150+ Legal & Compliance Jobs in San Jose, CA

Observed local postings center on about $174k to $252k, with a broader 25th-75th band of about $130k to $320k; hourly postings center on about $26 to $28 / hour. As a directional benchmark, mean offered salary on new openings was about $144,514 across California and about $131,220 nationally in July 2026, while BLS puts the 2025 national median for legal occupations at $174,620.

Full July 2026 market report

Advertised pay

Across the 156 openings that disclose pay, the advertised range midpoint runs $147,607 at the 25th percentile, $203,000 at the median and $266,800 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 163 openings.

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What our analysts see this month

Competitive market | next 3-6 months

San Jose is still a real market for Legal, Compliance & Risk job seekers, but it is not an easy one. The metro unemployment rate was 4.0% in June 2026 versus 5.2% statewide, and local sampling still found more than 400 postings across more than 200 companies over the last 90 days. The harder part is selectivity: California employment in this occupation was up 2.7% year over year, but active postings were down 14.4%, which usually means fewer openings per qualified applicant.

Best positioned: Your best odds right now are as a mid-career candidate who can show regulatory compliance, contract negotiation, legal research, and risk-management work for tech, law-firm, or healthcare employers.

Main caution: The biggest trap is assuming the headline pay makes this an easy market; only about 15% of local postings are entry-level, about 65% are on-site, and remote roles are a small share.

From the July 2026 market report

Who is hiring here

Counted across all 163 openings in this market. 10 of the employers below are hiring for more than one role right now.

1. TikTok Inc.: 9 open roles
2. YO AI Labs: 6 open roles
3. Amazon.com Inc.: 5 open roles
4. Ororun: 5 open roles
5. The United Firm: 5 open roles
6. Ashurst Perkins Coie Group: 4 open roles
7. Cupertino Electric, Inc.: 4 open roles
8. Cooley LLP: 3 open roles
9. Coreweave: 3 open roles
10. Meta Inc.: 3 open roles

Where the openings are

• San Jose: 54
• Palo Alto: 31
• Mountain View: 19
• Pleasanton: 9
• Sunnyvale: 9
• Menlo Park: 8
• Santa Clara: 7
• Fremont: 5

Work arrangement

on-site 99 (61%), hybrid 39 (24%), remote 23 (14%)

Where the demand is

The opportunity is spread across several employer types rather than one obvious hiring wave. Over the last 90 days, local sampling found more than 400 postings across more than 200 companies, and employer concentration in the sample was fragmented. The most active industries were legal services at about 25%, legal at about 20%, software development at about 15%, healthcare at about 10%, and computer hardware development at about 10%. That creates two main routes: traditional legal-services hiring and in-house tech/regulatory hiring. Named active employers included Tesla, Ashurst Perkins Coie, TikTok Inc., Apple, Inc., Intuit, Inc., Adobe Inc., YO IT Consulting, and Cooley LLP. There is also some regional spillover into governance-and-compliance hiring from Bay Area AI and fintech employers such as Runway, OKX, Reflection AI, Check Technologies, and Mercury, plus a fresh Santa Clara opening for a TPRM Sr. Compliance Analyst. A smaller but real niche sits in public-sector, civic-tech, and contractor-facing work. Local privacy scrutiny around San Jose's automated license plate reader lawsuit and regional transportation conformity work both point to ongoing need for privacy, regulatory, and governance expertise tied to public agencies and contractors.

• Law firms and legal services (high): This is the steadiest local base, supported by legal services and legal employers making up about 45% of the posting mix combined, with demand clustering around legal research, legal writing, case management, and contract work.
• In-house tech, platform, and product compliance (high): Software and hardware employers account for a meaningful share of demand, and the strongest profiles combine regulatory compliance, contract negotiation, risk management, and corporate governance with an ability to work on-site or hybrid.
• Healthcare, public-sector, and contractor-facing regulatory work (moderate): Healthcare represents about 10% of the local mix, and nearby regulatory and privacy issues create additional openings for candidates who can handle policy interpretation, documentation, and stakeholder risk.

Where to focus: Prioritize in-house tech and law-firm roles where you can pair legal fundamentals with contract, governance, privacy, or third-party-risk execution.

