate multi‑state and international employment compliance.

You will build scalable policies, work with outside counsel as needed, and shape the legal foundation to support our fast‑growing workforce in the US and beyond.

Qualifications

• 9+ years of in‑house employment and labor law experience.
• JD and active US state bar membership.
• Startup hypergrowth experience.
• Strong collaboration with HR and People Operations teams.
• Familiarity with employee equity and compensation considerations.
• Experience supporting international expansion and global employment laws.
• Ability to leverage AI tools to streamline workflows.

Responsibilities

• Advise on the full range of employment and labor matters: hiring, terminations, classifications, leaves, accommodations, investigations, and policy.
• Partner closely with HR and People Operations as a trusted, day‑to‑day legal advisor.
• Counsel on employee equity and compensation considerations.
• Build scalable employment policies, templates, and processes for a rapidly growing, multi‑state workforce.
• Support international expansion and advise on cross‑border employment and global labor law compliance as we grow our footprint beyond the US.
• Manage employment‑related disputes and coordinate outside counsel where needed.
• Keep us ahead of the compliance obligations that come with fast headcount growth.

Skills

Employment law

In-house counsel

HR collaboration

Global compliance

AI tools usage

Education

Juris Doctor (JD)

Tools

Legal research

Job description

About Us

Fireworks is the platform for specialized intelligence, enabling companies to build, train, and serve AI models tailored to their own data, workflows, and products. Founded by the team behind PyTorch and backed by AMD, Atreides, Benchmark Capital, Index Ventures, Lightspeed, NVIDIA, Sequoia Capital, and TCV, Fireworks powers production AI with hundreds of state-of-the-art open models across text, image, embedding, audio, and multimodal workloads. Today, Fireworks is a Series D company valued at $17.5 billion, bringing together an ambitious, collaborative team that's building the future of enterprise AI.

Fireworks is the platform for specialized intelligence, enabling companies to build, train, and serve AI models tailored to their own data, workflows, and products. Founded by the team behind PyTorch and backed by AMD, Atreides, Benchmark Capital, Index Ventures, Lightspeed, NVIDIA, Sequoia Capital, and TCV, Fireworks powers production AI with hundreds of state-of-the‑art open models across text, image, embedding, audio, and multimodal workloads. Today, Fireworks is a Series D company valued at $17.5 billion, bringing together an ambitious, collaborative team that's building the future of enterprise AI.

About The Legal Team

We're building the infrastructure that democratizes access to intelligence. By serving state-of-the‑art models to enterprises and advancing open source, we enable organizations to truly own their own intelligence. Our legal team exists to make that mission possible, responsibly and at scale, because we believe broad access to AI is one of the most consequential things we can build for society. Our legal team is defined by high integrity, high character, and high trust. We're low‑ego, collaborative, kind, and supportive people who are genuinely excited to be part of a team. We win together or not at all.

About The Role

As Employment Counsel, you'll be a foundational member of our growing legal team, owning the employment and labor matters that come with building and scaling a fast‑growing company. You'll join at a pivotal moment as we rapidly scale our team and serve as the go‑to legal partner for our People and HR organization. This is a build‑from‑the‑ground‑up role for someone who's navigated hypergrowth before and knows how to keep a scaling workforce both well‑supported and well‑protected. This role reports to the General Counsel.

What You’ll Do

• Advise on the full range of employment and labor matters: hiring, terminations, classifications, leaves, accommodations, investigations, and policy.
• Partner closely with HR and People Operations as a trusted, day-to-day legal advisor.
• Counsel on employee equity and compensation considerations.
• Build scalable employment policies, templates, and processes suited to a rapidly growing, multi-state workforce.
• Support international expansion and advise on cross‑border employment and global labor law compliance as we grow our footprint beyond the US.
• Manage employment‑related disputes and coordinate specialist outside counsel where needed.
• Keep us ahead of the compliance obligations that come with fast headcount growth.

What We’re Looking For

• 9+ years of in‑house employment and labor law experience.
• A JD and membership in at least one US state bar.
• Prior startup experience, ideally in a hypergrowth environment.
• A track record of close collaboration and strong partnership with HR and People Operations teams.
• Familiarity with employee equity and compensation considerations.
• Experience supporting international expansion and navigating global employment laws.
• A pragmatic, build‑from‑scratch mindset and the judgment to balance risk with business velocity.
• AI‑forward, builder’s mindset, with a demonstrated ability to use AI tools to streamline daily workflows and accelerate efficiency.

Total compensation for this role also includes meaningful equity in a fast‑growing startup, along with a competitive salary and comprehensive benefits package. Base salary is determined by a range of factors including individual qualifications, experience, skills, market data, and work location.

Fireworks AI is an equal‑opportunity employer.

Why Fireworks

• Solve Hard Problems: Tackle challenges at the forefront of AI infrastructure, from low‑latency inference to scalable model serving.
• Build What’s Next: Work with bleeding‑edge technology that impacts how businesses and developers harness AI globally.
• Ownership & Impact: Join a fast‑growing, passionate team where your work directly shapes the future of AI—no bureaucracy, just results.
• Learn from the Best: Collaborate with world‑class engineers and AI researchers who thrive on curiosity and innovation.

Fireworks AI is an equal‑opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all innovators.