Senior Director, Enterprise Risk Management & Legal Operations

Clarios • Glendale, CA

1d

About The Position

The Senior Director, Enterprise Risk Management & Legal Operations is Clarios’ enterprise control tower for risk discipline, legal operational excellence, and organizational resilience. This is a true dual-mandate role, with equal and integrated accountability for two mission-critical capabilities: (1) owning and continuously advancing Clarios’ global ERM framework, and (2) transforming the Legal function into a data-driven, scalable, and crisis-ready organization. The role institutionalizes risk governance and operational rigor across the enterprise, ensuring that Legal’s resources, processes, and technology are aimed directly at minimizing enterprise risk and accelerating business value. The Senior Director holds an explicit mandate for enterprise crisis management coordination and serves as a principal contributor to the Business Continuity Planning process. The Director owns the legal operating model across six dimensions: organizational design, resourcing strategy, legal process excellence, knowledge creation and management, legal technology, and KPIs and performance metrics. The role drives disciplined make-versus-buy decision-making, right-sizes the insource/outsource balance, deploys data and analytics to improve prioritization and spend management, and creates self-service tools that free the legal team to focus on its highest-value work. This position reports to the Chief Legal Officer and operates in close partnership with the CLO, the Executive Leadership Team, and cross-functional leaders across Finance, Operations, EHS, HR, Security, and IT. The role carries enterprise-wide accountability encompassing Clarios’ global legal spend portfolio, a multi-region operating footprint, and direct interface with the Audit Committee.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree (JD, MBA, MPA, or equivalent) strongly preferred.
• 12+ years of progressive experience in legal operations, enterprise risk management, internal audit, compliance, finance, or a combination of disciplines directly relevant to this dual mandate.
• Demonstrated experience designing and managing ERM frameworks in a global, matrixed organization.
• Proven track record in legal operations, including process improvement, legal technology deployment, spend management, and cross-functional program leadership.
• Experience in crisis management, incident response, or business continuity planning.
• Strong analytical, reporting, and communication skills, with the ability to translate complex risk and operational data into executive-level insights.
• Demonstrated record of managing cross-functional change and technology adoption at enterprise scale.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in global manufacturing, automotive, energy, chemicals, recycling, or industrial sectors.
• Demonstrated experience deploying CLM, matter management, e-billing, and AI-enabled legal tools at enterprise scale, including governing adoption across large user populations.
• Experience managing legal department budgets of $10M+ with demonstrated cost discipline, variance reporting, and financial transparency.
• Familiarity with COSO ERM, ISO 31000, or comparable enterprise risk frameworks.
• Experience in private-equity-owned or capital-disciplined enterprises.
• Prior exposure to Board-level reporting and governance committee support.
• CRMA, FRM, CIA, or comparable professional certification.
• Legal operations credentials (CLOC, ACC Legal Ops) a plus

Responsibilities

• Own and continuously advance Clarios’ global ERM framework
• Serve as Clarios’ enterprise lead for crisis management, developing and maintaining crisis response protocols, escalation frameworks, communication playbooks, and response team readiness programs.
• Build and lead a Legal Operations function that drives efficiency, scalability, and measurable performance across the department.
• Oversee outside counsel spend management, including billing guidelines, alternative fee arrangements, rate negotiations, matter budgets, and performance metrics.
• Design and maintain KPI frameworks and performance dashboards for both ERM and Legal Operations, translating complex data into clear, actionable insights for senior leadership and the Board.
• Build and maintain a knowledge management infrastructure that preserves institutional knowledge, promotes best-practice sharing, and accelerates service delivery across the legal team.
• Operate as a trusted advisor and collaborative partner to Operations, EHS, HR, Finance, Insurance, Security, IT, and Government Affairs on matters touching enterprise risk, resilience, and legal operations.

Benefits

• Medical, dental and vision care coverage and a 401(k) savings plan with company matching – all starting on date of hire
• Tuition reimbursement, perks, and discounts
• Parental and caregiver leave programs
• All the usual benefits such as paid time off, flexible spending, short-and long-term disability, basic life insurance, business travel insurance, and Employee Assistance Program
• Global market strength and worldwide market share leadership
• HQ location earns LEED certification for sustainability plus a full-service cafeteria and workout facility

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees