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The Director, Legal Operations is a strategic leadership role responsible for driving operational excellence, enabling departmental effectiveness, and ensuring the successful execution of key Legal and corporate initiatives. Reporting to the Associate General Counsel, Corporate, this role serves as both the operational leader of the Legal function and a trusted advisor to the Legal Leadership Team.

This position leads Legal Operations, oversees a team, and acts as a central integrator across Legal, Finance, IT, and business stakeholders. The role combines strategic planning, financial oversight, process and technology optimization, and executive-level project management to enhance the impact and scalability of the Legal Department within a publicly traded food distribution organization.

This position has been segmented as Hybrid meaning there is a combination of three onsite days per week and the rest remote.

Responsibilities:

Strategic Leadership & Executive Enablement

• Partner with the Legal Leadership Team to define strategic priorities and drive execution across Legal and enterprise initiatives.
• Act as a trusted advisor, providing insights, decision support, and thought partnership.
• Translate strategy into actionable plans with clear milestones, accountability, and outcomes.
• Uphold Legal and company priorities, fostering a positive and cohesive work environment that helps to champion the company’s culture and values.

Legal Operations & Functional Excellence

• Develop and execute the Legal Operations strategy, aligned with departmental and company objectives.
• Establish KPIs, dashboards, data analysis and reporting of the team’s productivity to the Legal Leadership Team, and suggest strategic initiatives to improve workflow, teamwork, and budget management.
• Drive continuous improvement across departmental processes, workflows, and service models.
• Establish and manage the operating rhythm for the Legal department (e.g., leadership and department meetings, town halls, etc.) including drafting/owning meeting agendas and materials and leading meetings.
• Enhance intra-department communication and cohesion through crafting and coordinating internal messaging and maintenance of Legal department websites.

Financial Management & Vendor Oversight

• Lead Legal Department budgeting, forecasting, and financial planning, partnering with Finance.
• Partnering with the Legal Leadership Team, develop outside counsel strategy including law firm selection processes, spend management oversight, leading rate negotiations, development of alternative fee arrangements, and facilitation of invoice review.
• Implement cost management strategies and financial discipline.
• Oversee vendor relationships and preferred provider programs.

Technology & Innovation

• Lead selection, implementation, and optimization of legal technology (e.g., legal AI tools, contract lifecycle management, e-billing, matter management).
• Partner with IT on systems integration, data governance, and security.
• Drive adoption of tools that improve productivity, transparency, and data insights.

Team Leadership & Development

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of legal operations professionals.
• Build organizational capability through training, tools, and best practices.
• Foster a high-performing, collaborative, and service-oriented culture.

Special Projects & Problem Solving

• Act as a central point of coordination for sensitive or enterprise-critical efforts and initiatives of the Legal Leadership Team.
• Identify risks, solve complex problems, and drive timely resolution.
• Other duties as assigned by manager.

Supervision

• Manage 3-5 Legal Operations associates of various levels.

Relationships:

• Internal: General Counsel and Legal leadership team, while working cross-functionally with Finance, Procurement, IT, and HR. Compliance, Internal Audit, and business leaders (e.g., Operations, Supply Chain).
• External: Outside counsel, legal service providers, and technology vendors. Regulators, auditors, and industry partners to support compliance and risk management efforts.

Minimum Qualifications:

• 8 years of experience in legal operations, corporate legal departments, consulting, or related fields.
• 3 years of people leadership and/or management experience.
• Proven experience leading teams and driving cross-functional initiatives.

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Strong business and financial acumen, including budget and vendor management.
• Deep knowledge of legal operations tools, processes, and best practices.
• Exceptional project management and organizational skills.
• Strategic thinker with strong execution capabilities.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
• High degree of professionalism, discretion, and sound judgment.

This role will also receive an annual incentive plan bonus and a long-term-incentive plan.

Benefits for this role may include health insurance, pre-tax spending accounts, retirement benefits, paid time off, short-term and long-term disability, employee stock purchase plan, and life insurance. To review available benefits, please click here: https://www.usfoods.com/careers/benefits.html.

Compensation depends on relevant experience and/or education, specific skills, function, geographic location, and other factors as applicable by law (for example: state or local minimum wage thresholds). The expected base rate for this role is between

$115,000 - $185,000

• EOE – Race/Color/Religion/Sex/Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity/National Origin/Age/Genetic Information/Protected Veteran/Disability Status*