VP, Legal and Business Operations

Overview

The organization is seeking an experienced, pragmatic VP of Legal and Business Operations to lead the legal function and help run the operational backbone of a growing legal technology business. This hands-on leadership role spans commercial legal matters, corporate governance, and business operations, including compliance, privacy, information security, and AI governance.

This role is highly cross-functional and execution-oriented. The successful candidate will identify risk and inefficiency, translate them into practical business recommendations, and help the business implement solutions.

Responsibilities

Legal Leadership & Commercial Transactions

• Serve as the senior legal advisor to the leadership team on commercial, corporate, employment, intellectual property, and regulatory matters.
• Lead drafting, review, negotiation, and execution of commercial agreements related to legal technology, SaaS, and marketplace offerings, including:
  • SaaS agreements
  • MSAs
  • Order forms
  • Data processing agreements
  • Confidentiality agreements
  • Vendor agreements
  • Partner agreements
• Partner with Sales, Product, and Customer Success to move customer transactions efficiently from initial negotiation through signature, balancing appropriate risk management with speed and strong customer experience.
• Advise on contractual risk, including intellectual property, data use, indemnification, limitation of liability, warranties, and service levels.
• Partner with founders and finance (as applicable) on corporate governance and entity management, including board and stockholder materials, corporate records, equity and financing support, and readiness for strategic transactions.
• Manage relationships with outside counsel and other legal service providers, keeping spend efficient and work aligned with company priorities.

Business Operations

• Own contract lifecycle management end to end, including templates, playbooks, fallback positions, approval frameworks, signature workflows, and a reliable contract repository.
• Lead legal-side vendor and technology procurement, including vendor selection, standards, negotiation, and renewals.
• Identify opportunities to use AI and automation to make internal operations faster, more accurate, and more scalable, and help select and roll out supporting tools.
• Partner with Finance and People on cross-functional operations such as insurance, policy administration, internal approvals, and company-wide operating cadences.
• Build and track operational metrics providing leadership visibility into contracting velocity, procurement cycle times, compliance status, and operational risk.
• Lead or support special projects and strategic initiatives as the business grows.

Compliance, Privacy & Information Security

Compliance, privacy, and information security are core components of the organization’s business operations. This role provides legal and operational leadership for each.

• Oversee the corporate compliance program, including dedicated compliance professionals, policies, controls, vendors, and programming.
• Advise on privacy and data-protection requirements under applicable laws and partner with Product and Engineering on privacy-by-design and AI governance considerations.
• Provide legal and compliance leadership for the information-security program in close partnership with the Information Security Manager and external auditors, including SOC 2 and similar enterprise frameworks.
• Own or coordinate legal, privacy, compliance, and security components of enterprise customer procurement, including security, privacy, AI, and vendor-risk questionnaires; maintain a repository of standard responses and supporting materials.
• Support third-party risk management, incident-response planning, and legal response to actual or suspected security incidents, including breach-notification obligations.
• Monitor legal and regulatory developments and translate new requirements into practical operational changes.

Requirements

• J.D. from an accredited law school and active membership in good standing in at least one U.S. jurisdiction.
• Approximately 6–10+ years of relevant experience, including meaningful in-house experience at a technology or SaaS business; ideally with exposure to operations, strategy, or business leadership.
• Significant experience drafting and negotiating commercial technology agreements, particularly SaaS and enterprise customer agreements.
• A track record of building or improving business processes, systems, and cross-functional workflows (not just advising on them).
• Experience navigating enterprise procurement and working with customer legal, privacy, security, and procurement teams.
• Working knowledge of privacy and data-protection laws and familiarity with security and compliance frameworks such as SOC 2.
• Enthusiasm for using AI and legal technology to improve how legal and operational work gets done.
• Strong judgment to distinguish meaningful legal, security, or operational risk from issues that can be resolved pragmatically.
• Ability to clearly communicate complex legal and operational concepts to technical, non-technical, and executive audiences.
• Comfort operating independently in a fast-moving environment with a wide range of responsibilities.
• Strong project-management and organizational skills, including managing multiple transactions, operational initiatives, and compliance programs at once.
• Practical, collaborative approach and willingness to roll up your sleeves.

Compensation & Benefits

Not specified in the provided description.

Location

Not specified in the provided description.