200+ Legal & Compliance Jobs in San Diego, CA

Anchored local government wage data is older: BLS last showed a $141,040 mean for San Diego legal occupations and a $186,440 mean for lawyers, both from May 2022. More recent posted-pay signals in the metro center on about $130k to $185k, with hourly roles around about $29 to $38 / hour, and a San Diego-based Dexcom legal/compliance posting advertised about $135,100 to $225,100.

Full July 2026 market report

Advertised pay

Across the 183 openings that disclose pay, the advertised range midpoint runs $107,750 at the 25th percentile, $152,500 at the median and $198,750 at the 75th. These are advertised ranges, not earned pay.

Active openings as of September 10, 2026

Senior roles | Entry level | Remote | Posted this week

Live from the Callings.ai index of over 13 million postings, refreshed hourly and re-checked here nightly. Roles that close are dropped at the next refresh.

Showing 30 of 207 openings.

Open all in AI Job Search

What our analysts see this month

Competitive market | next 3-6 months

San Diego still has meaningful legal and compliance demand, with more than 300 postings across more than 200 companies over the last 90 days, but this is not an easy-volume market. Statewide, employment in legal, compliance & risk was up 2.7% year-over-year in July 2026 while active postings were down 14.4%, which points to intact teams but tighter new requisitions. Locally, professional and business services employment rose 1.3389% year-over-year and metro unemployment was 4.4%, so the broader San Diego backdrop is not weak. The result is a market that still pays well, but rewards fit, specialization, and speed more than broad mass-applying.

Best positioned: The best odds right now are for mid-career candidates who can show real execution in litigation, contracts, privacy, compliance, or risk workflows and can speak credibly about AI-enabled legal work.

Main caution: The biggest mistake is assuming strong pay means broad access; remote roles were only about 10% of the local sample and the market skewed heavily toward mid-level hiring rather than entry openings.

From the July 2026 market report

Who is hiring here

Counted across all 207 openings in this market. 10 of the employers below are hiring for more than one role right now.

1. Tyson & Mendes LLP: 15 open roles
2. Klinedinst Pc: 8 open roles
3. San Diego Volunteer Lawyer Program, Inc.: 6 open roles
4. CA Paralegal: 5 open roles
5. Lewis Brisbois: 5 open roles
6. Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc.: 5 open roles
7. Ororun: 5 open roles
8. Axiom: 4 open roles
9. Fairfield Residential Company: 4 open roles
10. Antonyan Miranda, LLP: 3 open roles

Where the openings are

• San Diego: 192
• Encinitas: 3
• New York: 1
• Palo Alto: 1
• Toronto: 1
• National City: 1
• San Francisco: 1
• Los Angeles: 1

Work arrangement

on-site 94 (46%), hybrid 90 (44%), remote 21 (10%)

Where the demand is

Most real volume is still firm-side. In the local sample, legal services accounted for about 65% of postings and another about 20% came from legal employers, with healthcare and government & public sector each at about 5%. Among the most consistently active employers were Ashurst Perkins Coie, Intuit, Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani, Lagasse Branch Bell + Kinkead LLP, and Pettit Kohn Ingrassia & Lutz PC. Because hiring is fragmented across employers rather than dominated by one brand, candidates usually need a multi-lane search rather than a short target list. A second pocket sits in in-house and regulated-environment work. Dexcom advertised a San Diego-based legal/compliance opening with flex or home-office options at about $135,100 to $225,100, and California's 2026 privacy rules added new 30-day breach-notification timing plus DROP processing every 45 days beginning August 1, 2026. Public-sector channels also matter more than the small share suggests: the County of San Diego careers portal and the City Attorney's news page were both active in August 2026, and Peckar & Abramson opened a San Diego office in April 2026 focused on construction and government contracts work.

• Litigation and legal-services employers (high): This is the biggest pool locally, with about 65% of postings in legal services and frequent asks for legal research, case management, litigation, discovery, and depositions.
• In-house compliance, contracts, and privacy (moderate): Smaller than firm-side, but supported by active employers such as Intuit and by named corporate openings like Dexcom, plus California privacy deadlines that create ongoing workflow needs.
• Public-sector counsel and compliance (moderate): Government & public sector accounted for about 5% of the local sample, and county and municipal channels were active in August 2026.
• Construction and government-contracts law (limited): Peckar & Abramson opened a San Diego office for construction and government contracts work in April 2026, making this a niche but real local submarket.

Where to focus: Focus on the overlap between California rule complexity and business workflow: litigation-heavy firms if you already have practice experience, or in-house privacy, contracts, and compliance roles if you can show operational ownership.

