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What You'll Do

The Senior Director of Legal Operations & Chief of Staff to the Chief Legal Officer is a strategic role responsible for transforming how the Legal function operates and contributes to the broader business. This dual-role leader will improve operational excellence, lead legal technology and process optimization, and act as a trusted partner to the Chief Legal Officer —shaping strategy, coordinating execution, and ensure agreement across the Legal function and partners. You will blend legal operations expertise with chief-of-staff-level responsibilities, ideal for someone who excels at both operational thoughtfulness and strategic coordination . You will report to our Chief Legal Officer (CLO) and can work remotely.

What Your Responsibilities Will Be

Operational Management and Efficiency

• You will develop a long-term roadmap to grow legal operations and improve overall Legal team effectiveness.
• Promote process optimization across contract lifecycle management, litigation, IP, entity management, and knowledge management.
• You will oversee legal project management, resource allocation, and internal team workflows to ensure priorities are implemented.
• You will implement systems and infrastructure that allow the Legal team to support our needs at scale.

Strategic Partnership & Chief of Staff Support

• You will partner with the CLO on Legal department strategic planning, quarterly goal setting, and OKR agreement.
• Ensure communication between the Legal function and executive leadership, ensuring communication flow, priority agreement, and coordination.
• Manage preparation and execution of Legal team business reviews, leadership meetings, and board-level presentations.
• You will guide special programs and team communications on behalf of the CLO.

Financial Management and Data Analytics

• Manage Legal budget forecasting, tracking, and reporting with Finance.
• You will build and manage a legal vendor program that ensures high-quality support at efficient costs.
• Use data and analytics to evaluate team performance, vendor metrics, and operational measurements.

Technology and Litigation Support

• Define and maintain the Legal technology roadmap, identifying automation and efficiency opportunities.
• Oversee litigation support operations, including e-discovery tools and workflows.

Knowledge and Information Management

• Lead the development of a centralized knowledge management framework for contracts, policies, templates, and institutional knowledge.
• Promote consistency and standardization across global legal documentation and practices.

What You’ll Need To Be Successful

• 15 + years of experience in legal operations, chief of staff, legal business management, or related roles within in-house legal teams.
• Expertise in partnering with CLO and legal leadership to lead both strategic and operational impact.
• Experience with legal processes, (eBilling, CLM, IP management), and law firm operations.
• Financial experience managing large budgets, vendor relationships, and accrual processes.
• Continuous improvement, and building scalable processes.

The base pay range(s) below are provided in compliance with state specific laws. Pay ranges may be different in other locations.

Colorado $166,100 - $274,100 annually

Washington $166,100 - $303,100 annually

California $166,100 - $331,900 annually

NYC $183,700 - $331,900 annually

The pay range above is the general base pay range for a successful candidate in the state listed. The successful candidate's actual salary/wage may be based on various factors, such as geographic location, candidate experience and qualifications, as well as market and business considerations.

This role is eligible for an annual bonus based on individual and company performance, depending on the terms of the applicable plan and the employee's role.

How We’ll Take Care Of You

Total Rewards

In addition to a great compensation package, paid time off, and paid parental leave, many Avalara employees are eligible for bonuses.

Health & Wellness

Benefits vary by location but generally include private medical, life, and disability insurance.

Inclusive culture and diversity

Avalara strongly supports diversity, equity, and inclusion, and is committed to integrating them into our business practices and our organizational culture. We also have a total of 8 employee-run resource groups, each with senior leadership and exec sponsorship.

What You Need To Know About Avalara

We’re defining the relationship between tax and tech.

We’ve already built an industry-leading cloud compliance platform, processing over 54 billion customer API calls and over 6.6 million tax returns a year. Our growth is real - we're a billion dollar business - and we’re not slowing down until we’ve achieved our mission - to be part of every transaction in the world.

We’re bright, innovative, and disruptive, like the orange we love to wear. It captures our quirky spirit and optimistic mindset. It shows off the culture we’ve designed, that empowers our people to win. We’ve been different from day one. Join us, and your career will be too.

We’re An Equal Opportunity Employer

Supporting diversity and inclusion is a cornerstone of our company — we don’t want people to fit into our culture, but to enrich it. All qualified candidates will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, age, gender, national orientation, disability, sexual orientation, US Veteran status, or any other factor protected by law. If you require any reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, please let us know.