Lead Employment Counsel - Camunda

Camunda is the enterprise platform for agentic orchestration, enabling organizations to coordinate AI agents, people, and systems across complex, end-to-end business processes. Trusted by over 700 organizations worldwide, we are transforming into an AI-first organisation, built on our own platform.

We are looking for a Senior Employment Counsel to be the first line of legal support for our People team. This person will advise directly on employment matters, manage our key legal and HR vendor relationships, and reduce our reliance on outside counsel in a hands-on, embedded role.

What you'll be doing

• Serve as the first line of support for employment legal questions, resolving most matters directly rather than routing them to outside counsel.
• Partner with each People Business Partner to advise on employee relations, performance management, terminations, leaves, and accommodations. Manage severe employee relations cases directly.
• Own the Remote.com relationship, including contract terms, service levels, escalations, and ongoing performance.
• Own the external legal counsel relationship, including a clear evaluation of scope, spend, and who we engage with.
• Partner with Legal and Finance on cross-functional projects involving employment law, compliance, or spend.
• Ensure compliance with employment law across every jurisdiction where Camunda operates, with particular depth in the DACH region. Find opportunities to reduce risk or balance risk with business value.
• Identify and adopt AI tools that make legal support to the People team faster and more effective.
• Track and reduce external counsel spend against a clear baseline.

What you bring

• J.D. or equivalent law degree, with active bar admission in at least one jurisdiction.
• 8+ years of employment law experience, including significant in-house experience at a global, multi-jurisdiction company.
• Deep, current knowledge of DACH employment law (works councils, termination protections, co-determination), plus broad experience across other global jurisdictions.
• Experience managing outside counsel and HR vendor relationships, including EOR platforms such as Remote or similar.
• A track record of advising HR and People teams directly, and translating legal risk into practical, business-pragmatic guidance.
• Strong judgment and comfort making autonomous calls without escalating every matter to outside counsel.
• Experience using AI tools to improve legal or compliance workflows.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, with the ability to build trust across People, Legal, and Finance.

What We Have to Offer

• Compensation: Competitive and transparent salary ranges with annual total target cash structures.
• Equity: Participation in our Virtual Stock Option Plan (VSOP).
• Remote & Flexible: Work from anywhere with a home office budget, co-working space support, and flexible time off.
• In-Person Connection: Annual kickoff events, team offsites, and local gathering budgets.
• Health & Wellbeing: Locally tailored healthcare, Modern Health for mental wellbeing, and our Live Well Lifestyle Spending Account.
• Financial Security: Retirement and pension plans, plus life and disability insurance.
• Professional Growth: Up to $/€/£1,000 per year for self-driven learning and certifications.