Director Strategic Business Operations

Acuity Inc.•Atlanta, GA

About The Position

This role serves as a Legal Operations and Strategic Enablement leader responsible for improving the way the Legal team plans, prioritizes, executes, and measures work. The role will provide strategic project and operating-model leadership for priority Legal initiatives, lead disciplined outside counsel governance and legal vendor management, strengthen legal spend forecasting and budgeting, support compliance operations, and improve cost predictability, reporting, and value realization from external spend. This position partners closely with Legal leadership, attorneys, Finance, Procurement, Compliance, IT, HR, and other stakeholders to translate priorities into clear plans, governance routines, legal department metrics, timelines, and measurable outcomes. The role is expected to bring structure, judgment, and practical execution support to complex or cross-functional initiatives, including legal process design, legal technology adoption, department reporting, compliance operations support, and special projects that support attorneys and Legal leaders. This role is expected to help Legal leaders operate with greater discipline, transparency, and accountability by designing enterprise legal processes, reporting, governance routines, vendor-management practices, and operating rhythms that allow attorneys and legal leadership to focus on higher-value legal work.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Operations Management, Information Systems, Economics, Finance, or a closely related field required.
8–12+ years of progressive experience in strategic operations, legal operations, consulting, and/or in‑house legal leadership support, including substantial responsibility for operating-model design, financial and performance analysis, process improvement, governance, technology-enabled workflows, and cross-functional program execution.
Demonstrated ability to translate ambiguous, cross-functional priorities into clear execution plans, operating models, governance routines, milestones, decision frameworks, reporting mechanisms, and measurable outcomes.
Experience designing or improving processes, playbooks, workflows, dashboards, reporting tools, data visibility, stakeholder communications, and adoption plans for enterprise functions.
Proven experience driving operational change and adoption.
Applied knowledge of legal department operating models, legal spend and vendor governance, financial and performance analysis, enterprise process design, technology-enabled workflows, data governance, and executive-level reporting.
Strong financial and analytical acumen including knowledge of budgeting, forecasting, investment analysis, ROI assessment, business case development, financial modeling, metrics, dashboards, and executive reporting.
Experience partnering with senior leaders and cross-functional stakeholders such as Legal, Compliance, Finance, Procurement, IT, HR, or other enabling functions to improve operating discipline, scalability, and measurable business outcomes.

Nice To Haves

Experience in a public company or complex, regulated environment.
Exposure to global legal operations or multi‑group legal teams, global expansion, M&A integration, or enterprise operating model transformation.
Background working with enterprise legal departments of meaningful Outside Counsel spend scale.
Project management, process automation, shared services, data governance, analytics, executive communications, or chief-of-staff-style enablement experience.

Responsibilities

Partner with Legal leadership to plan, manage, and execute strategic initiatives requiring project management, operational support, and cross-functional coordination.
Develop project plans, milestones, governance structures, ownership models, and implementation timelines to drive successful outcomes.
Identify risks, dependencies, resource needs, and decision points, providing practical recommendations and escalation when needed.
Support special projects related to process improvement, compliance, workforce initiatives, legal technology, reporting, outside counsel management, and business-facing implementation.
Build scalable frameworks, templates, playbooks, and governance routines that improve consistency, accountability, and execution across the Legal function.
Maintain momentum on key initiatives by tracking progress, clarifying next steps, and ensuring stakeholder follow-through.
Translate Legal leadership priorities into actionable operating plans, execution roadmaps, metrics, and reporting frameworks.
Provide visibility into Legal Operations priorities, status, resourcing, risks, and outcomes.
Design and improve legal processes that enhance efficiency, compliance, client service, accountability, and consistency.
Support legal technology adoption by defining workflows, documentation, reporting requirements, and user-facing tools.
Leverage data, dashboards, and stakeholder feedback to identify improvement opportunities and support informed decision-making.
Partner with Finance, Procurement, HR, IT, Compliance, and other functions to drive aligned execution and operational excellence.
Develop clear, structured communications for Legal team members and business partners regarding priorities, process changes, governance routines, technology adoption, and key initiatives.
Create regular updates and reporting on progress, risks, spend, vendor performance, metrics, and outcomes.
Support change management efforts, including rollout of new processes, technologies, operating models, and governance practices.
Establish clear communication channels, escalation paths, and decision-making routines to improve efficiency and reduce ambiguity.
Lead outside counsel and legal vendor governance, including selection support, engagement standards, performance management, and relationship oversight.
Partner with attorneys and Finance to manage legal spend forecasting, budgeting, accruals, fee review, and cost-control initiatives.
Monitor vendor performance, spend trends, matter status, and resource utilization to identify efficiency, savings, and service improvement opportunities.
Develop reporting, scorecards, benchmarks, and metrics to measure performance and support decision-making.
Coordinate value-added services from outside counsel and vendors, including training, process improvements, technology support, and business partnerships.
Ensure outside counsel and vendor engagements are appropriately scoped, cost-effective, and aligned with business objectives and legal strategy.