Responsibilities
- Owns daily operation of the Studs Studio Compliance App, ensuring Regional Managers and Studio Managers are actively managing their teams on compliance requirements and driving all open items to closure.
- Reviews and interprets state, county, and city health department regulations to support new studio openings and keep all studio compliance materials current across every active market.
- Delivers structured training sessions for Regional Managers, Piercing Educators, and Studio Managers across rotating topic areas: inspection preparation, assessment protocol, minor consent requirements by tier, and regulatory updates.
- Owns procurement, maintenance, and renewal of establishment licenses and oversight of procurement, maintenance and renewal of individual piercer licenses across all 41+ studios; uses the Compliance App to monitor expiration alerts, submit renewal packets, track fees, and confirm correct posting in each studio.
- Manages all notification workflows to regulatory authorities where required; maintains the studio compliance resource library and produces a monthly compliance scorecard for review by Studs’ CLO, Retail Team and the People Team.
- Conducts on-demand and quarterly regulation reviews by state; tracks pending legislation in every market where Studs operates and in new markets under evaluation; maintains Studs’ canonical regulatory knowledge base and jurisdiction contacts database.
- Serves as Studs’ primary point of contact for state and local departments of health and enforcement authorities; oversight of the Studs inspection protocol during regulatory visits.
- Owns all piercing-related Legal & Compliance pre-opening tasks from the four-month mark through opening day – determining jurisdictional regulatory category, planning licensing timelines, filing establishment and individual piercer license applications, and preparing service-specific waivers in Jotform.
- Coordinates with Regional Managers on staffing and credentialing, with Retail Operations on turnover day, and with Studs’ insurance broker on GL, Property, and Workers Compensation endorsements and certificates of insurance; generates Day 1 compliance materials including the studio compliance binder, ICEP, and Regulation Guide before soft open and completes FOH posting verification on opening day.
- Serves as operational point of contact with Studs’ insurance broker for COI issuance, renewal binder assembly, and claim intake logging; supports the CLO on the annual insurance renewal process.
- Owns contract management system hygiene across intake discipline, metadata quality, template library maintenance, signed-agreement filing, and weekly review of renewal and expiration alerts.
- Maintains a single-source matter tracker for the department covering topic, owner, outside counsel, status, and next action.
- Reviews and processes outside counsel invoices with a first-pass check for reasonableness and accurate matter attribution; tracks budgets against quarterly projections across outside counsel partners.
- Maintains the Legal & Compliance Google Drive structure and naming conventions; supports corporate governance workstreams through exhibit compilation, version control, e-signature packet assembly, and minute book maintenance.
- Provides paralegal-level support to the CLO and Senior Counsel including cite-checking, source verification, closing binder and deal room preparation for financings and material transactions, NDA intake and execution, and DocuSign packet assembly and post-execution filing.
- Manages entity maintenance for Studs, Inc. and Studs Leasing, LLC in coordination with the Finance Team: state annual reports, certificates of good standing, registered agent coordination, and foreign qualification as new studios open.
- Handles subpoena and third-party request intake, logging, and initial assessment; supports litigation hold tracking and IP portfolio administration.
- Triage legal intake requests from other departments.
Requirements
- 5+ years of relevant experience in regulatory compliance, legal operations, multi-unit retail or franchise compliance, or as a senior paralegal.
- Four-year college degree required; paralegal certification or JD (non-practicing) welcome but not required; bar admission not required.
- Demonstrated ability to own a compliance program or regulatory workstream end-to-end across multiple jurisdictions.
- Strong project management discipline; able to manage dozens of parallel workstreams across 40+ locations without losing the thread.
- Comfortable operating AI tools and SaaS platforms including DocuSign, Jotform, and Google Workspace; willing to operate a purpose-built internal compliance application as a primary daily tool.
- Able to communicate clearly and build effective relationships at all levels of the organization, including field leadership and regulatory authorities.
- Business-oriented approach to problem recognition and issue anticipation; able to prioritize and execute under tight deadlines across a fast-moving, multi-market retail environment
Nice to Have
- Direct experience in multi-unit personal care, beauty, wellness, fitness, or regulated-consumer retail (tattoo/piercing, cannabis, pharmacy, or QSR at scale).
- Prior experience at a franchise system or a health department regulating similar operations.
- Hands-on experience with a contract lifecycle management system.
- Experience supporting a small in-house legal team of one to five attorneys.
- Familiarity with OSHA, state and local department of health operations, and/or state and local body art regulations.
Benefits
- Flexible Work Environment (3 days in office, 2 days work from home)
- Comprehensive Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance (including a plan option with $0 in-network mental health visits)
- Access to Mental Health and Work/Life Resources including Online Therapy, Gender Affirmation Support Services, and Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
- Voluntary Life Insurance
- Health and Commuter Tax-Advantaged Accounts
- Stock Options in connection with the Company’s Equity Incentive Plan
- 401(k) Retirement Savings Plan
- Paid Time Off, Paid Safe & Sick Leave, and Paid Parental Leave
- Paid Sabbatical After 4 Years of Service
- Exclusive Employee Discounts on Piercings and Jewelry (we’ve got your friends and family covered too!)
- Access to PerkSpot and additional benefits such as pet insurance, discounted tickets, personal finance coaching, healthy rewards, and more!
Work Arrangement
Hybrid — 40+ piercing studios across 15 states
Additional Information
- Salary Range: $125,000 – $165,000
- Must be able to operate a purpose-built internal compliance application as a primary daily tool
- Role requires coordination across 40+ locations and multiple jurisdictions
- No bar admission required
