[Hiring] Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary @Oyster

Role Description

Oyster is looking for a business-minded, systems-oriented Senior Vice President, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary to lead our global Legal and Compliance function. You’ll be the principal legal advisor to our executive team and Board, accountable for legal strategy across our product, customer, and corporate domains. Reporting to Oyster’s CEO, you’ll lead and develop a high-performing team of 35+ lawyers and legal professionals across multiple time zones, and you’ll push legal innovation and pragmatic business solutions that allow Oyster to move fast while staying compliant and trusted.

• Strong commercial instincts: can balance growth, customer experience, and risk with pragmatic judgment.
• Operational expertise to help accelerate generation of revenue by optimizing the legal operating model, reducing friction in the sales and onboarding cycles.
• Deep comfort advising on global employment and worker classification risk; understands the EOR model and its legal/compliance dynamics.
• Excellent executive communication and stakeholder management, experience working directly with Board of Directors.
• Track record building playbooks/processes that let non-lawyers self-serve lower-risk decisions.
• Remote-first leadership: effective async communicator, strong prioritization, calm under pressure.

Additional responsibilities may include corporate diligence support, contract negotiation, developing organizational policies and procedures. In this role, you may touch all facets of law.

Key Responsibilities

• Own Oyster’s global legal strategy and risk posture, translating company strategy into clear legal priorities and decisions.
• Serve as principal legal advisor to the CEO, C-team, and Board; support governance, Board materials, and corporate secretary responsibilities.
• Lead and scale a global legal organization (35+), including hiring, org design, performance management, and leadership development.
• Partner cross-functionally with Product, Engineering, Revenue, Finance, Operations, and People to ship and scale products responsibly.
• Oversee global employment and labor law advisory in the EOR context, including escalations, claims/disputes strategy, and outside counsel management.
• Lead commercial legal strategy for enterprise deals and strategic partnerships (playbooks, negotiation frameworks, deal support models).
• Own Oyster’s ESG and BCorp thought leadership and compliance efforts.
• Own AI, data protection/privacy, and trust-related legal guidance in partnership with Security/Compliance.
• Build scalable legal infrastructure: templates, self-serve guidance, intake/triage, SLAs, knowledge management, metrics, and dashboards.
• Responsible for continuous improvement of Legal team operations, including efficiency gains and integration of AI solutions.
• Manage outside counsel and legal vendors: selection, scoping, budgets, invoice review, and performance.
• Support corporate matters as needed (entities, subsidiaries, financing/M&A support, regulator interactions).
• Advocate for EOR industry through participation in industry groups and by directing Oyster’s government affairs and regulatory agenda.
• Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• Juris Doctorate or other qualified lawyer admitted to practice in one or more jurisdictions.
• At least 5 years experience working as a GC/Deputy GC/AGC or equivalent within a corporate legal department.
• At least 10 years PQE practicing law.
• Experience building and managing distributed teams.
• Experience working in a remote work environment.
• Ability to handle complex legal issues involving various countries laws (including employment-related questions and global workforce issues).
• Capable of explaining complex legal theory, terminology, and issues in easy-to-understand language for digestion by Oyster Team Members, Staff, and Customer Companies.
• Excellent analytical, communication, and research skills.
• A positive attitude and willingness to assist others no matter how small the task.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced, high-output, team-oriented, practical environment.

Requirements

• Experience in one or more of the following areas would be beneficial:
• Advising EOR, PEO, HR tech, payroll, fintech, or regulated SaaS company.
• Advising a scaling, multi-jurisdictional organization.
• Advising a multinational organization on cross-border compliance issues.
• Acting as corporate secretary.
• Lobbying or other government affairs experience.
• Experience with privacy programs, and security/compliance or other controls frameworks.
• Experience with legal ops tooling (CLM, matter management/e-billing, knowledge systems) and AI-enabled workflows.
• A reliable home internet connection.
• Fluent English language skills – both written and spoken.

Benefits

• Work from anywhere: Oyster has no borders or HQ. As long as work is timely, your team is supported, and you're authorized to work where you live, you can work from anywhere.
• Paid time off: Enjoy 40 days off per year (including holidays and vacation), or more if required by your country.
• Mental health support: Access Plumm, our mental well-being service.
• Wellbeing allowance: Each month, receive a wellbeing allowance in your ThanksBen wallet. Spend it on a wide range of options; see the benefits catalogue for ideas.
• Flexible parental leave: All new parents are eligible for at least three months’ paid leave, with job protection for up to 12 months or as required locally.
• WFH stipend: Receive a stipend for your laptop and home office equipment to get you set up quickly.