Roles worth searching next

• Legal operations specialist: Local demand for contract negotiation, legal research, legal writing, and case management maps well to workflow-heavy legal operations work.
• Vendor risk or third-party risk analyst: A fresh Santa Clara TPRM Sr. Compliance Analyst opening shows active local demand for third-party risk work that overlaps with compliance controls and governance.
• Privacy or security governance analyst: Local privacy scrutiny around San Jose's automated camera litigation and the appearance of CISSP in the sample both support a path into governance work tied to data, surveillance, and security controls.
• Public policy or regulatory affairs coordinator: Regional transportation conformity work and other local regulatory-management demands create adjacent opportunities for candidates who can interpret rules, coordinate stakeholders, and document compliance positions.

What postings ask for

• Regulatory compliance (table_stakes | immediate): It is one of the most-requested hard skills in the local market, appearing in about 15% of sampled postings. Who: Everyone in this category, especially candidates targeting in-house or healthcare roles.
• Contract negotiation and contract management (premium | immediate): Contract negotiation appears in about 15% of local postings, and Robert Half says growing contract volume and complexity are supporting stronger compensation for contract-management work. Who: Mid-career lawyers, contracts managers, legal operations staff, and compliance professionals moving into in-house teams.
• Legal research and legal writing (table_stakes | immediate): Legal research shows up in about 15% of local postings and legal writing in about 10%, making them core screening skills rather than nice-to-haves. Who: Entry-level candidates, paralegals, junior attorneys, and switchers trying to prove technical readiness.
• Risk management and corporate governance (differentiator | near-term): Both risk management and corporate governance appear in about 10% of local postings, and a fresh Santa Clara TPRM Sr. Compliance Analyst opening reinforces live demand for structured risk work. Who: Mid-career compliance professionals, former consultants, and finance-adjacent operators moving into governance roles.
• Case management (differentiator | near-term): Case management appears in about 10% of local postings and is a practical bridge skill for paralegal, litigation support, investigations, and legal operations work. Who: Entry-level applicants and career switchers who need a concrete operational hook.
• CISSP (differentiator | long-term): It is the certification that shows up most often in the local sample, even though it appears in less than 5% of postings, which makes it niche but useful for privacy, security-governance, and tech-risk work. Who: Candidates targeting security, privacy, platform governance, or cyber-compliance adjacency.

Questions about this market

What do Legal, Compliance & Risk roles pay in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA?

Observed local postings center on about $174k to $252k, with a broader 25th-75th band of about $130k to $320k; hourly postings center on about $26 to $28 / hour. As a directional benchmark, mean offered salary on new openings was about $144,514 across California and about $131,220 nationally in July 2026, while BLS puts the 2025 national median for legal occupations at $174,620. San Jose pays well, but that headline is pulled up by counsel, senior compliance, and in-house tech roles rather than by the whole category. A recent Sunnyvale Finance Risk & Compliance Manager posting listed $112,000-$183,000, which is solid local evidence of strong pay for senior compliance work but still below the center of the broader local posting mix.

Where is demand for Legal, Compliance & Risk roles in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA concentrated?

The opportunity is spread across several employer types rather than one obvious hiring wave. Over the last 90 days, local sampling found more than 400 postings across more than 200 companies, and employer concentration in the sample was fragmented. The most active industries were legal services at about 25%, legal at about 20%, software development at about 15%, healthcare at about 10%, and computer hardware development at about 10%. That creates two main routes: traditional legal-services hiring and in-house tech/regulatory hiring. Named active employers included Tesla, Ashurst Perkins Coie, TikTok Inc., Apple, Inc., Intuit, Inc., Adobe Inc., YO IT Consulting, and Cooley LLP. There is also some regional spillover into governance-and-compliance hiring from Bay Area AI and fintech employers such as Runway, OKX, Reflection AI, Check Technologies, and Mercury, plus a fresh Santa Clara opening for a TPRM Sr. Compliance Analyst. A smaller but real niche sits in public-sector, civic-tech, and contractor-facing work. Local privacy scrutiny around San Jose's automated license plate reader lawsuit and regional transportation conformity work both point to ongoing need for privacy, regulatory, and governance expertise tied to public agencies and contractors.

Which employers are hiring the most Legal, Compliance & Risk talent in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA?

Recent postings show the most activity from Tesla (15 postings), Ashurst Perkins Coie (15 postings), TikTok Inc. (15 postings), Apple, Inc. (10 postings), Intuit, Inc. (10 postings). See the full market report for the complete employer landscape.

Can Legal, Compliance & Risk roles in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA be done remotely?

Of recent postings, 5% are remote and 30% hybrid, with 65% 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.

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