Work Hours Monday through Friday, 40 hours a week with occasional evening, weekend hours and holidays. Hours may change based on business need.
General Description Join the Talent Division as an Assistant Director of Talent! Work involves legal work as strategic counsel and trusted advisor to the Talent Division Director, with employment law as the core area of expertise. Work involves advising the division director on strategy, priorities, and risk; providing legal advice and counsel on employment law and workforce matters; guiding the direction of Talent functions, including employee relations, recruitment, classification, compensation, professional development, learning, and operations, through legal and policy oversight; reviewing and analyzing proposed and enacted legislation and preparing bill analyses for the division and agency; formulating, coordinating, and establishing agency personnel policies and procedures; assisting in preparing and defending the agency's position in administrative proceedings; participating in the agency's strategic planning process; and coordinating efforts toward the goals and mission of the agency. Sees beyond the obvious to find creative solutions and uses Artificial Intelligence in daily work.
Minimum Qualifications - Graduation from an accredited law school with a Juris Doctor (JD) degree.
- A minimum of 7 years of legal practice, including:
- Serving as a strategic advisor to executives or division heads on employment law, workforce matters, and legal and litigation risk
- Interpreting and applying state and federal employment law to sensitive or highexposure matters, including support of claims before administrative agencies
- Providing guidance across multiple programs or functions and recommending changes to policy, process, or practice. Reviewing and analyzing legislation, preparing written bill analyses, and advising on legislative impact and implementation
- Employment litigation and issue spotting experience.
Preferred Qualifications - Experience advising or overseeing human resources function.
- Employment litigation experience.
Licenses and Certifications - Must possess an active license in good standing to practice law in the State of Texas or able to immediately activate license through Texas State Bar upon request.
Essential Job Duties: - Required travel percentage: 5%
- Employment Law Counsel:
- Provides legal advice to the division director, agency management, the General Counsel, and other personnel on employment law and related areas.
- Advises on grievances, disciplinary actions, terminations, reasonable accommodations, leave, payroll issues, and other employment matters, including the legal risks of formal discipline and informal counseling.
- Advises on sensitive, highexposure matters, including allegations of discrimination, harassment, or retaliation.
- Reviews personnel actions for compliance with state and federal law, including telework requests involving work in other states.
- Researches current cases, laws, and trends in labor and employment law, including laws of other jurisdictions where the agency maintains offices.
- Prepares and reviews legal opinions, memoranda, and other legal documents.
- Strategic Advisory to the Talent Division Director:
- Serves as strategic counsel and trusted advisor to the division director, providing analysis, options, and recommendations on division priorities, decisions, organizational direction, and risk.
- Guides the strategic direction of the Talent Division and related functions by evaluating program design, identifying legal and operational risk, and recommending changes that improve consistency, defensibility, and results.
- Participates in the agency's strategic planning process and helps establish division goals, performance measures, and priorities.
- Identifies crossfunctional issues and trends, such as turnover drivers, complaint patterns, and classification and compensation pressures, and recommends strategies to address them.
- Consults with agency management on organizational and workforce matters with legal implications, including reorganizations and change initiatives that affect employees.
- Serves as liaison for the division director with the General Counsel, executive leadership, other state agencies, and oversight bodies, and represents the director or division as needed.
- Coordinates efforts across division sections toward the goals and mission of the agency.
- Legislative Analysis and Bill Review:
- Reviews and analyzes proposed and enacted federal and state legislation affecting employment, state employees, and Talent Division programs, including bills filed during regular and special legislative sessions and interim charges.
- Prepares timely, written bill analyses that summarize the legal effect of each bill, assess operational, fiscal, and compliance impact on the agency, identify risks and ambiguities, and recommend agency positions or responses.
- Monitors bills through the legislative process, tracks amendments and committee substitutes, and alerts the division director and agency leadership to significant changes.
- Coordinates with the General Counsel, the agency's legislative affairs staff, other state agencies, and stakeholders on bill analysis, fiscal notes, and agency positions.
- Prepares testimony, resource materials, and responses to legislative inquiries, and testifies at legislative hearings as needed.
- Leads implementation of enacted legislation by updating policies, procedures, forms, and training, and by advising division staff on new requirements and effective dates.
- Provides legal and policy oversight and quality review of programs managed by division staff:
- Employee relations: reviews investigations, complaint and grievance responses, disciplinary actions, accommodations, and separations for consistency, documentation quality, and defensibility.
- Recruitment and selection: reviews practices for EEO and veterans¿ preference compliance, defensible selection methods, and the legal use of automated screening and AI tools.
- Classification, compensation, benefits, and leave: reviews actions for compliance with state classification, compensation, and leave requirements.
- Learning and succession planning: reviews required supervisory and compliance training and succession practices.
- Workforce planning, operations, and data: reviews the workforce plan required under Texas Government Code Chapter 2056 and oversees the privacy and legal aspects of Human Capital data and the release of personnel records under the Public Information Act.
- Policy, Compliance, Ethics, and Risk:
- Formulates, coordinates, and establishes agency personnel policies and procedures, reviews them and the employee handbook for legal sufficiency, and monitors compliance.
- Advises on compliance with federal and state employment law, including Title VII, the ADA, the ADEA, the FLSA, the FMLA, USERRA, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, the Equal Pay Act, Texas Labor Code Chapter 21, and Texas Government Code provisions governing state employment.
- Coordinates required compliance training, the equal employment opportunity program, and responses to discrimination charges with the General Counsel and the Office of the Attorney General.
- Supports readiness for State Auditor's Office audits and other external reviews and recommends remediation of findings.
- Assists the agency Ethics Officer or serves as backup, including guidance on fraud, waste, abuse, and outsideemployment conflicts of interest.
- Escalates material workforcerelated legal risk to executive leadership.
- Representation and Litigation Support:
- Assists in representing and defending the agency before administrative bodies such as the Texas Workforce Commission, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the U.S. Department of Labor, in written investigations, drafting positions statements, onsite investigations, and hearings.
- Assists the Office of the Attorney General by providing information and preparing materials for employmentrelated litigation.
- Prepares and reviews pleadings, briefs, rules, and related documents.
- Testifies at administrative hearings as needed.
- Other Duties:
- Performs special projects and other related duties as assigned.
Maximize Your Earnings! At the Comptroller's office, we know potential employees are looking for more than just a paycheck. The agency offers a strong benefits package for you and your family. Insurance, retirement plans, and a flexible work schedule are just the start. See our benefits offering
Please Note: An applicant must be eligible to work in the United States to be hired at the Comptroller's office and must remain eligible, without sponsorship or any assurance of financial or other assistance from this agency, during the term of their employment.
Applicants must ensure that all required supplemental questions are fully answered, complete job histories , and description of duties performed.
Applications submitted through Work in Texas: Work In Texas (WIT) applicants must complete supplemental questions to be considered for the position. To complete the supplemental questions please go to CAPPS TAM to register or login and access your profile.
Military Preference:To receive military preference, you are required to provide proof by attaching the necessary documentation to this job application.
To explore how military experience may align with this role, applicants may review Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) codes within the State's Position Classification Plan. Please refer to the Military Crosswalk and select the occupational category that most closely corresponds with the classification listed in this job posting.
Due to the high volume of applications, we do not accept telephone calls. Only candidates selected to interview will be contacted. Notifications to applicants are sent electronically to the email address you provide.
