US MBD Innovation & Operations Lead

Freshfields•San Francisco, NY

22h•Hybrid

About The Position

We're building operational excellence and AI capabilities across US Marketing & Business Development. This role will transform how we work by creating playbooks, driving tech adoption and leveraging systems to help partners focus on relationships instead of administrative tasks. The Bottom Line: We have powerful tools (Writer AI, Salesforce, Foundation) but aren't using them effectively. You'll fix that by inspiring behavioral change, driving adoption of existing toolkits, creating innovative new processes and leveraging AI to deliver a future-proof, best-in-class operating model for MBD in the US.

Requirements

Strong operational and project management skills
Experience with AI tools and tech adoption (Writer AI, Salesforce, or similar)
Strong communication and collaboration skills
Ability to influence change without formal authority
Comfortable working with partners and senior leadership
Builder mindset: you like improving, scaling and embedding systems and are equally comfortable leveraging existing platforms or building something new
Professional services or law firm experience
Business development or marketing operations background
Change management experience
Data analytics skills

Responsibilities

Build the US MBD Operating Model: Create playbooks for core activities: pitch development, chambers submissions, events, research, client intelligence, working with relevant MBD stakeholders to review existing approaches, then adapting for US needs.
Standardize and embed workflows so we stop reinventing the wheel every time.
Influence behavior and train US teams on adopting and consistently applying existing processes, creating new processes and how to leverage AI tools.
Work across stakeholders (risk, compliance, IT, partners, MBD) to get buy-in.
Transform MBD into Opportunity Hunters: Set up competitive intelligence systems to monitor client news, competitor moves, market signals.
Surface actionable opportunities for partners: "Client X announced Y, here's your opening".
Build AI-powered relationship management that helps partners stay connected without manual tracking.
Work directly with partners to understand priorities and deliver intelligence-driven opportunities, which complement the work already undertaken by MBD teams.
Drive AI Adoption: Champion Writer AI integration across MBD workflows.
Identify high-value use cases where AI scales intelligence gathering and automates tasks, working with the Market Intelligence team.
Establish governance frameworks that risk teams trust, aligned to, and extending where needed, existing governance and risk frameworks.
Model effective AI use in your own work.
Improve Data & Systems: Drive Salesforce adoption and data quality across US partners and MBD teams, working with the global Salesforce CRM team.
Create dashboards and KPIs for leadership visibility, using global definitions and reporting standards where they exist.
Partner with MBD Global Operations; share learnings and feedback.
Oversee, coach and mentor US-based members of the Global CRM team.
Optimize Budget & Performance: Manage US MBD budget with clear ROI tracking.
Build measurement frameworks for events, sponsorships, and initiatives, leveraging existing measurement approaches, with US-specific additions where required.
Establish quarterly business reviews with data-driven insights.
Streamline workflows and address bottlenecks.