400+ Legal & Compliance Jobs in San Francisco, CA

Direct local BLS data says the legal occupational group in the metro paid $91.11 per hour in May 2025 and ranked among the higher-paying local occupational groups, but that official reading is lagged by about 14 months. More current proxy signals point to an attorney-heavy market: local posted salary ranges center on about $170k to $230k, Insitro advertised $170,000–$217,000 for Counsel/Senior Counsel, and Paraform advertised $200,000–$240,000 for Associate Corporate Counsel.

Full August 2026 market report

Advertised pay

Across the 364 openings that disclose pay, the advertised range midpoint runs $155,001 at the 25th percentile, $204,525 at the median and $250,000 at the 75th. These are advertised ranges, not earned pay.

Active openings as of September 25, 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 250+ openings.

Open all in AI Job Search

What our analysts see this month

Competitive market | next 3-6 months

This is still a real market for Legal, Compliance & Risk in San Francisco, but it is not an easy one. The metro unemployment rate was 4.1% in June 2026, metro nonfarm employment was up only 0.2152% year over year in July 2026, and Professional and Business Services employment was down 1.0692%, which points to a local economy that is still hiring but selectively. At the same time, California employment in legal, compliance & risk was up 3.1% year over year in August 2026 while active postings were down 10.2%, suggesting the work is still needed but fewer openings are being created. Over the last 90 days, more than 950 local postings appeared across more than 500 companies, so opportunities exist, but they are spread across a fragmented employer base rather than a few dominant buyers.

Best positioned: The best odds right now go to California-barred mid-to-senior candidates who can pair regulatory compliance, contracts, and risk management with a sector angle such as public procurement, employment law, biotech operations, or startup commercial counseling.

Main caution: The biggest mistake is assuming the headline Bay Area pay levels apply across the whole category; attorney-heavy postings cluster around about $170k to $230k, while estimated median pay is much lower for compliance officers and paralegals.

From the August 2026 market report

Who is hiring here

Counted across all 415 openings in this market. 10 of the employers below are hiring for more than one role right now.

1. Anthropic Limited: 10 open roles
2. Tyson & Mendes LLP: 9 open roles
3. Coastal Wave Recruiting: 7 open roles
4. Inflection Managing Partner, Inc.: 7 open roles
5. Wilshire Law Firm: 7 open roles
6. Ashurst Perkins Coie Group: 6 open roles
7. Axiom: 6 open roles
8. : 5 open roles
9. Loud Solutions: 5 open roles
10. Perplexity: 5 open roles

Where the openings are

• San Francisco: 292
• Oakland: 38
• Walnut Creek: 14
• San Mateo: 12
• South San Francisco: 7
• Novato: 5
• Alameda: 5
• Redwood City: 5

Work arrangement

hybrid 230 (56%), on-site 143 (35%), remote 36 (9%)

Where the demand is

Opportunity is spread across a long tail of employers rather than concentrated in one or two giants. Over the last 90 days, we observed more than 950 postings across more than 500 companies in the metro, and the hiring sample is fragmented across employers. The heaviest posting mix sits in legal services at about 40%, followed by software development at about 15%, technology at about 10%, and healthcare at about 10%. About 30% of postings come from large employers, which means brand-name targets matter, but not enough to justify a search strategy built around only a few companies. The real concentration is by specialty. Public-sector work is showing regulatory-compliance and procurement demand through the San Francisco City Attorney posting. In-house demand is visible where legal teams touch operations and product risk, as shown by Insitro in South San Francisco and Paraform in San Francisco. Law-firm demand is also active in employment and counseling-oriented risk work, with current San Francisco openings at Lewis Brisbois, McDermott, and ArentFox Schiff, plus expansion messaging from QPWB in the Bay Area.

• Law firms and workplace risk (high): Employment, labor, litigation, and counseling work is one of the clearer live lanes, with active San Francisco openings at Lewis Brisbois, McDermott, and ArentFox Schiff, plus recruiting activity from QPWB.
• In-house counsel in startup, software, and biotech (high): Software, technology, and healthcare together make up a meaningful share of local category postings, and current examples include operational counsel at Insitro and first in-house corporate counsel at Paraform.
• Public-sector regulatory and procurement work (moderate): The San Francisco City Attorney opening shows ongoing demand for attorneys who can handle federal regulatory compliance plus contracts and procurements, including construction contracts.
• Entry-level support tracks (limited): This lane exists, but it is narrower than many candidates expect because only about 10% of postings are entry level, and support-role pay is materially below attorney-track compensation.

Where to focus: Pick one vertical and one risk theme—for example employment plus investigations, biotech plus commercial contracting, or public procurement plus regulatory compliance—and apply only where both are obvious in your profile.

Roles worth searching next

• Employee Relations or HR Compliance Manager: San Francisco firms are actively hiring in labor and employment, so candidates with workplace investigations, policy, or employee-advisory experience can move toward people-risk roles.
• Procurement or Contracts Manager: Public-sector hiring is explicitly asking for contracts and procurements expertise, which overlaps well with operational contracting and vendor-risk roles.
• Privacy or AI Governance Program Manager: Bay Area legal work is increasingly touching AI workflows, data-heavy operations, and technical risk, which makes privacy and governance program roles a practical bridge.
• Public Policy or Regulatory Affairs Manager: Local demand includes federal regulatory compliance and cross-border founder legal issues, which overlaps with policy, regulatory monitoring, and stakeholder-facing advisory work.

What postings ask for

• California bar admission (table_stakes | immediate): It is the most commonly named credential in local postings, and active San Francisco attorney openings are built around licensed practice rather than train-up paths. Who: Attorneys, law graduates awaiting admission, and anyone trying to compete for counsel-track roles.
• Regulatory compliance (premium | immediate): Federal regulatory compliance appears directly in the San Francisco City Attorney posting, and regulatory compliance is among the most-requested hard skills in the local posting mix. Who: Mid-career attorneys, compliance managers, contracts professionals, and switchers from regulated industries.
• Contract negotiation and procurement (premium | immediate): Contracts and procurements show up explicitly in public-sector hiring and contract negotiation is one of the recurring hard skills across local postings. Who: Counsel candidates, contracts managers, procurement-adjacent professionals, and public-sector applicants.
• Risk management (differentiator | immediate): Risk management appears among the most-requested hard skills locally, which matters because employers are favoring candidates who can own exposure, not just draft documents. Who: Compliance professionals, in-house counsel, investigations staff, and career switchers coming from operations or program roles.
• Legal research, writing, and case management (table_stakes | immediate): Legal research, case management, legal writing, and legal drafting are core recurring requirements in local postings, especially for support and litigation-adjacent roles. Who: Entry-level applicants, paralegals, and junior legal staff.
• AI governance and legal-tech workflow automation (premium | near-term): Local legal-tech events are centering AI agents and workflows, and broader legal salary guidance flags AI governance and legal-technology integration as increasingly valuable expertise. Who: In-house counsel, legal ops, privacy/compliance professionals, and attorneys targeting tech companies.

Questions about this market

What do Legal, Compliance & Risk roles pay in San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA?

Direct local BLS data says the legal occupational group in the metro paid $91.11 per hour in May 2025 and ranked among the higher-paying local occupational groups, but that official reading is lagged by about 14 months. More current proxy signals point to an attorney-heavy market: local posted salary ranges center on about $170k to $230k, Insitro advertised $170,000–$217,000 for Counsel/Senior Counsel, and Paraform advertised $200,000–$240,000 for Associate Corporate Counsel. San Francisco remains an exceptionally high-pay market for lawyers; compiled May 2025 data put lawyers at a $212,500 median annual wage locally.

Where is demand for Legal, Compliance & Risk roles in San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA concentrated?

Opportunity is spread across a long tail of employers rather than concentrated in one or two giants. Over the last 90 days, we observed more than 950 postings across more than 500 companies in the metro, and the hiring sample is fragmented across employers. The heaviest posting mix sits in legal services at about 40%, followed by software development at about 15%, technology at about 10%, and healthcare at about 10%. About 30% of postings come from large employers, which means brand-name targets matter, but not enough to justify a search strategy built around only a few companies. The real concentration is by specialty. Public-sector work is showing regulatory-compliance and procurement demand through the San Francisco City Attorney posting. In-house demand is visible where legal teams touch operations and product risk, as shown by Insitro in South San Francisco and Paraform in San Francisco. Law-firm demand is also active in employment and counseling-oriented risk work, with current San Francisco openings at Lewis Brisbois, McDermott, and ArentFox Schiff, plus expansion messaging from QPWB in the Bay Area.

Which employers are hiring the most Legal, Compliance & Risk talent in San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA?

Recent postings show the most activity from Neura Market (20 postings), Applied Methods Ltd (20 postings), Ashurst Perkins Coie Group (15 postings), WorkWay (15 postings), Caminar, Inc. (10 postings). See the full market report for the complete employer landscape.

Can Legal, Compliance & Risk roles in San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA be done remotely?

Of recent postings, 10% are remote and 50% hybrid, with 40% 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.

Browse California openings by job title

• Software Engineer: 885 open roles statewide
• General Manager: 351 open roles statewide
• Project Manager: 319 open roles statewide
• Product Manager: 293 open roles statewide
• Program Manager: 243 open roles statewide
• Senior Software Engineer: 202 open roles statewide
• Technical Program Manager: 192 open roles statewide
• Staff Software Engineer: 141 open roles statewide
• Engineering Manager: 126 open roles statewide
• Senior Manager: 98 open roles statewide
• Senior Product Manager: 80 open roles statewide
• Associate Director: 75 open roles statewide

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 Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA

• Finance & Accounting
• Administrative & Office Support
• Engineering & Scientific
• Personal Care & Fitness
• Data, Analytics & AI
• Protective Services & Public Safety
• Marketing, Communications & Content
• Human Resources, Recruiting & People Operations

Browse all job openings | Browse jobs by title and state | Browse all job market reports