Director, Legal Operations

KBR•Arlington, DC

About The Position

The Director, Legal Operations & Finance is a strategic leader responsible for driving operational excellence, financial discipline, and technology enablement across the global legal function. This role partners closely with the General Counsel, legal leadership, and cross-functional stakeholders to ensure efficient, cost-effective, and scalable delivery of legal services aligned with business priorities. We are seeking a collaborative, strategic leader with strong operational, financial, and technology acumen. The ideal candidate has experience building, scaling, or transforming Legal Operations or comparable business operations functions and can translate strategy into sustainable governance, processes, and capabilities. The candidate understands that the Legal Department must manage risk while enabling practical, timely business decisions.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Finance, Legal Studies, or a related field.
10+ years of experience in legal operations, legal project management, or a related function, with at least 5 years in a leadership role.
Experience managing direct reports, consultants, contractors, and cross-functional project teams.
Strong understanding of in-house legal department operations, including matter management, contract workflows, legal spend, reporting, and stakeholder service models.
Deep expertise in e-discovery tools and processes (e.g., Relativity, legal hold platforms) and cloud data environments (e.g., M365).
Strong working knowledge of e-discovery regulations and data privacy requirements (e.g., FRCP, cross-border data considerations).
Demonstrated experience managing legal department budgets.
Experience with outside counsel management, including RFPs, rate negotiations, and performance metrics.
Experience implementing, administering, or optimizing legal technology platforms, including matter management, e-billing, contract lifecycle management, legal intake, document management or knowledge management systems and Relativity.
Proven ability to lead cross-functional projects and drive process improvement in complex, matrixed organizations.
Excellent analytical, communication, and stakeholder management skills.

Nice To Haves

CLOC (Corporate Legal Operations Consortium) certification or active participation.
Familiarity with data analytics, AI/ML applications in legal, and emerging legal.
Experience in a multinational organization.

Responsibilities

Own the legal department’s budget management, forecasting, and financial reporting processes.
Lead the strategy and execution of legal technology initiatives — including AI implementation, enterprise reporting, and digital transformation — to ensure efficient, cost-effective, and scalable delivery of legal services aligned with business priorities.
Build trusted, practical partnerships across the enterprise and are comfortable working with diverse stakeholders and viewpoints.
Partner with Finance on budgeting and forecasting, coordinate with IT and Digital teams on legal technology solutions, work with Procurement on vendor management, and align with Compliance and Cybersecurity on e-discovery and data preservation.
Thrive in a dynamic environment and can shift seamlessly between longer-horizon strategic initiatives — such as technology roadmap development, process optimization, and operating model design — and time-sensitive operational demands such as e-discovery deadlines, budget close cycles, and urgent matter intake.
Exercise strong judgment, stay organized under pressure, and bring a professional, polished approach when managing competing priorities across a fast-paced, global organization.
Develop legal operations professionals and foster a culture of continuous improvement and operational excellence.
Set clear expectations, delegate effectively, and ensure high-quality execution across legal operations, e-discovery, and technology workstreams.
Lead change management and adoption efforts for new tools and processes.
Coordinate and manage outside counsel and vendors efficiently, including scoping engagements, establishing billing guidelines, and managing costs.
Partner with the General Counsel and legal leadership to set priorities and drive execution against departmental goals.
Serve as a trusted advisor by providing insights and practical recommendations to support leadership decisions.
Translate strategy into actionable plans with clear milestones, accountability, and measurable outcomes.
Identify opportunities to improve service delivery, strengthen value, and reduce outside legal spend.
Act as department liaison partnering with Finance for budgeting, forecasting, month-end close and financial reporting.
Oversee invoice lifecycle management ensuring compliance and accuracy.
Support Legal Department leaders and other stakeholders in outside counsel and vendor management initiatives.
Manage outside counsel billing and onboarding.
Establish billing guidelines and engagement standards.
Oversee coordination Legal Settlement payments with payroll and accounts payable.
Work with procurement in establishing PO’s with vendors.
Oversee the global e-discovery function, ensuring efficient, defensible, and cost-effective management of electronically stored information (ESI) for litigation, investigations, and regulatory matters.
Manage the end-to-end e-discovery lifecycle (legal hold, preservation, collection, review, production, disposition).
Administer the legal hold program, ensuring timely issuance, tracking, and compliance.
Manage e-discovery tools and vendors; leverage analytics, AI, and automation to improve quality and reduce cost.
Partner with Legal, IT, Cybersecurity, and Compliance on data preservation, incident response, and investigations.
Work with legal functions to standardize and improve processes.
Identify inefficiencies and implement scalable solutions.
Develop and execute legal operations strategy, including process optimization, technology roadmap, AI implementation, and enterprise reporting.
Oversee selection, implementation, and administration of legal technology (matter management, e-billing, automated workflows, document management).
Manage integrations and system enhancements.
Partner with Legal, IT, Digital, and business stakeholders to evaluate, implement, and govern legal technology solutions.
Oversee matter lifecycle management: intake, tracking, reporting, taxonomy, and closeout.
Lead change management, training, and adoption for new tools and workflows.
Drive adoption of tools and processes that improve productivity, transparency, reporting, and decision-making.
Lead, mentor, and develop a team of legal operations professionals, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and operational excellence.
Collaborate with Finance, Procurement, IT, and Compliance teams to ensure alignment on cross-functional initiatives.
Define performance metrics and foster continuous improvement.
Support change management initiatives, including those arising from corporate transactions or organizational restructurings.
Support change management and communication efforts associated with new processes, technologies, governance structures, and operating models.
Promote best practices and help develop department guidelines, policies, training materials, playbooks, and self-service resources.
Support cross-functional coordination and ensure follow-through on key operational decisions and initiatives.
Lead or support additional projects and responsibilities as assigned by the General Counsel.
Stay current on developments in legal operations, legal technology, and related industry trends to help shape continuous improvement.