Senior Counsel, Employment

Airbnb’s Legal Department is a global team that will require working with diverse international colleagues around the world. The successful candidate will be someone who is adaptable, collaborative and embodies Airbnb’s Core Values. Candidates will be required to approach complex legal issues with a balance for local and global perspectives, while being adaptable to cultural differences and nuances. A genuine and demonstrated interest in Airbnb and a commitment to ethics, integrity and fostering a workplace that emphasizes diversity and belonging is a must.

The Community You Will Join:

Airbnb is a mission-driven company dedicated to helping create a world where anyone can belong anywhere. It takes a unified team committed to our core values to achieve this goal. Airbnb's various functions embody the company's innovative spirit and our fast-moving team is committed to leading as a 21st century company. 

Airbnb’s legal team in EMEA embodies the company’s innovative, forward-thinking spirit. At the frontier of the new sharing economy, Airbnb is breaking new ground in matters of policy, law, and government relations. Where some see obstacles, we see opportunities to find creative, practical solutions. We are committed to further developing a team of talented, collaborative and self-motivated legal professionals across the globe who believe in Airbnb’s mission.

The Difference You Will Make:

Airbnb is seeking a bright, talented Senior Employment Counsel to join our growing legal team. Based in London or Dublin, you will be our second employment lawyer for EMEA, a key member of our EMEA legal team of 40 and report to our Lead Employment Counsel for EMEA, based in London.

You must have excellent judgment in balancing legal risks with business strategy and a proven ability to learn new areas of law and function independently in a demanding fast-paced environment. We’re looking for a highly adaptable and collaborative person who can handle ambiguity and rapidly shifting priorities with flexibility, patience, and poise.

 A Typical Day

• Providing effective, business-focused, day-to-day advice to a wide range of internal stakeholders, including our Talent, Employee Relations, Recruiting, Rewards, Contingent Workforce, and Mobility teams on a broad range of issues relating to employment law across the EMEA region.

• Providing advice on areas such as: immigration, investigations, grievances, disciplinary processes, recruitment, contingent workforce issues, employee misclassification, outsourcing, M&A support, gender pay gap reporting, employee exits, reorganisations, diversity and belonging initiatives, GDPR, collective issues, contractual issues, whistleblowing, operational support, executive contracts and litigation.

• Delivering clear, practical advice that enables our business partners to achieve their objectives while mitigating legal risk and keeping the interests of all stakeholders at the forefront.

• Effectively collaborating with colleagues around the world including employment counsel and functional Talent partners in the US, as well as country lawyers, litigation, tax, privacy, and comms colleagues in EMEA.

• Proactively working to draft, review and revise internal processes, policies and workflows.

• Developing and maintaining playbooks and scalable legal resources for Talent stakeholders. 

• Working closely with outside counsel where appropriate and supervising the provision of cost-effective, business-orientated legal advice.

• Keeping up-to-date on relevant laws impacting employee issues affecting Airbnb’s businesses to ensure an ongoing ability to provide excellent legal advice.

• European travel and some travel to the US is required from time to time.

Your Expertise 

• We expect the successful candidate to have had at least 6 years’ PQE with relevant employment law experience advising on employment law matters in the UK and/or Ireland  in a law firm, government agency, and/or in-house legal department. 

• Strong academic record and demonstrated record of success as a lawyer.

• Experience of advising on employment law issues across EMEA is a huge plus.

• Qualified in the UK, Ireland or another EU law jurisdiction.

• Fluency in English (written and oral) is a must. Fluency in French, German, Spanish, or Italian is a plus.

 The successful candidate should also have

• An empathetic and ethical approach, good judgment, well-honed organizational and analytical skills, strong oral and written communication skills, and a keen sense of humor (as well as of justice).

• Intellectual curiosity and open-mindedness coupled with being adaptable, comfortable with ambiguity and risk, and excited by dynamic change.

• Comfort and confidence working on sensitive issues.

• A strong ability to inspire trust, forge relationships quickly, and earn the confidence and cooperation of business stakeholders. 

• An ability to work both collaboratively and autonomously. 

• Experience working largely unsupervised and confidence to prioritize/ de-prioritize competing tasks and stakeholders in a fast-paced, challenging environment.

• A desire to progress professionally in a fast moving organisation. 

• Direct client counseling experience.

Our Commitment To Inclusion & Belonging:

Airbnb is committed to working with the broadest talent pool possible. We believe diverse ideas foster innovation and engagement, and allow us to attract creatively-led people, and to develop the best products, services and solutions. All qualified individuals are encouraged to apply.

We strive to also provide a disability inclusive application and interview process. If you are a candidate with a disability and require reasonable accommodation in order to submit an application, please contact us at: reasonableaccommodations@airbnb.com. Please include your full name, the role you’re applying for and the accommodation necessary to assist you with the recruiting process. 

We ask that you only reach out to us if you are a candidate whose disability prevents you from being able to complete our online application.