Senior Counsel - Litigation & Product

About Torc

At Torc, we have always believed that autonomous vehicle technology will transform how we travel, move freight, and do business. A leader in autonomous driving since 2007, Torc has spent over a decade commercializing our solutions with experienced partners. Now a part of the Daimler family, we are focused solely on developing software for automated trucks to transform how the world moves freight. Join us and catapult your career with the company that helped pioneer autonomous technology, and the first AV software company with the vision to partner directly with a truck manufacturer.

About the Role

As Torc advances toward commercial deployment of its Level 4 autonomous trucking platform, we're looking for an experienced litigator and product counselor to own our litigation function and serve as a key product counseling partner. Reporting to the Associate General Counsel – Litigation & Commercial, you'll manage Torc's active litigation, build the processes that keep the company litigation-ready, and serve as a trusted legal partner to our Engineering, Product, and Safety & Regulatory teams (including Government Affairs).

This is an ownership role on a lean, high-performing legal team at a pivotal moment in the company's history. Beyond managing the docket, you'll build and maintain Torc's litigation readiness infrastructure, including the playbooks and protocols needed for driver-out operations. Over time, you'll also grow into Torc's regulatory legal work, partnering with our Safety & Regulatory team and outside regulatory counsel on NHTSA and FMCSA matters. Deep AV regulatory expertise isn't required on day one, but curiosity and a willingness to learn are.

What You'll Do:

Litigation and incident response

Own Torc's litigation docket end to end: oversee outside counsel, manage budgets, set strategy, and drive resolution in alignment with the General Counsel and business stakeholders

Build and run Torc's litigation readiness program, including legal hold procedures (issuance, custodian communication, and releases), litigation response playbooks, and evidence preservation protocols

Serve as the legal lead on Torc's cross-functional incident response team, coordinating with Safety & Regulatory, Engineering, Communications, and others when incidents occur

Develop litigation readiness frameworks for driver-out commercial operations, including protocols for incidents involving the autonomous driving system and for recalls

Manage Torc's outside litigation counsel panel, including selection, engagement terms, billing guideline compliance, and performance

Report on litigation exposure and trends to the General Counsel and senior leadership

Advise on how record retention, insurance, and cybersecurity intersect with litigation readiness and incident response

Product counseling

Partner with Product, Engineering, and Safety & Regulatory teams to spot and mitigate legal risk early in the development cycle, including in safety case documentation and commercial launch activities

Advise on product liability exposure arising from Torc's autonomous driving system

Support regulatory reporting, including NHTSA Standing General Order crash reporting, defect and recall reporting, and Early Warning Reporting

Provide legal analysis to Torc's safety governance bodies on product release decisions and safety artifact requirements

Work with Government Affairs and outside regulatory counsel to turn evolving federal, state, and international AV regulation into practical guidance for internal teams, and assess what it means for litigation risk

Advise on go-to-market issues as Torc moves from testing to commercial freight operations, including operational design domain limitations, risk allocation in customer agreements, and fleet partner requirements

Review external communications, technical publications, and customer-facing materials for legal risk

Build working expertise over time in Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, ADS exemption processes, and FMCSA commercial vehicle safety requirements, in partnership with Government Affairs and outside counsel

Supporting the Legal team