Corporate Counsel, EMEA Employment
Blue Yonder · London
Overview
Blue Yonder is seeking a motivated and business-oriented employment attorney to join our Legal Department as Corporate Counsel, EMEA Labour & Employment. This position will serve as a trusted legal advisor and strategic partner to Associate Success (Human Resources), business leaders, and other stakeholders across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East (EMEA).
The successful candidate will provide practical, solutions-oriented legal guidance on a broad range of employment matters affecting Blue Yonder's EMEA workforce. The role requires a strong foundation in employment law, sound judgement, exceptional attention to detail, and the ability to balance legal compliance with business objectives in a fast-paced, global technology company.
The ideal candidate will have experience advising on employment law matters in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Poland. This role will also serve as the Legal Department lead for employment matters affecting additional jurisdictions with the support of outside counsel, including Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Sweden, South Africa, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, and other countries within the EMEA region as needed.
This position may be remote from the United Kingdom, France, or Germany, or hybrid based out of our offices in London, United Kingdom; Paris, France; or Karlsruhe, Germany. This position reports to the VP & Deputy General Counsel, Employment & Litigation and will work closely with stakeholders in business leadership, Associate Success, Associate Relations, Finance, Security, and other members of the Legal Department.
What You’ll Do
- Serve as a primary Legal Department contact for employment law matters throughout the EMEA region.
- Provide day-to-day advice and counselling to Associate Success and business leaders on employment-related legal risks and compliance obligations.
- Draft, review, negotiate, and advise regarding employment agreements, offer letters, retention agreements, compensation arrangements, restrictive covenant agreements, separation agreements, and employment-related amendments.
- Advise on employee discipline, performance management, workplace investigations, grievances, employee complaints, accommodations, and related employee relations matters.
- Support workforce restructuring initiatives, including reductions in force, individual and collective redundancies, reorganisations, and other employment-related business transformations.
- Counsel stakeholders regarding employee terminations, notice requirements, severance programs, settlement agreements, releases, and litigation risk mitigation.
- Advise on employee leaves of absence, sick leave issues, disability-related matters, statutory leave requirements, and return-to-work obligations.
- Provide legal support on compensation and benefits matters, including pay equity and transparency regulations and implementation, incentive plans, bonus programs, sales commission arrangements, equity programs, pension-related issues, corporate car programs, and wage-and-hour compliance.
- Advise on labour and industrial relations matters, including works council and Comité Social et Économique (CSE) consultations and issues related to employee representative bodies, trade unions, and collective bargaining where applicable.
- Partner with our Privacy team to advise on employee data processing, cross-border data transfers, employee monitoring, employee data subject access requests, and other employment-related privacy matters.
- Advise on worker classification and workforce management matters, including employee and contingent worker engagement models, independent contractor compliance, co-employment risks, labour leasing arrangements, and other classification-related legal and regulatory requirements.
- Manage employment claims, labour disputes, administrative proceedings, arbitrations, and litigation in partnership with outside counsel.
- Coordinate with outside counsel across EMEA jurisdictions to obtain local-law advice and ensure timely, consistent, and practical legal guidance.
- Develop and deliver employment law training for Associate Success professionals, managers, and other stakeholders.
- Monitor employment law developments across EMEA and provide proactive guidance regarding emerging legal and regulatory requirements.
- Support mergers, acquisitions, integrations, and other strategic transactions from an employment law perspective, including due diligence, post-transaction integration planning and execution, and TUPE-related matters.
- Partner with Privacy, Ethics & Compliance, Security, Finance, and other functions on cross-functional legal issues affecting employees.
- Occasional domestic and international travel may be required.
What We Are Looking For
- Qualified lawyer admitted to practice in the United Kingdom, France, or Germany.
- 5+ years of employment law experience at an international law firm, in-house legal department of a multinational company, or a combination thereof.
- Experience advising employers on a broad range of employment law matters across multiple European jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Poland.
- Working knowledge of data privacy and data protection laws as they relate to the employment relationship, including the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the UK GDPR, the UK Data Protection Act 2018.
- Experience providing practical legal advice directly to Associate Success professionals and business leaders.
- Strong drafting, negotiation, analytical, and problem-solving skills.
- Ability to independently manage multiple matters simultaneously and prioritise competing demands.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English.
- Ability to operate effectively in a global, matrix organisation and collaborate across functions and geographies.
- Preferred Qualifications:
- Written and verbal fluency in French or German.
- Experience advising multinational technology, SaaS, cloud, software, professional services, or enterprise technology companies.
- Familiarity with employment law matters in one or more of the following jurisdictions: Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Sweden, South Africa, UAE, and Saudi Arabia.
- Direct experience supporting German works council and/or French CSE relations.
- Experience advising on cross-border employment transfers within EMEA.
- Experience managing employment litigation, labour disputes, and administrative proceedings
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Our Values
If you want to know the heart of a company, take a look at their values. Ours unite us. They are what drive our success – and the success of our customers. Does your heart beat like ours? Find out here: Core Values
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status.