Lead Legal Counsel, Employment (EMEA)

Overview

In this role you will provide senior employment-law guidance to GitLab’s global, all-remote organization. You’ll partner with People teams and business leaders to manage the full employment lifecycle, mitigate risk, and align legal advice with business goals. You’ll lead complex matters across multiple jurisdictions and help scale employment-law processes and playbooks. This positions you to shape how GitLab handles workforce relations and compliance while working in a collaborative, remote-first environment.

Pay / Benefits

• Flexible Paid Time Off
• Team Member Resource Groups
• Equity Compensation & Employee Stock Purchase Plan
• Growth and Development Fund
• Parental leave
• Home office support

Responsibilities

• Provide senior employment-law guidance across the employee lifecycle to stakeholders worldwide
• Advise on recruiting, onboarding, compensation, performance management, leave, relationships, changes, and separations
• Counsel on sensitive team-member relations, investigations, and dispute resolution
• Draft, review, and maintain employment agreements, policies, and templates across multiple jurisdictions
• Oversee outside counsel and coordinate local counsel when needed
• Monitor employment and privacy laws (including GDPR) and translate changes into practical guidance
• Support employment litigation, appeals tribunals, and agency investigations
• Lead development and continuous improvement of scalable employment-law processes and playbooks
• Mentor junior colleagues and share knowledge across Legal and People teams
• Collaborate effectively in a remote, asynchronous environment using GitLab

Key requirements

• Experience advising a multinational company with works councils across regions
• Juris Doctor (JD), Bachelor of Laws (LLB), or local equivalent with admission in an EMEA jurisdiction
• Deep knowledge of EMEA employment compliance and when to involve local counsel
• Experience counseling on complex team-member relations, investigations, and compensation matters
• Experience drafting and negotiating employment-related documents across multiple jurisdictions
• Experience managing disputes, litigation, and outside-counsel matters
• Ability to build scalable legal processes and templates for consistent outcomes
• Strong judgment, risk assessment, and problem-solving skills
• Excellent communication and relationship-building with senior stakeholders
• Comfort working remotely across time zones and cultures

• strong advisory presence
• cross-functional collaboration
• practical and creative problem-solving
• GDPR familiarity
• employment-law compliance across EMEA
• drafting and negotiating employment agreements and policies

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