Legal Counsel

OpenHome Foundation

Job Overview

Location

Switzerland

Job Type

Full-time

Full Job Description

📋 Description

• Serve as the primary legal advisor for the Open Home Foundation, owning and building the organization’s entire legal function across intellectual property, contracts, governance, employment, and compliance.
• Manage open-source licensing, contributor agreements, and trademark protection for key projects including Home Assistant, ESPHome, and Music Assistant.
• Advise on and defend the Foundation against patent infringement claims and other legal risks, coordinating with external litigation counsel as necessary.
• Draft, review, and negotiate commercial agreements including sponsorships, partnerships, vendor contracts, NDAs, and event-related legal documents.
• Ensure compliance with Swiss foundation (Stiftung) law and fulfill statutory and regulatory obligations specific to Swiss non-profit governance.
• Provide guidance on cross-border employment matters arising from the Foundation’s globally distributed workforce.
• Engage, manage, and coordinate external legal counsel for international and complex legal issues, ensuring cost-effective and strategic representation.
• Develop standardized legal templates, policies, and internal processes to improve efficiency and consistency across legal operations.
• Maintain accurate records of legal agreements, intellectual property registrations, and governance documentation for the Foundation.
• Support the Back Office team in operational matters requiring legal input, ensuring alignment with the Foundation’s mission of privacy, choice, and sustainability in smart homes.
• Act as the legal liaison between the Foundation and its global community of contributors, partners, and sponsors.
• Stay current on evolving legal frameworks affecting open-source software, data protection (GDPR), and smart home technologies.
• Contribute to the Foundation’s strategic goals by identifying legal risks and opportunities related to open standards, open hardware, and decentralized technologies.
• Maintain professional fluency in English for all written and verbal legal communications, and apply professional proficiency in German for Swiss legal and governance contexts.
• Ensure all legal activities align with the Foundation’s non-profit status and ethical commitment to open-source principles.

🎯 Requirements

• At least 3-5 years of post-qualification legal experience, ideally combining in-house and private practice
• A Swiss legal qualification and a strong command of Swiss law
• Experience with Swiss foundation (Stiftung) law and non-profit governance
• Experience across intellectual property and commercial contract work
• Professional Fluency in English: Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English
• Professional proficiency in German for Swiss legal and governance work
• Swiss Residency: You must currently be based and eligible to work within Switzerland

🏖️ Benefits

• Five weeks (twenty-five days) of paid time off
• Fourteen days of paid sick leave if your country/laws treat them as unpaid
• Six weeks of paid and six weeks of unpaid parental leave if your country provides less than six weeks total
• A budget for work hardware upon starting, with ownership transfer after three years
• An annual smart home budget to stay current with smart home technologies
• 50% contribution to your home internet connection fee
• One day every two weeks to work on personal projects
• If currently working on Home Assistant-related side projects, you may spend work time maintaining them

Skills & Technologies

Python

JavaScript

GitHub

REST

Remote

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OpenHome Foundation

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About OpenHome Foundation

OpenHome Foundation is a non-profit organization that stewards the OpenHome open-source voice assistant and smart-home ecosystem. It provides reference hardware designs, software frameworks, privacy-respecting cloud services, and governance policies so that individuals and companies can build interoperable, local-first smart-home devices without vendor lock-in. The foundation hosts the codebase, coordinates contributions, certifies compatible products, and advocates for user privacy and open standards in connected homes.

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