Director, Legal Operations

AAA Mountain West Group • Walnut Creek, CA

2d • $190,750 - $286,124 • Hybrid

About The Position

Reporting directly to the Chief Legal Officer, the Director of Legal Operations will serve as a primary change agent for the Legal Division transformation, responsible for defining the future-state operating model and leading the shift from a risk-reactive to a value-added strategic partner. This role is designed to enhance the legal function by driving operational efficiency, improving cross-functional processes, and enabling data-driven decision-making. The Director will own the legal technology roadmap and build scalable infrastructure for a mid-sized organization undergoing transformation. This role is hybrid and requires 3 days a week in our Walnut Creek, CA office.

Requirements

• Demonstrated success in building or significantly maturing a legal operations function, particularly within a mid-size organization undergoing transformation.
• Proven experience implementing CLM platforms, matter management/e-billing systems, e-discovery platforms, AI tools, and outside counsel management programs.
• Highly data-driven with strong expertise in reporting, analytics, and workflow optimization.
• Effective cross-functional collaborator and stakeholder manager, highly experienced in driving change management and user adoption across teams with varying levels of technology comfort.
• Bachelor’s degree in a related field
• Minimum of 8 years of experience in legal operations, partnering directly with in-house legal teams, outside counsel, and technology vendors

Nice To Haves

• advanced degree, JD, MBA, Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC), project management, or legal tech certification

Responsibilities

• Lead legal operations strategy and continuous process improvements across the department.
• Standardize workflows, templates, and intake processes, and own playbook remediation and maintenance to maximize efficiency and attorneys’ strategic capacity.
• Develop and institutionalize a risk-based triage and routing framework.
• Implement urgency criteria to ensure the right work reaches the right resource level, optimizing attorney bandwidth for high-complexity, high-value matters.
• Operationalize the Contracting Center of Excellence (CCOE), including formalizing RACI matrices, clarifying handoff points between Legal Procurement, and business stakeholders, and establishing joint governance standards to reduce contract cycle times.
• Own the legal technology roadmap, including evaluating, prioritizing, and implementing new tools aligned to business needs.
• Manage the existing tech stack, including Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) platforms (e.g., Ironclad) and matter management/e-billing systems (e.g., LawVu), and e-discovery platforms (e.g., Logikcull).
• Maintain responsibility for technology governance, access controls, data hygiene, vendor risk, adoption, and system configuration—especially for CLM, matter management, e-billing, e-discovery, and AI tools.
• Oversee complex document review/production.
• Drive automation and efficiency initiatives, including the rollout, integration, and adoption of emerging AI tools for the legal team.
• Oversee outside counsel panel selection process, engagement, billing guidelines, invoice submittal, and performance evaluation.
• Manage budgeting, accruals, invoice review, rate management, billing guideline compliance, and outside counsel performance metrics.
• Design and implement a comprehensive legal metrics dashboard (scorecard) that tracks key performance indicators—such as contract throughput, cycle time, and outside counsel spend variance—and use these insights to drive continuous improvement and executive reporting.
• Support legal operations in a regulated insurance environment, with attention to privacy, information security, records retention, audit readiness, and compliance.

Benefits

• Great Pay - opportunity to participate in AAA discretionary annual incentive plan or other incentive plans depending upon position
• 401k Matching – $1 for $1 company match up to 6% of eligible earnings per pay period
• Medical, Dental, Vision, wellness program and more!
• Paid Holidays
• Paid Time Off – Team Members accrue paid time off monthly.
• Depending on position, an additional 24 hours per year are earmarked for volunteer activities.
• Collaborative Environment – AAA will value your contribution to providing exceptional service to our members
• Free AAA Classic Membership
• AAA Product Discounts
• Tuition Reimbursement Program

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director