Product Counsel - HR Apps/Employment Law

At Gusto, we're on a mission to grow the small business economy.

We handle the hard stuff , payroll, health insurance, 401(k)s, and HR , so owners can focus on their craft and their customers.

We are seeking a detail-oriented and proactive attorney who wants to apply their employment law and product counseling expertise to help build compliant, scalable HR products for small businesses.

Responsibilities

• Provide tactical legal support to HR Apps product, engineering, and operations teams for a broad portfolio of HR products, including handbooks, labor law posters, hiring, onboarding, leaves of absence, I-9, regulatory reporting, background checks, learning management, performance, and offboarding.
• Review product requirements and identify compliance and regulatory risks early in the development process, during product iteration, and throughout the product lifecycle.
• Identify, prioritize, and develop HR Apps-related compliance artifacts to seed Gusto's compliance rules engine and maintain the Legal “Single Source of Truth” compliance hub.
• Build processes, resources, and tooling,including AI-driven workflows, self-help checklists, playbooks, and structured frameworks for R&D requests,that drive efficiency, standardize review workflows, and reduce risk across the product development lifecycle.
• Research regulatory areas impacting HR Apps offerings; proactively monitor regulatory developments and legislative changes to assess product impact and identify needed updates.
• Help resolve day-to-day customer escalations and operational legal questions related to HR Apps products.
• Support vendor review and onboarding, partner integrations, and GTM communications, terms drafting, and revision.

Requirements

• 5+ years of legal experience, ideally including in-house experience at a technology company.
• Experience must include a deep understanding of employment law and litigation.
• Product counseling experience is strongly preferred,but candidates who bring a builder's mindset and a demonstrated ability to quickly develop expertise in new legal domains are encouraged to apply even without direct product counseling experience.
• Deep experience providing pragmatic legal guidance on employment obligations and building durable compliance resources.
• Experience using AI tools to deliver efficiency in your individual work and as essential components in the processes you develop and improve.
• Demonstrated ability to build consensus and strong working relationships.
• A collaborative, solution-oriented mindset with a focus on progress and teamwork.
• An eagerness to dive in, take ownership of projects, and manage work with accountability, while ensuring appropriate visibility and smooth escalation to senior counsel or other decision-makers.
• JD degree and membership in a State bar with a current license to practice law.

Salary

• $143,405/yr to $176,000/yr in Denver & most major metro locations
• $168,000/yr to $207,000/yr for San Francisco & New York