Labor Counsel

Surge AI; Oregon; Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Surge AI is seeking a Labor Counsel to own labor and employment law for a fast-growing company with a large workforce of employees and contractors. You’ll work with the General Counsel and HR to advise on compliance, policies, and claims as the company scales.

You’ll design and review engagement with our people, build and update policies, manage disputes with outside counsel, and help embed legal requirements in HR systems and communications.

Qualifications

• 5-10 years of labor and employment law experience.
• Broad background across regulatory, compliance and litigation.
• Experience with worker classification.
• HRIS systems experience preferred.
• Collaborative issue spotting with practical communication.

Responsibilities

• Advise on worker classification for employees and contractors.
• Provide guidance on wage/hour, leave, termination across jurisdictions.
• Develop and update HR policies, procedures, and compliance practices.
• Manage claims, demand letters, agency charges, and disputes with outside counsel.
• Review employee communications and onboarding/offboarding forms.
• Partner with HR on HR systems to embed legal requirements.
• Investigate employee relations issues with HR.
• Explain legal rules to HR and managers in plain language.

Skills

Labor law

Regulatory compliance

Worker classification

HRIS experience

Policy development

Communication

Litigation

Collaboration

Job description

About Us

Our mission is to raise AGI with the richness of human intelligence - curious, witty, imaginative, and full of unexpected brilliance.Surge was founded by engineers and researchers who dreamed of building the next generation of AI. Our platform powers the most capable models in the world, in partnership with the AI models you use every day.At Surge, we believe the path to AGI isn’t just about scaling compute - it’s about embracing the unlimited ceiling of human intelligence and creativity in the data that shapes these systems. Our platform combines elite human expertise with cutting-edge tools for scalable oversight, from building rich RL environments to conducting rigorous evaluations that go beyond benchmarks. We’ve run a profitable business from day one without raising venture funding.

The Role

As Labor Counsel at Surge, you’ll own labor and employment law for a fast-growing company with a large workforce of employees and independent contractors. You’ll work with our General Counsel and sit close to HR, advising on compliance, policies, and claims as the company and its people function scale. This is a new role for Surge.

What You’ll Do

• Advise on worker classification for employees and contractors, and help us design and review how we engage with our people.
• Advise on wage and hour, leave, termination, and other employment compliance questions across the jurisdictions in which we operate.
• Work with HR and the teams that manage our expert workforce to build and update policies, procedures, and compliance practices.
• Manage claims, demand letters, agency charges, and disputes, and work with outside counsel on litigation.
• Review and update employee communications and the forms we use for onboarding and offboarding.
• Work with HR on HR systems and data, so legal requirements are built into the tools our teams use.
• Investigate and advise on employee relations issues alongside HR.
• Help HR and managers understand the legal reasons behind the rules in plain language.

What We’re Looking for

• 5-10 years of experience in labor and employment law, at a law firm or in-house.
• A broad background across both regulatory and compliance work and litigation.
• Real experience with worker classification.
• Experience on the plaintiff side is welcome, but not required.
• Experience with HRIS systems is preferred.
• A collaborative issue spotter. You flag problems early, look for a workable path with the business, and are comfortable pushing back when you disagree.
• Clear, practical communication with HR, managers, and non-lawyers.
• Comfortable building policies and processes where none exist yet.
• Interest in how AI companies work with large, distributed workforces.