Legal Operations Manager, Vendor & Spend Management

As the Legal Operations Manager, Vendor & Spend Management on the Legal Operations team, you'll own the vendor management and spend optimization program that supports Coinbase's Legal, Policy, and Compliance departments. This team drives operational excellence across the legal function through standardized processes, e-billing systems, and data-driven budget management. You'll serve as the functional lead for outside counsel spend, vendor onboarding, and budget strategy, directly influencing how Coinbase manages tens of millions in annual legal spend and ensuring the department operates efficiently at scale.

What you'll do

• Own expense management, law firm and vendor spend oversight, and annual budget planning for the Legal, Policy, and Compliance departments, delivering accurate forecasting and cost visibility to leadership.
• Own expense management, law firm and vendor spend oversight, and annual budget planning for the Legal, Policy, and Compliance departments, building automated accrual models and leveraging predictive spend analytics to deliver accurate forecasting and cost visibility to leadership.
• Drive the legal e-billing program end-to-end, including vendor and contractor onboarding, billing guideline enforcement, engagement letter review, and conflicts of interest processes.
• Build and maintain a top-tier law firm panel program and spend optimization strategy, including benchmarking billing rates, negotiating alternative fee arrangements, and evaluating firm performance against delivery and cost targets.
• Partner with legal department leadership on budget strategy, advising on law firm selection, resource allocation, and cost-reduction opportunities backed by spend data and trend analysis.
• Lead the relationship with FP&A on invoicing, accruals, and month-end financial processes, ensuring accuracy and timeliness across all legal vendor-related financial workflows.
• Administer and optimize the legal e-billing system, training stakeholders on processes and use of systems, and identifying opportunities to improve workflows and data quality.
• Administer and optimize the legal e-billing system, including managing complex integrations between Brightflag and internal ERP/FP&A systems, configuring automated rule-based billing enforcement, and training stakeholders on processes to improve adoption and data quality.

Required Skills and Experience

• Bachelor's degree with 6+ years of relevant experience at a comparable in-house legal practice, preferably at a high-growth technology company.
• Deep vendor and law firm spend management experience, including hands-on experience with e-billing platforms, law firm panel programs, and negotiating alternative fee arrangements.
• Demonstrated experience independently managing legal budgets, accruals, and forecasting processes in partnership with FP&A, including driving high law firm compliance rates for monthly accruals (e.g., 95%+ adoption targets) and implementing automated variance analysis to improve accuracy and reduce manual effort.
• Proven ability to design, implement, and improve operational processes at scale, including vendor onboarding workflows, billing guidelines, and reporting frameworks.
• Experience building reports and dashboards that translate spend data into actionable insights for legal leadership decision-making.
• Utilizes generative AI responsibly, maintaining human oversight to deliver business-ready outputs and drive measurable improvements in workflow efficiency, cost, and quality.