Roles worth searching next

• Legal Operations Specialist: Remote and hybrid opportunities were expanding for Legal Operations Specialist roles in 2026, making this a credible bridge for candidates who are strong in process and stakeholder coordination.
• Legal Technology Specialist: Legal Technology Specialist was specifically named among the growing remote and hybrid legal-adjacent roles in 2026.
• Governance Analyst: Governance Analyst was identified as one of the expanding legal-adjacent role types, especially relevant for candidates coming from compliance or policy work.
• Regulatory Affairs Specialist: Regulatory Affairs Specialist was listed among the legal-adjacent roles seeing growing remote and hybrid opportunity in 2026.

What postings ask for

• California bar admission (premium | immediate): It was the most commonly named certification in the local sample, appearing in about 10% of postings that listed a certification. Who: Licensed attorneys, laterals, and JD candidates already near admission.
• Legal research and legal writing (table_stakes | immediate): Local postings most often asked for legal research at about 30% and legal writing at about 15%, making them core filters rather than bonus skills. Who: Entry-level candidates, paralegals, junior attorneys, and switchers trying to prove legal workflow readiness.
• Case management, discovery, and deposition workflow (differentiator | immediate): The local market still leans heavily toward litigation execution, with case management, litigation, depositions, discovery, and trial preparation all appearing among the most-requested hard skills. Who: Law-firm candidates and anyone targeting litigation-support or trial-adjacent work.
• Contract management (differentiator | near-term): Contract management was identified as a 2026 priority, and Robert Half said legal teams were dealing with higher contract volume and complexity. Who: In-house candidates, operations-minded lawyers, procurement-adjacent professionals, and career switchers from vendor or sales operations.
• Risk management and enterprise risk management (differentiator | near-term): Risk management and enterprise risk management were identified as key 2026 hiring areas for legal teams. Who: Compliance managers, governance analysts, and professionals coming from regulated business functions.
• Privacy compliance and AI governance (premium | immediate): AI governance was named as a 2026 priority, while California's 2026 privacy rules added specific operational deadlines around breach response and data-broker request handling. Who: Corporate compliance candidates, healthcare and tech applicants, and attorneys trying to move in-house.

Questions about this market

What do Legal, Compliance & Risk roles pay in San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA?

Anchored local government wage data is older: BLS last showed a $141,040 mean for San Diego legal occupations and a $186,440 mean for lawyers, both from May 2022. More recent posted-pay signals in the metro center on about $130k to $185k, with hourly roles around about $29 to $38 / hour, and a San Diego-based Dexcom legal/compliance posting advertised about $135,100 to $225,100. This is a good-paying market on paper, but San Diego's cost of living index of 147 means pay has to be judged against housing and commute costs, not against national averages alone. California new-opening salary signals for the broader category averaged about $144,514 in July 2026, above the statewide all-occupation figure of about $93,397, so specialized legal/compliance talent still commands a premium.

Where is demand for Legal, Compliance & Risk roles in San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA concentrated?

Most real volume is still firm-side. In the local sample, legal services accounted for about 65% of postings and another about 20% came from legal employers, with healthcare and government & public sector each at about 5%. Among the most consistently active employers were Ashurst Perkins Coie, Intuit, Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani, Lagasse Branch Bell + Kinkead LLP, and Pettit Kohn Ingrassia & Lutz PC. Because hiring is fragmented across employers rather than dominated by one brand, candidates usually need a multi-lane search rather than a short target list. A second pocket sits in in-house and regulated-environment work. Dexcom advertised a San Diego-based legal/compliance opening with flex or home-office options at about $135,100 to $225,100, and California's 2026 privacy rules added new 30-day breach-notification timing plus DROP processing every 45 days beginning August 1, 2026. Public-sector channels also matter more than the small share suggests: the County of San Diego careers portal and the City Attorney's news page were both active in August 2026, and Peckar & Abramson opened a San Diego office in April 2026 focused on construction and government contracts work.

Which employers are hiring the most Legal, Compliance & Risk talent in San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA?

Recent postings show the most activity from Ashurst Perkins Coie (10 postings), Intuit, Inc. (5 postings), Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani, LLP (5 postings), Lagasse Branch Bell + Kinkead LLP (5 postings), Pettit Kohn Ingrassia & Lutz PC (5 postings). See the full market report for the complete employer landscape.

Can Legal, Compliance & Risk roles in San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA be done remotely?

Of recent postings, 10% are remote and 40% hybrid, with 50% on-site. Use the Remote filter above to see only remote openings.

How current are these listings?

Openings come from the Callings.ai live index of over 13 million jobs, refreshed hourly. This page searches postings from the last 30 days; run the search yourself to filter by anything else in plain language.

Explore related openings

Legal, Compliance & Risk jobs in other metros

• Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC
• Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA
• Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI
• Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN
• Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA
• Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI
• Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD
• Kansas City, MO-KS

Other roles in San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA

• Personal Care & Fitness
• Operations, Supply Chain & Logistics
• Engineering & Scientific
• Healthcare Practitioners
• Software, IT & Cybersecurity
• Finance & Accounting
• Protective Services & Public Safety
• Transportation & Delivery

Browse all job openings | Browse all job market reports