Senior Counsel, Employment Law

Mastercard is hiring a Senior Counsel, Employment Law in New York, United States. Level rates it ; you can apply on Mastercard.

Level's read on this job

Level rates this role Little AI ●○○○: aI is not part of the work.
Tools and skills the posting cites include employment law, legal counsel and compliance.
Level classifies it as a senior role.
Level lists 1,100+ other open roles at Mastercard.
The role was posted within the past two weeks.

AI in this role

Provide strategic U.S. and global employment law support and counsel for Mastercard's workforce and business integrations.

employment-lawlegal-counselcompliancelabor-relations

Our Purpose

Mastercard powers economies and empowers people in 200+ countries and territories worldwide. Together with our customers, we’re helping build a sustainable economy where everyone can prosper. We support a wide range of digital payments choices, making transactions secure, simple, smart and accessible. Our technology and innovation, partnerships and networks combine to deliver a unique set of products and services that help people, businesses and governments realize their greatest potential.

Title and Summary

Senior Counsel, Employment Law

Overview

As Senior Counsel, Employment Law for Mastercard, you will be part of a dynamic and fast-moving culture that has decency at its core and is highly motivated to connect and power an inclusive digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere by making transactions safe, simple, smart, and accessible. You will join an experienced and collaborative legal team that provides best-in-class, strategic employment law support on a wide range of issues for our U.S. and global businesses that are fueled by 40,000 employees who sit in more than 200 countries. Your solid U.S. employment law knowledge, strong counseling experience, willingness to dive into new and emerging issues, and ability to effectively collaborate with your U.S. and Region Counsel colleagues will be key.

This challenging role, where you will learn new things every day, is based in Purchase, NY and offers a hybrid (3 days/week on average in-office) work location arrangement. The position reports into the Global Employment Law group in Mastercard’s Law Department and provides direct support to Mastercard’s People & Capability (P&C) team.

Role
• Serve as a trusted U.S. employment law expert with a global mindset who provides sound, timely, compliant, and practical legal advice that is tailored for Mastercard.
• Provide US employment law support for the integration of Recorded Future, a recent cybersecurity acquisition with a global footprint, and coordinate with Region Counsel in connection with the integration.
• Ability to offer thoughtful legal advice and counsel on individual employee matters and cross-functional, company-wide programs, projects, and initiatives.
• Counsel on an array of people matters such as: recruiting and hiring, talent acquisition and development; EEO matters; community and belonging; reasonable accommodations; leave management; contingent workforce; global mobility/ immigration; performance/discipline management; wage-hour; benefits and compensation; terminations/job restructurings/reductions in force; separation negotiations and agreements; restrictive covenants; and compliance, including reporting obligations.
• Defend the company and provide strategic direction on attorney demand letters, internal legal investigations, agency charges/complaints, litigation, regulatory inquiries and proceedings; partner closely with and manage outside counsel.
• Negotiate and draft complex employment contracts, offers of employment, agreements, and other employment documents.
• Ability to actively advise on (or willingness to learn about) the U.S. employment and benefits aspects of corporate M&A transactions such as acquisitions, divestitures, and joint ventures through the due diligence, contract negotiations/signing, deal closing, and integration phases.
• Advise on P&C policies and procedures for alignment with local law and company philosophies and objectives.
• Monitor relevant employment law and regulatory developments in order to help P&C develop responsive strategies for the Company’s compliance obligations.
• Support and advance the Global Employment Law team’s ability to scale and efficiently deliver high-quality legal advice, learnings, and solutions for U.S. and global audiences through user-friendly tools, templates, and other resources.
• Assist P&C with developing employee training.
• Benefits and compensation and government contractor experience are a plus.

