Employment Counsel

🚀 Join the Future of Commerce with Whatnot!

Whatnot is the largest live shopping platform in North America and Europe to buy, sell, and discover the things you love. Whether it's trading cards, fashion, electronics, or live plants, our sellers are building real businesses across hundreds of categories. We're building live commerce at a scale that's never been done in the West, and there's no playbook to copy. The people here are shaping how an entirely new industry develops.

As a remote co-located team, we're inspired by our values and anchored in hubs across the US, UK, Ireland, Poland, Germany, and Australia. We move fast, stay close to our users, and focus on the work that drives the most impact.

We're one of the fastest growing marketplaces and were recently named the #1 Best Startup Employer in America by Forbes. Check out the latest Whatnot updates on our news and engineering blogs and join us as we enable anyone to turn their passion into a business and bring people together through commerce.

💻 Role

We are looking for an exceptional Employment Counsel to join Whatnot's Legal team and lead employment legal support across Ireland, the UK, Germany, Japan, Australia, and future international markets.

You'll partner closely with our People team and business leaders, advising on the full range of employment matters that come with a fast-moving global business, including hiring, performance management, workplace investigations, restructurings, works council obligations, cross-border compliance, and expansion into new markets. This role is a great fit for someone who has advised across multiple international jurisdictions and knows how to prioritize risk, navigate ambiguity, and deliver practical, business-focused legal advice. Beyond the day-to-day, you'll help build the employment programs, policies, and compliance frameworks that enable Whatnot to grow and scale internationally.

The ideal candidate has deep expertise in Irish and UK employment law, meaningful experience across international jurisdictions, and good judgment. You're comfortable operating in ambiguity, decisive under pressure, and know how to make complex legal issues understandable and actionable.

• Act as a trusted advisor to the People team and managers on a wide range of international employment legal matters, including recruiting, compensation, performance management, restructurings, separations, internal investigations and disciplinary processes, leaves of absence, discrimination, harassment, diversity and inclusion, working time and pay compliance, restrictive covenants, reasonable accommodations, employee benefits, and works council, trade union, and collective employment obligations

• Develop, implement, and scale compliant employment programs, policies, and practices; help shape our employment legal strategy to create a culture of high performance and alignment to Whatnot’s values and People philosophy

• Draft and review employment-related documents, including employment agreements, equity and compensation documentation, settlement agreements, restrictive covenant agreements, and separation documentation

• Advise on GDPR and employment-related privacy matters, including candidate and employee data processing

• Proactively identify employment-related legal risks and develop practical, scalable solutions that enable the business to move quickly while remaining compliant

• Work with the People team on the development, implementation, and interpretation of employment policies, employee handbooks, and training programs

• Stay current on relevant labor and employment law updates, including case law and legislation, and translate legal developments into practical guidance for the People team, managers, and other stakeholders

• Supervise outside counsel on employment, immigration, and litigation matters across multiple jurisdictions

• Manage employment disputes and pre-litigation matters, including lawyer’s letters, administrative complaints, and litigation strategy in partnership with outside counsel

• Support Whatnot’s international expansion by advising on new-country hiring, entity launches, and the development of compliant employment frameworks across jurisdictions

We offer flexibility to work from home or from one of our global office hubs, and we value in-person time for planning, problem-solving, and connection. Team members in this role must live within commuting distance of our Dublin, Ireland hub.

👋 You

People who do well at Whatnot tend to be comfortable figuring things out as they go, biased toward action, and genuinely curious about what they're building. They care more about outcomes than credit and stay close to the product and the people using it.

As our first International Employment Counsel, you should have 8+ years of legal experience, plus:

• Qualified to practice law in Ireland and/or the UK, with 8+ years of experience directly advising on employment-related issues (in-house experience preferred)

• Deep expertise in Irish and UK employment law, with experience advising on employment matters across additional jurisdictions; experience supporting Germany, Japan, or Australia is a strong plus

• Experience advising on cross-border employment matters, including works councils, collective consultation obligations, investigations, global mobility, restructurings, and international HR compliance

• Experience with GDPR compliance and advising on global candidate and employee privacy matters

• Comfortable operating as the primary international employment lawyer, exercising sound judgment with limited supervision while partnering effectively with stakeholders across multiple time zones

• Experience building or scaling employment legal processes in a high-growth or multinational company is a plus

• Excellent interpersonal skills, strong judgment, strong written and oral communication, and ability to give practical, commercial advice under time pressure

• The ability to work independently in a fast-paced environment, making sound decisions and delivering practical advice in ambiguous situations

🎁 Benefits

• Generous Holiday and Time off Policy

• Health Insurance options including Medical, Dental, Vision

• Work From Home Support

  • Home office setup allowance

  • Monthly allowance for cell phone and internet

• Care benefits

  • Monthly allowance for wellness

  • Annual allowance towards Childcare

  • Lifetime benefit for family planning, such as adoption or fertility expenses

• Retirement; 401k offering for Traditional and Roth accounts in the US (employer match up to 4% of base salary) and Pension plans internationally

• Monthly allowance to dogfood the app

  • All Whatnauts are expected to develop a deep understanding of our product. We're passionate about building the best user experience, and all employees are expected to use Whatnot as both a buyer and a seller as part of their job (our dogfooding budget makes this fun and easy!).

• Parental Leave

  • 16 weeks of paid parental leave + one month gradual return to work *company leave allowances run concurrently with country leave requirements which take precedence.

💛 EOE

Whatnot is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We value diversity, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, parental status, disability status, or any other status protected by local law. We believe that our work is better and our company culture is improved when we encourage, support, and respect the different skills and experiences represented within our workforce.