Senior Counsel, Employment

Motive empowers the people who run physical operations with tools to make their work safer, more productive, and more profitable. For the first time ever, safety, operations and finance teams can manage their drivers, vehicles, equipment, and fleet related spend in a single system. Combined with industry leading AI, the Motive platform gives you complete visibility and control, and significantly reduces manual workloads by automating and simplifying tasks.

Motive serves nearly 100,000 customers – from Fortune 500 enterprises to small businesses – across a wide range of industries, including transportation and logistics, construction, energy, field service, manufacturing, agriculture, food and beverage, retail, and the public sector.

Motive is seeking a Senior Counsel, Employment to provide practical, strategic legal guidance across the employee lifecycle for a distributed, multi-jurisdictional workforce. Reporting to the AGC, Corporate, this role will advise People, managers, business leaders, and executives on employment matters, manage legal risk, and help build scalable employment policies and processes in a fast-growing technology company.

The ideal candidate brings sound judgment, strong employment-law expertise, and the ability to translate complex legal requirements into clear, actionable guidance. This role will shape employment practices, support business growth, and contribute to broader Legal team initiatives.

What You'll Do:

• Advise People, managers, business leaders, and executives on a broad range of employment matters, including hiring, performance management, employee relations, accommodations, leaves, investigations, discipline, compensation, classification, restrictive covenants, and separations.
• Provide guidance on federal, state, provincial, local, international and other applicable employment laws and regulations.
• Draft, review, and update employment-related agreements, policies, procedures, training materials, and communications, with a comprehensive annual review and update cycle.
• Partner with People, Recruiting, and business stakeholders to develop practical, consistent, and legally compliant approaches to workforce and employee-relations matters.
• Manage and oversee employment-related claims, agency charges, audits, investigations, and litigation in partnership with internal and external counsel.
• Monitor legal and regulatory developments and recommend updates to policies, processes, training, and business practices.
• Support workforce programs, organizational changes, and other cross-functional legal projects and strategic business priorities.
• Manage outside counsel effectively and help ensure matters are handled efficiently and with appropriate risk calibration.

What We're Looking For:

• J.D. and active license to practice law in at least one U.S. state.
• 10+ years of relevant employment-law experience in a law firm and in-house legal department.
• Deep knowledge of employment law and demonstrated experience advising on employee relations, contingent workers, restrictive covenants, workplace investigations, wage and hour matters, leaves, accommodations, and employment-related disputes.
• Experience supporting a distributed or multi-jurisdictional workforce across multiple U.S. states as well as international jurisdictions, preferably in a technology or high-growth company.
• Strong business judgment and the ability to provide clear, practical, and risk-calibrated advice.
• Brings strong technical drafting skills for preparing employment-related agreements.
• Experience advising on equity incentive plans and equity matters across a distributed workforce.
• Ability to manage complex matters independently while collaborating effectively with cross-functional stakeholders and external counsel.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, close attention to detail, and the ability to prioritize competing demands in a fast-paced environment.
• A self-motivated individual with a solutions-oriented, low-ego approach and willingness to contribute beyond a narrowly defined specialty.
• AI-first perspective, with interest in building and leveraging AI-driven tools.
• Someone with a great sense of humor and no ego who shares our vision that the legal team can be both a center of excellence and fun at the same time!

Pay Transparency
Your compensation may be based on several factors, including education, work experience, and certifications. For certain roles, total compensation may include restricted stock units. Motive offers benefits including health, pharmacy, optical and dental care benefits, paid time off, sick time off, short term and long term disability coverage, life insurance as well as 401k contribution (all benefits are subject to eligibility requirements). Learn more about our benefits by visiting Motive Perks & Benefits.
The compensation range for this position will depend on where you reside. Motive uses three geographic zones to determine pay range. For this role, the compensation ranges are:

$175,000 - $241,000 USD

U.S. metropolitan areas: Los Angeles, San Diego, New York City Area, Seattle, Washington D.C.

$153,000 - $210,000 USD

Other locations in the United States

$153,000 - $210,000 USD

Creating a diverse and inclusive workplace is one of Motive's core values. We are an equal opportunity employer and welcome people of different backgrounds, experiences, abilities and perspectives.

Please review our Candidate Privacy Notice here .

The applicant must be authorized to receive and access those commodities and technologies controlled under U.S. Export Administration Regulations. It is Motive's policy to require that employees be authorized to receive access to Motive products and technology.

Regarding US-based roles, depending on your role and primary work location, Motive Technologies, Inc. (“Employer”) discloses candidates may be required to execute a non-compete covenant with the Employer. This requirement does not apply to lawyers, interns, or employees working in CA, MN, MT, ND, OK, or where otherwise prohibited by law.

Non-compete covenant terms in all other jurisdictions will be subject to the applicable statutory requirements, including but not limited to, procedures, industry related prohibitions, or salary and compensation thresholds.

All job postings are for existing vacancies. Please note; some interviews or new-hire training sessions may be held in person at one of our global offices.

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As set forth in Motive’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection. As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measure the effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categories is as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.