Assistant General Counsel, Employment and Litigation

Assistant General Counsel (Employment/Litigation)

About the Company 

The mining industry has steadily become worse at finding new ore deposits, requiring >10X more capital to make discoveries compared to 30 years ago. The easy-to-find, near-surface deposits have largely been found, and the industry has chronically under-invested in new exploration technology, relying on the manual techniques of yesteryear – even as demand accelerates for copper, lithium, and other metals to build electric vehicles, renewable energy, and data centers.

KoBold builds AI models for mineral exploration and deploys those models—alongside our novel sensors—to guide decisions on KoBold-owned-and-operated exploration programs. In the six years since founding, KoBold has become by far both the largest independent mineral exploration company and the largest exploration technology developer. Our data scientists and software engineers, who come from leading technology companies, jointly lead exploration programs with our renowned exploration geologists.

KoBold has proven its first discovery with materially less capital than the industry average and found one of the best copper deposits ever discovered: the copper is far more concentrated than the global average of copper mines, and this asset alone is expected to generate meaningful revenue for decades. KoBold has a portfolio of more than 60 other projects, each of which has the potential for another high-quality discovery.

KoBold is privately held; investors include institutional asset managers T. Rowe Price and Canada Pension Plan Investments; technology venture capitalists Andreessen Horowitz, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, BOND Capital, Durable Capital, StepStone, and Standard Investments; and natural resources companies Equinor, BHP, and Mitsubishi.

About the Role

This in-house employment and litigation attorney will play an important role in building a global AI-driven clean-tech company that invents breakthrough technology, discovers billions of dollars of minerals, and helps to stop climate change. 

Responsibilities 

The Assistant General Counsel will:

• Be an integral part of an in-house legal team in a technology and mineral exploration company growing rapidly around the world
• Provide leverage and support to the CLO and DGC so that they are more effective at advancing the company’s priorities
• Develop major parts of the company’s legal function with a particular focus on employment law, immigration, investigations, global workforce matters, employment-related compliance, and general litigation
• Advise on employment matters across multiple jurisdictions, including the U.S., Australia, Canada, the UK, Europe, Africa, and other regions where the company operates
• Draft, review, and negotiate employment agreements, consulting agreements, separation agreements, CIIAAs, offer letters, secondment arrangements, and other workforce-related documents
• Develop, maintain, and improve employee handbooks, policies, procedures, trainings, and internal guidance for a rapidly growing global company
• Advise on employment laws and practices affecting a mobile, international workforce, including hiring, terminations, discipline, accommodations, leaves of absence, wage and hour, workplace safety, anti-discrimination, anti-harassment, retaliation, remote work, and cross-border employment issues
• Partner with HR, talent acquisition, finance, tax, equity administration, and outside immigration counsel or mobility specialists on workforce mobility, immigration, visas, relocation, and international travel matters
• Support employee equity matters, including in the context of grants, option exercises, terminations, mobility, tax coordination, and public-company or IPO-readiness processes
• Support public-company readiness and public-company employment matters, including compensation governance, executive employment arrangements, employment-related disclosure, and CD&A support where applicable
• Act as primary point of contact in legal department for and manage disputes, threatened claims, litigation, arbitration, mediation, agency charges, and settlement negotiations (employee-related and otherwise)
• Represent the company in dealings with government agencies on employee matters, including labor, employment, immigration, workplace safety, benefits, and other workforce-related agencies
• Lead and advise on internal employee-related investigations, including investigations involving senior employees, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, conflicts of interest, misconduct, policy violations, and other sensitive workplace issues
• Advise on employee benefits matters in the U.S. and abroad, including 401(k), pension, leave, health, retirement, and similar benefit programs
• Advise on labor relations and union-related issues where they arise, including works councils, collective consultation, union engagement, and labor-law issues in non-U.S. jurisdictions
• Have many opportunities to be involved in other areas as the company and its legal functions grow, including intellectual property, data, AI, privacy, broader compliance, and corporate matters
• Create processes and policies to help build a high-functioning legal department and scalable global employment function 
• Provide immediate legal and business advice to internal clients who include senior executives, finance, HR, talent acquisition and tax
• Work across the company to set and meet high standards of ethics, with a focus on safety, anti-corruption, community support, environmental protection, anti-discrimination, and integrity
• Hire and supervise outside counsel across many subject areas and jurisdictions
• Work on whatever needs to be done

Qualifications

The candidate must have:

• 13-16 years of experience, with a minimum of 4 years at a top law firm as an employment and/or executive compensation and benefits associate, ideally followed by time working in-house advising business and HR clients directly, ideally including experience at a public company and at a smaller high-growth company 
• Strong desire and ability to provide leverage, support, and partnership to the CLO and DGC
• Global employment experience, preferably including Australia, Canada, the UK, Europe, and/or Africa, working with highly mobile workforce
• Substantial experience drafting, negotiating, and advising on employment agreements, separation agreements, employee handbooks and policies, CIIAAs, restrictive covenants, offer letters, and other employment-related documents
• Strong working knowledge of employment laws and practical HR counseling, including hiring, terminations, discipline, wage and hour, leaves, accommodations, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, workplace safety, remote work, and cross-border employment issues
• Experience with workforce mobility, immigration, visas, relocation, international travel, and cross-border assignments, including working with immigration counsel, mobility specialists, or similar advisors
• Public-company or IPO-readiness experience on employment matters, including employee equity; experience with executive compensation disclosure or CD&A support is a strong plus
• Litigation and investigations experience, including employee-related disputes, agency proceedings, arbitrations, mediations, threatened claims, settlement negotiations, and internal employee-related investigations
• Experience dealing with government agencies on employee matters
• Experience with employee benefits matters, including 401(k), pension, retirement, health, leave, or similar benefit programs; non-U.S. pension or benefits experience is a strong plus
• Understanding of labor unions, works councils, collective consultation, or other labor-relations issues is a strong plus
• Experience with intellectual property, data, AI, privacy, or broader compliance matters is a strong plus
• Excellent drafting and contracts skills
• Experience with working in a global company and learning many different foreign legal systems and business environments
• Interest in working in a company that requires high levels of collaboration and communication among teammates working remotely across many time zones and continents 
• Strong desire and ability to develop relationships throughout the company and beyond
• Strong organizational and communication skills
• Interest in working in a science-based company where most colleagues are scientists and science is the focus of many company meetings and documents
• Strong ability to learn new tools and solve new problems continuously
• An optimistic attitude toward work, people, and solving bespoke problems of first instance
• Strong ability to be a leader in setting a high standard of ethics
• Ability and desire to travel periodically (roughly 1x per quarter)
• J.D. from a top law school and active admission to a state bar 
• French language skills a plus

It is not necessary to have experience with mining or mineral exploration; the successful candidate will be able to learn what’s needed about the industry on the job.

This position is Full-time Exempt.

The US base salary range for this full-time exempt position is $210,000 - $265,000, plus equity and benefits including 401k matching.

Location: Remote, candidates must be located in the Eastern Time Zone of the United States or Canada. All candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States or Canada.

KoBold Metals is an equal opportunity workplace and an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunities for people of any race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, age, citizenship, disability, or veteran status.