Manager, Legal Operations

Overview

The organization is seeking a Manager, Legal Operations to enhance the effectiveness, efficiency, and scalability of the Legal and Compliance function. Reporting to the Associate General Counsel, this role serves as the operational leader for the department, driving process optimization, legal technology solutions, contract administration, outside counsel management, budget oversight, compliance program support, and insurance administration support.

This position partners with Legal, Compliance, Finance, Human Resources, Commercial, Medical Affairs, Regulatory Affairs, and other business functions to help ensure timely, high-quality service delivery while maintaining a strong culture of compliance and risk management in a fast-paced biopharmaceutical environment.

Responsibilities

• Partner with the General Counsel to manage departmental priorities, initiatives, and operational objectives aligned with corporate strategy and growth plans.
• Develop and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs), dashboards, and reporting metrics to measure legal department performance and service delivery.
• Identify and implement process improvements to enhance efficiency, reduce risk, and improve stakeholder experience.
• Develop and maintain standard operating procedures, templates, playbooks, and workflow documentation to support consistency and scalability.
• Manage departmental projects and cross-functional initiatives, ensuring timely execution and stakeholder alignment.

Legal Technology & Knowledge Management

• Lead the implementation, optimization, and administration of legal and compliance technology solutions, including contract lifecycle management (CLM), document management, matter management, and compliance systems.
• Establish centralized repositories and knowledge management resources that improve access to legal information and institutional knowledge.
• Evaluate emerging legal technology and AI-enabled solutions to improve operational efficiency and business value.
• Drive adoption of legal technology tools through training, communications, change management, and ongoing support.

Outside Counsel & Vendor Management

• Serve as the primary relationship manager for billing departments of outside counsel and legal service providers.
• Oversee billing guidelines, spend management, and vendor performance metrics.
• Monitor legal expenditures and ensure outside counsel activities align with budget expectations and business needs.
• Identify opportunities to improve cost efficiency while maintaining high-quality legal support.

Financial Management & Reporting

• Partner with Finance to develop, manage, and track the Legal and Compliance departmental budget.
• Monitor spend against budget forecasts and provide leadership with meaningful reports, analyses, and recommendations.
• Manage invoice review and approval processes and support annual budgeting and financial planning activities.

Contract Operations

• Support contract lifecycle management processes, including intake, tracking, execution, storage, obligations management, and reporting.
• Develop tools and processes that improve visibility into contract status, key obligations, renewal timelines, and risk areas.
• Partner with internal stakeholders to optimize contracting workflows and improve turnaround times.

Enterprise Risk Management & Insurance Administration

• Maintain records related to corporate insurance policies and assist with annual renewal processes.
• Coordinate collection of information and documentation necessary for insurance renewals and claims management.
• Establish procedures for identifying, documenting, and escalating potential claims or risk events.
• Track claims and risk mitigation activities through resolution.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required.
• 7+ years of experience in legal operations, corporate legal support, compliance operations, contract management, paralegal functions, or related business operations roles.
• Demonstrated experience implementing operational improvements, legal technologies, and scalable business processes.
• Experience managing budgets, vendor relationships, and outside counsel expenditures.
• Strong analytical, organizational, project management, and communication skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities in a cross-functional, dynamic and highly collaborative environment.
• Proficiency with legal technology platforms, Microsoft 365 applications, and reporting tools.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting an in-house legal department within the life sciences, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, or healthcare industry.
• Experience with contract lifecycle management (CLM), matter management, billing by outside counsel, and compliance systems.
• Certification in legal operations, project management, compliance, or process improvement methodologies.

Compensation & Benefits

• Competitive compensation package.
• Comprehensive benefits package including Medical, Dental, Vision, STD, LTD, 401(k) Savings Retirement Plan, ESPP, and more.

Equal Opportunity

The organization is an equal opportunity employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of this position.