Legal Operations Manager, Vendor & Spend Management

Overview

This role is part of the Legal Operations team, supporting the Legal, Policy, and Compliance departments through vendor management and spend optimization. The position serves as a functional lead for outside counsel spend, vendor onboarding, and budget strategy, helping manage tens of millions in annual legal spend and ensuring the legal function operates efficiently at scale.

The organization is remote-first (remote-first, not remote-only) and expects quarterly in-person working sessions called “surges.”

Responsibilities

• Own expense management, law firm and vendor spend oversight, and annual budget planning for the Legal, Policy, and Compliance departments, delivering accurate forecasting and cost visibility to leadership.
• Build and maintain automated accrual models and use predictive spend analytics to improve forecasting accuracy and cost visibility.
• Drive the legal e-billing program end-to-end, including:
  • Vendor and contractor onboarding
  • Billing guideline enforcement
  • Engagement letter review
  • Conflicts of interest processes
• Build and maintain a law firm panel program and spend optimization strategy, including:
  • Benchmarking billing rates
  • Negotiating alternative fee arrangements
  • Evaluating firm performance against delivery and cost targets
• Partner with legal department leadership on budget strategy, advising on law firm selection, resource allocation, and cost-reduction opportunities using spend data and trend analysis.
• Lead the relationship with FP&A on invoicing, accruals, and month-end financial processes, ensuring accuracy and timeliness across legal vendor-related financial workflows.
• Administer and optimize the legal e-billing system, including training stakeholders on processes and system use, and identifying opportunities to improve workflows and data quality.
• Administer and optimize the legal e-billing system, including managing complex integrations between Brightflag and internal ERP/FP&A systems, configuring automated rule-based billing enforcement, and training stakeholders to improve adoption and data quality.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree with 6+ years of relevant experience at a comparable in-house legal practice, preferably at a high-growth technology company.
• Deep vendor and law firm spend management experience, including hands-on experience with e-billing platforms, law firm panel programs, and negotiating alternative fee arrangements.
• Demonstrated experience independently managing legal budgets, accruals, and forecasting processes in partnership with FP&A, including:
  • Driving high law firm compliance rates for monthly accruals (e.g., 95%+ adoption targets)
  • Implementing automated variance analysis to improve accuracy and reduce manual effort
• Proven ability to design, implement, and improve operational processes at scale, including vendor onboarding workflows, billing guidelines, and reporting frameworks.
• Experience building reports and dashboards that translate spend data into actionable insights for legal leadership.
• Experience using generative AI responsibly, maintaining human oversight to deliver business-ready outputs and drive measurable improvements in workflow efficiency, cost, and quality.

Compensation & Benefits

• Annual base salary range (excluding equity and bonus): $148,835—$175,500 USD
• Total compensation may also include equity and bonus eligibility, and benefits (medical, dental, vision, 401(k)).

Location

• #LI-Remote (remote-first; quarterly in-person working sessions called “surges.”)

Additional Information

• Application Limit: Candidates may submit a maximum of 3 applications within a 6-month period.
• Equal Opportunity Employer: All qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or genetic information. Applicants with criminal histories will be considered consistent with applicable federal, state, and local laws.
• Accommodations: If you need reasonable accommodation due to a disability, submit a request through the accommodations process.
• US Applicants: View Employee Rights, Know Your Rights, and E-Verify Notice of Participation.
• Candidate Privacy & Arbitration: By submitting an application, candidates agree to the applicable Candidate Privacy Notice; US applicants also agree to arbitration of disputes.