Description:

Neurodegenerative diseases are one of the largest medical challenges of our time. Denali Therapeutics is a biotechnology company dedicated to developing breakthrough therapies for neurodegenerative diseases through our deep commitment to degeneration biology and principles of translational medicine. Denali is founded on the collaboration of leading scientists, industry experts, and investors who share the vision that scientific discovery energetically applied to translational medicine is the key to delivering effective therapies to patients.

We invite you to consider an opportunity with Denali to help achieve our goal of delivering meaningful therapeutics to patients.

Denali Therapeutics is seeking an experienced Corporate Counsel, Employment & Privacy to provide practical, business-oriented legal advice on employment matters and support privacy and data protection matters across the company. This role will serve as a trusted advisor to HR and business leaders on employment law, employee relations, investigations, leaves and accommodations, workforce planning, and employment compliance, while also advising on workforce privacy, clinical privacy, commercial privacy, vendor privacy, and privacy-related contracting.

The ideal candidate will bring strong employment law judgment, privacy experience, a collaborative and solutions-oriented style, and the ability to help teams make fair, consistent, and legally sound decisions.

This hybrid role is based in South San Francisco, California, with occasional travel to other Denali sites as needed.
Key Accountabilities/Core Job Responsibilities:
Employment Counseling & HR Partnership

Serve as a primary legal partner to HR, People Operations, HRBPs, and business leaders on employment law, employee relations, and workforce matters.
Advise on recruiting, hiring, onboarding, job descriptions, performance management, leaves and accommodations, workplace conduct, investigations, and offboarding.
Provide practical guidance on employee relations matters, supporting workplace investigations and related employee communications.
Provide employment support for Denali's manufacturing facility and operational teams.
Oversee employment-based immigration matters in partnership with HR and outside counsel including work authorization, visa sponsorship, I-9 compliance, employee mobility and immigration-related onboarding matters.
Draft, review, and update employment-related policies, agreements, templates, and communications, and advise on compliant employment practices across the employee lifecycle, including hiring, onboarding, contingent workforce management, remote work arrangements, worker classification, and wage and hour compliance.
Monitor employment law developments and develop and deliver training for HR, managers, and employees on employment law topics, including performance feedback, documentation, leaves and accommodations, workplace conduct, confidentiality, anti-harassment, discrimination, and retaliation.

Privacy & Data Protection Counseling

Advise on privacy and data protection matters across Denali, including workforce privacy, clinical privacy, commercial privacy, vendor privacy, and privacy considerations related to business operations.
Provide legal guidance on the collection, use,sharing, retention, transfer, and protection of personal information across workforce, clinical, commercial and vendor-related activities.
Support compliance with applicable privacy and data protection laws and standards, including U.S. state privacy laws, HIPAA-related considerations, GDPR and other international privacy requirements, clinical trial privacy requirements, health data privacy laws, marketing and communications privacy rules, and data breach notification obligations.
Advise on privacy considerations related to clinical trials, research activities, patient engagement programs, health and genomic data, data sharing arrangements, and secondary use of data.
Advise on commercial privacy matters, including healthcare professional and patient data, marketing and digital engagement activities, consent management, analytics, CRM platforms and vendor-supported programs.
Partner with IT, Information Security, Compliance, HR, Clinical, Regulatory, Medical Affairs, Commercial, Procurement, and Contracts on privacy-by-design, data governance, vendor assessments, data incidents, and privacy risk mitigation.

Disputes, Claims & Risk Management

Manage employment-related disputes, agency inquiries and administrative proceedings, and coordinate with outside counsel on litigation, privacy matters and specialized legal issues.
Support privacy-related investigations, complaints, regulatory inquiries, data subject requests, incident response, remediation, documentation, and notification analyses.
Identify and mitigate employment and privacy risks through practical guidance, scalable processes, training, documentation, and cross-functional partnership.

Qualifications/Skills:

J.D. from an accredited law school and active membership in good standing with at least one U.S. state bar (California preferred). Typically 10+ years of relevant legal experience, including 3+ years in-house.
Strong employment law background spanning employee relations, investigations, performance management, terminations, leaves and accommodations, wage and hour, workplace policies, employment agreements, and compliance. Experience advising HR teams and business leaders with practical, risk-based, business-oriented guidance.
Experience advising on privacy and data protection matters, including workforce privacy, notices, consent, data processing agreements, vendor issues, data subject rights, data transfers, privacy impact assessments, incident response, and privacy-by-design counseling.
Background in clinical, healthcare, life sciences, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, commercial, manufacturing, or other regulated environments preferred.
Excellent judgment and discretion in handling sensitive and confidential matters involving employees, patients, clinical trial participants, healthcare professionals, and business partners.
Exemplary communication skills, with the ability to deliver clear, actionable advice to cross-functional partners including HR, managers, executives, Legal, Compliance, Privacy, IT, Clinical, Commercial, and Medical Affairs.
Collaborative, proactive, and solutions-oriented, with the ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced, growing organization.