Lead Legal Operations Manager

We believe that the way people interact with their finances will drastically improve in the next few years. We’re dedicated to empowering this transformation by building the tools and experiences that thousands of developers use to create their own products. Plaid powers the tools millions of people rely on to live a healthier financial life. We work with thousands of companies like Venmo, SoFi, several of the Fortune 500, and many of the largest banks to make it easy for people to connect their financial accounts to the apps and services they want to use. Plaid’s network covers 12,000 financial institutions across the US, Canada, UK and Europe. Founded in 2013, the company is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in New York, Washington D.C., London and Amsterdam.

We’re looking for an experienced Legal Operations Lead to scale and run the systems, processes, tools, and budget that power Plaid’s legal and compliance team. Reporting to the Head of Commercial Legal, you’ll own the legal and compliance team’s technology strategy and roadmap, the team’s budget and outside counsel spend, vendor management, data and reporting, and other high-impact cross-functional initiatives that move the team forward. You’ll also have the opportunity to continue developing one Commercial Legal focused Legal Operations team member, who is responsible for day-to-day contracting operations. As Plaid keeps growing, our legal systems, operations, and budget discipline are going to matter more and more, and you’ll be at the center of shaping how that looks.

You’re a proactive and creative problem-solver who spots process gaps before others see them and builds scalable fixes. You’ve owned a legal budget and outside counsel spend, managed legal vendors, and led legal tech decisions. You’ve done the hands-on commercial contracting work earlier in your career (Ironclad, AI contract tools, the whole stack), and you know it well enough to guide someone else through it. At this point, you’re just as excited about setting strategy, growing a teammate, and operating at the program level as you are about running day-to-day workflows yourself. You’re a clear, empathetic communicator who can cut through complexity, bring people along through change, and build credible partnerships across the org. And you bring data to the table when you diagnose problems, set priorities, and measure impact.

If you thrive in a fast-paced environment, love turning messy operational problems into clean, scalable solutions, and get energy from helping a legal and compliance team do its best work, we’d love to talk to you!

Responsibilities:

• Legal Technology & AI Strategy. Set the strategy, governance, and roadmap for the legal and compliance team’s tech stack, with a real focus on how AI changes the way Legal works. Take what we’ve already built with tools like Claude for Legal and Harvey and drive us into the next phase: deeper integration into day-to-day workflows; broader rollout to more use cases (contracting, research, knowledge management, intake, drafting); and measurable productivity gains. Sharpen our point of view on where AI delivers the most leverage, set the guardrails and quality bar for how the team uses these tools, partner closely with Business Operations on Plaid-wide end-to-end integrations, and make sure our tech investments are actually paying off.
• Legal Budget & Outside Counsel Spend. Own the legal and compliance team’s budget, including legal billing operations and outside counsel spend. Build and enforce outside counsel billing guidelines in Brightflag, partner with Finance on forecasting and accruals, and continue to bring real discipline to how we manage legal spend.
• Data, Metrics & Reporting. Build dashboards and tracking that give us real visibility into legal and compliance team performance, contracting throughput, and spend. Use the data to surface trends and risks, drive continuous improvement, and partner with the Head of Commercial Legal on regular reporting to leadership.
• People Leadership & Development. Coach and develop the Commercial Legal–focused Legal Operations team member who reports to this role. That means investing in and setting clear expectations for their growth so they keep developing as a legal ops professional while running day-to-day commercial contracting. You’ll be their manager, mentor, and advocate, and a big part of how you’ll be measured is how much they grow.
• Legal Vendor Management. Manage Plaid’s legal vendor relationships, outside counsel, and the platforms that make up our legal tech stack. This includes our Ironclad CLM, Brightflag billing platform, Discern corporate registered agent services, and our e-discovery tools at Logikcull and Reveal. Run intake, evaluation, onboarding, performance, and renewal so we’re consistently getting the right value from each one.
• Program Management & Enablement. Drive the cross-functional programs that keep Legal moving well (new tooling rollouts, process changes, and enablement training), partnering with Sales, Product, Finance, Business Operations, and other teams to land them well. You’ll unblock the team on complex or escalated process questions, build on our strong partnerships with our key stakeholders, and make sure legal and compliance workflows stay well-integrated with the broader tech, budget, and reporting programs you own.

Qualifications:

• 7+ years in legal operations at a high-growth company, including direct experience running contracting operations earlier in your career. Strong program management, cross-functional leadership, and people management chops.
• You’ve owned a legal budget and managed outside counsel spend before, including running a spend management and e-billing platform, writing and enforcing outside counsel billing guidelines, and partnering with Finance on forecasting and accruals.
• Experience managing legal vendor and outside counsel relationships across evaluation, onboarding, performance, and renewal.
• Deep, hands-on expertise administering a CLM platform (Ironclad strongly preferred), including workflow configuration, template management, and integrations (Salesforce in particular). Plus real experience running legal-focused AI tools (Claude for Legal, Harvey, GC.AI) in production: not just piloting them, but scaling adoption, building the guardrails and quality controls, and showing the productivity gains. This expertise is the foundation for the role. You won’t be running day-to-day commercial contracting yourself, but you’ll set the tech strategy and guide the person who does.
• Clear, empathetic communicator who can cut through complexity, bring stakeholders along, guide teams through change, and build credible partnerships across the org.
• You turn operational problems into structured, scalable solutions using technology, process design, and systems thinking, and you let data inform how you diagnose issues, set priorities, and measure impact.

Our mission at Plaid is to unlock financial freedom for everyone. To support that mission, we seek to build a diverse team of driven individuals who care deeply about making the financial ecosystem more equitable. We recognize that strong qualifications can come from both prior work experiences and lived experiences. We encourage you to apply to a role even if your experience doesn't fully match the job description. We are always looking for team members that will bring something unique to Plaid!

Plaid is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and values diversity at our company. We do not discriminate based on race, color, national origin, ethnicity, religion or religious belief, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, military or veteran status, disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state, and local laws. Plaid is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities in our recruiting process. If you need any assistance with your application or interviews due to a disability, please let us know at accommodations@plaid.com.

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Additional compensation in the form(s) of equity and/or commission are dependent on the position offered. Plaid provides a comprehensive benefit plan, including medical, dental, vision, and 401(k). Pay is based on factors such as (but not limited to) scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate's work experience and skillset, and location. Pay and benefits are subject to change at any time, consistent with the terms of any applicable compensation or benefit plans.