General Counsel, Zapier
$466.5k
+ Offers Equity + Offers Bonus
Expert level
Remote from US
Workflow automation service
Be an early applicant
Workflow automation service
501-1000 employees
B2BEnterpriseInternal toolsProductivityAutomation
Be an early applicant
$466.5k
+ Offers Equity + Offers Bonus
Expert level
Remote from US
501-1000 employees
B2BEnterpriseInternal toolsProductivityAutomation
Company mission
Zapier's mission is to Make Automation Work for Everyone!
Role
Who you are
- J.D. from an accredited law school and active membership in good standing with at least one U.S. state bar
- 15+ years of legal experience, with significant time in-house at a high-growth technology company. SaaS, platform, developer tools, or AI experience strongly preferred
- You’ve been a General Counsel, Deputy GC, or VP of Legal at a scaled tech company
- You bring deep expertise across multiple areas: AI and product law, commercial transactions, data privacy, M&A, and corporate governance
- You have a track record advising on cutting-edge technology in a rapidly evolving regulatory environment. You’re comfortable making judgment calls when there’s no precedent to follow
- You’ve built and led legal teams in a fast-paced, async-heavy environment. You know how to hire well, develop people, and create a team culture that works across time zones. You own the outcomes of your team
- You’re comfortable with ambiguity and energized by building something from scratch, including new frameworks, new playbooks, and new ways of managing risk for a company that ships constantly
- You default to enabling the business, not blocking it. You find the path to “yes” and clearly explain the risks along the way. You’ve advised boards, executive teams, and cross-functional partners on strategic, high-stakes decisions, and you know how to bring people along
- You communicate with clarity and directness. You can distill complex legal issues into plain language for any audience
- You are a genuine, empathetic, humble, and mission-driven team player
- You know when to be hands-on, when to delegate, and when to call in outside experts
- At Zapier, we believe that diverse perspectives and experiences make us better, which is why we have a non-standard application process designed to promote inclusion and equity. We're looking for the best fit for each of our roles, regardless of the type of companies in your background, so we encourage you to apply even if your skills and experiences don’t exactly match the job description.
- All we ask is that you answer a few in-depth questions in our application that would typically be asked at the start of an interview process. This helps speed things up by letting us get to know you and your skillset a bit better right out of the gate. Please be sure to answer each question; the resume and CV fields are optional
- Every Zapier hire is evaluated against our AI Fluency Rubric. For General Counsel, we expect demonstrated fluency at the Adoptive level at minimum, with strong signal toward Transformative:
- Mindset: You see AI as a force multiplier for legal teams. You actively explore how AI can change the scope and speed of legal work
- Strategy: You’ve developed a point of view on how AI reshapes legal operations, risk management, and the GC role itself. You can articulate a vision for an AI-native legal function
- Building: You’ve built or overseen AI-powered legal workflows, such as contract review, triage, policy drafting, compliance monitoring. You think in systems, not sessions
- Accountability: You define what “good” looks like before deploying AI, evaluate outputs critically, catch what’s wrong before it ships, and own the outcomes. With AI, you delegate the work, but not the accountability
- We also look at not just where you are on AI fluency today, but how you got there and how fast you’re moving. Show us what you’ve tried, what you’ve abandoned, and how your approach has evolved
What the job involves
- Zapier is hiring a General Counsel to own Zapier's legal function, lead the legal team, and serve on the executive team. This is a hands-on leadership role.
- You’ll lead a small, talented legal team while setting the legal strategy that enables Zapier to move fast, enter new markets, launch AI-powered products, and deepen customer relationships, all while protecting the company and the trust of our customers
- As the leader of Zapier's legal function and a member of the executive team, you'll be responsible for leading the legal team and driving strategy, operations, and execution across the full scope of legal matters that enable Zapier to move fast while managing risk responsibly, including:
- Strategic Leadership: Participate in executive leadership decisions as a business partner, not just a legal advisor. Translate company strategy into clear legal priorities; proactively identify and manage company-wide risk
- Team Management & Operations: Lead, mentor, and scale a high-performing distributed legal team. Build AI-powered, automated legal operations, including playbooks, workflows, intake systems, and metrics. Manage outside counsel relationships, budgets, and performance to maximize value and efficiency
- AI, Product & Intellectual Property: Lead legal strategy for Zapier’s products, navigating the rapidly evolving global AI regulatory landscape (EU AI Act, U.S. state AI legislation, and emerging frameworks). Develop and maintain frameworks for risk assessment, transparency, and trust that keep Zapier ahead of regulatory requirements
- Commercial & Partnerships: Lead the commercial legal team responsible for enterprise customer agreements, strategic partnerships, vendor contracts, marketing and events agreements, and Zapier ecosystem terms. Partner closely with Sales, Partnerships, and Finance to accelerate deal velocity while managing risk effectively
- Privacy, Security & Compliance: Own Zapier’s global data privacy compliance strategy and execution, including GDPR, CCPA/CPRA, EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, and emerging privacy regimes. Oversee regulatory compliance across all jurisdictions where Zapier operates, including international data transfer frameworks and cross-border requirements for AI-driven data processing
- Global Employment: Set the strategic direction for global employment law matters, ensuring the team's policies, handbooks, and practices meet the requirements of a fully distributed workforce across 40+ countries. Provide oversight and guidance on employment-related disputes, investigations, and outside counsel across multiple jurisdictions
- Corporate Governance & M&A: Lead corporate governance matters globally and serve as corporate secretary to the Board. Manage corporate recordkeeping, subsidiary compliance, and governance best practices. Advise on capital structure, equity programs, and strategic transactions, including potential financings and M&A. Lead legal due diligence, structuring, and negotiation for M&A and strategic investments
Application process
- Deadline to Apply: 1 July 2026 at 05:00 BST
Our take
Even before remote working became the "in thing", freelancers, small business owners, and large organisations have found themselves needing more and more software platforms to serve their operational needs. As people used more software services, Zapier founders saw the need to connect the actions between these software and save everyone some time.
Zapier is the largest integration and automation tool for businesses. Since its founding, Zapier has grown its suite of automation offerings across almost every mainstream software service. The company is one of the most successful to come out of Y Combinator and has also been a pioneer of remote working.
Zapier has so far been able to capitalise heavily on its advantage as one of the first entrants and has had very little actual competition. Software services aren't going anywhere anytime soon, and organisations are only going to need more of them. This puts Zapier in a strong position for growth, but also opens up room for bolder companies to get in on the action. Companies like Airtable and Integromat are already preying on more niche segments of Zapier's market share.
Freddie
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Top investors
38% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (2 rounds)
Oct 2012
$1.3m
SEED
Sep 2012
$0.2m
SEED
Total funding: $1.5m
Company benefits
- Work from anywhere
- Bonus program
- Unlimited vacation policy
- Great healthcare + dental + vision coverage*
- Retirement plan with company match*
- Stock options for every Zapien**
- 2 annual company retreats to awesome places
- 14 weeks paid leave for new parents
- Home office setup stipend
- Professional development allowance
Additional info
- As a fully remote company with 800+ team members across 40+ states, 38 countries, and 18+ timezones, we’ve adopted a culture of asynchronous work. This work style allows teams to collaborate effectively across locations, time zones, skills, and each individual’s energy levels, and empowers employees to work in a setting that fits their needs. In practice, we live on Slack, with most conversations in public channels. It mimics the open-office feel and allows everyone to search the chat logs if they need to find something that happened when they weren’t around
Leadership
Wade Foster
(Co-Founder & CEO)Prior to co-founding Zapier, wasEmail Marketing Manager with Veterans United Home Loans, and Customer Development Lead at The Idea Works.
Bryan Helmig
(Co-Founder & CTO)Was previously Product Dev/Manager at Veterans United Home Loans.
Mike Knoop
(Co-Founder)Was CPO and Head of Labs at Zapier before becoming President. Previously was a Graduate Research at the University of Missouri.
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