All About You
• J.D. from accredited law school; member in good standing of the New York Bar. Member in good standing of the Massachusetts Bar would be a plus.
• Solid employment law experience. Corporate in-house experience and some global exposure preferred, particularly in the context of integrating a global business.
• Flexible, proactive, team-oriented player who will identify, take on, and champion new and unfamiliar subject matters with an eye toward making lasting positive impact.
• Strong ability to view and analyze issues through a multi-dimensional lens, think proactively and strategically with a solution-oriented mindset, and prioritize what things get done and how.
• Ability to effectively partner with a variety of internal P&C and other stakeholders at multiple levels and across a highly-matrixed global organization.
• Must be able to distinguish and articulate the risks and rewards and help the business move forward and resolve matters thoughtfully, expeditiously, and efficiently.
• Has to be able and motivated to independently handle employment law matters and understand which issues warrant collaboration and escalation.
• Ability to simultaneously manage a heavy workload, pivot to address change, and execute with excellence in a fast-paced team environment.
• Excellent legal and business judgment; top notch analytical, problem-solving and end-to-end execution abilities; highly organized; strong verbal and written communication skills.

Mastercard is a merit-based, inclusive, equal opportunity employer that considers applicants without regard to gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, disabled or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We hire the most qualified candidate for the role. In the US or Canada, if you require accommodations or assistance to complete the online application process or during the recruitment process, please contact reasonable_accommodation@mastercard.com and identify the type of accommodation or assistance you are requesting. Do not include any medical or health information in this email. The Reasonable Accommodations team will respond to your email promptly.

Corporate Security Responsibility

All activities involving access to Mastercard assets, information, and networks comes with an inherent risk to the organization and, therefore, it is expected that every person working for, or on behalf of, Mastercard is responsible for information security and must:

Abide by Mastercard’s security policies and practices;
Ensure the confidentiality and integrity of the information being accessed;
Report any suspected information security violation or breach, and
Complete all periodic mandatory security trainings in accordance with Mastercard’s guidelines.

In line with Mastercard’s total compensation philosophy and assuming that the job will be performed in the US, the successful candidate will be offered a competitive base salary and may be eligible for an annual bonus or commissions depending on the role. The base salary offered may vary depending on multiple factors, including but not limited to location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Mastercard benefits for full time (and certain part time) employees generally include: insurance (including medical, prescription drug, dental, vision, disability, life insurance); flexible spending account and health savings account; paid leaves (including 16 weeks of new parent leave and up to 20 days of bereavement leave); 80 hours of Paid Sick and Safe Time, 25 days of vacation time and 5 personal days, pro-rated based on date of hire; 10 annual paid U.S. observed holidays; 401k with a best-in-class company match; deferred compensation for eligible roles; fitness reimbursement or on-site fitness facilities; eligibility for tuition reimbursement; and many more. Mastercard benefits for interns generally include: 56 hours of Paid Sick and Safe Time; jury duty leave; and on-site fitness facilities in some locations. THIS POSTING RELECTS ONE OR MORE CURRENT VACANCIES ON OUR TEAM, AND MASTERCARD INTENDS TO FILL THIS POSITION BY 01/11/2027. If the fill date has passed, Mastercard intends to fill this position as soon as possible.

Pay Ranges

Purchase, New York: $204,000 - $325,000 USD

How we rate this

Senior Counsel, Employment Law at Mastercard rates 0 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Little AI (AI Level 1 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Little AI. AI is not part of the work.

●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
●○○○ Little AI0 to 39

Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.

Key facts

Senior Counsel, Employment Law is an open job at Mastercard.
Level rates this role AI Level 1 of 4: Little AI.
The role is based in Purchase, New York.
The job was posted on October 13, 2026.
Seniority: senior.
Applications are handled by Mastercard. Apply on Mastercard

Prepare for this job

Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.

Skills and AI tools this role asks for

Employment LawLegal CounselComplianceLabor Relations

Questions you could be asked

Tell me about a project where employment law was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where legal counsel was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where compliance was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where labor relations was part of your work. What did you do?

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: Employment Law, Legal Counsel, Compliance, and Labor Relations. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.

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