Product Counsel (ERISA & Operations)

Join Human Interest, a growth-stage company dedicated to expanding access to retirement plans for small and mid-market employers. As a Product Counsel specializing in ERISA and Operations, you will be the in-house expert on ERISA, IRC, and fiduciary obligations related to our 401(k) recordkeeping platform. You will provide real-time legal guidance to customer-facing teams and the product team, ensuring compliance and driving product improvements. This role requires deep expertise in ERISA, strong cross-functional collaboration skills, and a business-minded approach to legal advice.

• Servir como el asesor legal principal para los equipos de atención al cliente, proporcionando orientación legal práctica y en tiempo real sobre preguntas relacionadas con ERISA, IRC y obligaciones fiduciarias.
• Actuar como el recurso de ERISA para el equipo de producto, traduciendo los requisitos de ERISA e IRC en orientación clara que los gerentes de producto y los ingenieros puedan utilizar.
• Mantenerse al día con los desarrollos legislativos, regulatorios y judiciales que afectan los planes de jubilación calificados, y asesorar a los equipos de operaciones, soporte al cliente y producto sobre los cambios que afectan la plataforma.
• You will bring legal rigor, practical judgment, and the ability to translate applicable regulatory frameworks into actionable guidance. You need to be comfortable applying your expertise in an environment where automated workflows and payroll integrations support the underlying ERISA requirements that govern recordkeeping
• Human Interest's legal team uses AI tools to work efficiently and deliver high-quality legal work. This role will not be a good fit if you are not already familiar with and using AI tools in your daily work
• Business-Minded Advisor: You have direct experience providing ERISA advice in operational and product contexts and demonstrate excellent judgment. You bring a strong sense of ownership to complex matters, including time-sensitive plan administration questions that require both technical rigor and practical resolution, and you're skilled at exercising sound judgment in nuanced situations
• AI-Fluent: You actively use modern AI tools in your legal work — for research, drafting, summarization, and analysis — and you bring thoughtful judgment about where AI accelerates the work and where human expertise remains essential. You see AI as a way to do better, faster work, not as a replacement for substantive legal judgment
• ERISA Expert: You bring deep, substantive expertise in ERISA — particularly the fiduciary duty, prohibited transaction, and qualified plan rules that govern 401(k) recordkeeping and fiduciary services. You are recognized as a technical authority on these issues, not a generalist who handles ERISA among other things. Your expertise is the foundation on which everything else in this role depends
• Cross-Functional Partner: You work collaboratively and strategically across teams, building cross-functional relationships with product managers, engineers, and operations leaders. You explain complex ERISA issues with clarity in writing and in meetings to a variety of audiences, and your written work — product guidance, decision documents, and legal analyses — holds up to regulator scrutiny
• Licensure: Admitted to the bar and in good standing, or otherwise authorized to practice law (e.g., registered in-house status) in any state
• Of those years, a minimum of two must be at a law firm practicing in this area
• Subject Matter Knowledge: Strong working knowledge of ERISA fiduciary duty and prohibited transaction rules and the IRC qualification rules applicable to 401(k) plans
• Working knowledge of ERISA fiduciary duty and prohibited transaction rules as they apply to plan administration and service provider arrangements
• Demonstrated experience with qualified plan operational compliance, including EPCRS and the correction principles that apply to qualified retirement plans
• 5–8 years of substantive ERISA experience focused on qualified retirement plans and fiduciary matters (including 401(k), 403(b), and IRA plans)
• Experience advising non-legal business teams on ERISA issues in real time, including translating technical legal conclusions into actionable guidance
• In-house experience at a recordkeeper, TPA, fintech, or trust company
• Direct experience with 3(16), 3(21), or 3(38) fiduciary operations at a recordkeeper or TPA
• Experience providing ERISA input on product, operational, or technology decisions — whether at a recordkeeper, TPA, fintech, plan sponsor, or in a law firm advising clients of that type