Director, Legal Operations

Manufacturing & Operationsposted 3mo ago

The mission of The New York Times is to seek the truth and help people understand the world. That means independent journalism is at the heart of all we do as a company. It’s why we have a world-renowned newsroom that sends journalists to report on the ground from nearly 160 countries. It’s why we focus deeply on how our readers will experience our journalism, from print to audio to a world-class digital and app destination. And it’s why our business strategy centers on making journalism so good that it’s worth paying for.

The New York Times Company is seeking a Director, Legal Operations to support the effective and reliable management of our daily legal operations. This is a hands-on leadership role designed for an experienced professional who excels at designing clear operational frameworks, simplifying workflows, and establishing a structured, highly functional working model for the department.

Reporting to the Vice President and Associate General Counsel, Corporate, you will serve as a key member of the legal leadership team and work closely with the Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer. You will manage an operational team of two, balancing operational oversight with daily, practical execution. You will ensure the Legal Department operates within a disciplined fiscal framework, provide actionable financial data to senior legal leadership, drive the effective management of outside counsel, and identify new and maximize existing technology investments.

This is a hybrid role with a minimum of three days in the office at our corporate headquarters in New York City.

Key Responsibilities

Budget Tracking and Financial Analytics: Coordinate the annual department budget with the Finance Director, monitor actual versus forecasted spending, and analyze legal expenses. Simplify and improve financial tracking models and provide legal leadership with clear, regular reports and metrics to support strategic decision-making within legal teams and across the Legal Department.
Outside Counsel and Vendor Management: Manage the coordination and administration of outside counsel and legal vendors, including engagement, onboarding, guideline administration, and rate reviews. Leverage the e-billing system to ensure timely invoice processing, promote compliance with budgets and policies, and generate key metrics and insights. Partner with internal teams to evaluate staffing structures, fee arrangements, and alternative service providers where appropriate.
Strategic Technology Planning: Develop and execute a legal technology strategy focused on process modernization, automation, and client self-service. Maximize existing investments and identify new opportunities by proactively evaluating both new standalone products and upgraded features within our current systems, particularly those utilizing artificial intelligence. Design and drive targeted pilots and implementation plans for tools and capabilities that advance departmental goals.
Systems Oversight: Working with Enterprise Technology, directly with vendors, and alongside internal legal professionals, manage the operational support, alignment, and data integrity of core systems, including contract lifecycle management (Ironclad), e-billing (Onit), document management (iManage), and e-discovery. In coordination with internal stakeholders, establish clear operational accountabilities for these tools and track system performance metrics.
Process Improvement and Knowledge Management: Evaluate and simplify daily workflows to reduce administrative burdens on practicing attorneys and legal professionals. Work with the Chief Legal Officer's Executive Assistant to maintain centralized repositories, folders, and intranet resources that organize information and promote self-service across the department and company.
Records Compliance: Oversee the company’s corporate records management program to ensure that enterprise repositories comply with legal obligations and records retention schedules. Guide the administration of these processes as workflows evolve with modern automation and technology tools.
Team Management and Priority Setting: Lead the daily activities of the legal operations team, defining role scopes and setting operational priorities to manage resources effectively based on available staffing. Support professional development and cross-training to build broader legal operations capabilities within the existing team.

Basic Qualifications:

Minimum of 10 years of professional experience, with at least 5 years dedicated to legal operations within a corporate legal department.
Hands-on experience administering core legal enterprise technology.
Experience developing department budgets, managing outside counsel and vendor engagements, and overseeing invoice management processes.
Advanced proficiency with Excel (specifically cleaning data, building tracking models, and managing complex sheets).
Record of managing small administrative or operational teams.
Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university.

Preferred Qualifications:

Direct experience administering Ironclad, Onit, or iManage.
Familiarity with corporate records management, retention schedules, and related compliance workflows.
Experience working within a media, technology, or highly matrixed corporate environment.
Experience designing and establishing operational frameworks, playbooks, and clear resource accountabilities.
Active affiliation with professional legal operations organizations such as the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC) or the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC).

REQ-020179

Additional Compensation and Benefits

For roles in the U.S., dependent on your role, you may be eligible for variable pay, such as an annual bonus and restricted stock. Benefits may include medical, dental and vision benefits, Flexible Spending Accounts (F.S.A.s), a company-matching 401(k) plan, employee stock purchase plan, paid vacation, paid sick days, paid parental leave, tuition reimbursement and professional development programs.

For roles outside of the U.S., information on benefits will be provided during the interview process.

The annual base pay range for this role is between:

$185,000—$200,000 USD

Candidate Use of GenAI Tools:

We’re excited to learn more about you and your experience. To keep our hiring process as fair and authentic as possible, we ask that you submit your own work and not use GenAI tools to generate substantive content during the application and interview process.

If you’re an engineering candidate, we’ll let you know what specific GenAI tools you are permitted to use for your technical assessment.

The New York Times Company is committed to being the world’s best source of independent, reliable and quality journalism. To do so, we embrace a diverse workforce that has a broad range of backgrounds and experiences across our ranks, at all levels of the organization. We encourage people from all backgrounds to apply.

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