Director, Legal Operations

Dolby Laboratories; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 212,300 - 292,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus

Equity

Job summary

Dolby Laboratories in San Francisco is seeking a Director of Legal Operations to lead a global, data-driven Legal organization and scale its operations with technology-enabled solutions. You will drive strategy, governance, and AI adoption across the department.

The role requires a strong mix of operational rigor, business acumen, change leadership, and a proven ability to transform legal service delivery in a complex environment.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Operations, Information Systems, Legal Studies, or related field.
• 10+ years of progressive experience in Legal Operations, Legal Technology, Contract Administration, or related functions.
• 5+ years of people leadership experience managing high-performing teams.
• Experience leading legal operations within a global, publicly traded organization.
• Direct experience implementing and scaling legal technology platforms (CLM, e-billing, matter management, IP systems, knowledge management).
• Proven experience evaluating and driving adoption of AI-enabled solutions in legal, compliance, or corporate functions.
• Strong understanding of AI governance, data privacy, information security, and regulatory considerations affecting legal technology.

Responsibilities

• Lead a high-performing legal operations team and drive organizational transformation.
• Define and execute a long-term strategic roadmap for the Legal department.
• Develop and govern the technology and AI strategy for the legal function.
• Establish governance, risk, security, and ethical use frameworks for AI-enabled tools.
• Partner with IT, Security, and Privacy to ensure enterprise standards for legal tech solutions.
• Manage budgets, vendor relationships, and outside counsel programs.
• Lead enterprise-wide knowledge management and productivity initiatives.

Skills

Executive communication

Stakeholder management

Change leadership

Strategic thinking

Team leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree in Business or related field

JD, MBA or related advanced degree

Tools

CLM

e-billing

Matter management

IP systems

Knowledge management tools

Job description

Join the leader in entertainment innovation and help us design the future. At Dolby, science meets art, and high tech means more than computer code. As a member of the Dolby team, you’ll see and hear the results of your work everywhere, from movie theaters to smartphones. We continue to revolutionize how people create, deliver, and enjoy entertainment worldwide. To do that, we need the absolute best talent. We’re big enough to give you all the resources you need, and small enough so you can make a real difference and earn recognition for your work. We offer a collegial culture, challenging projects, and excellent compensation and benefits.

For this high functioning team, the nature of the work benefits from frequent in-office presence, and employees may be expected to work from a company office up to four days per week. While we remain committed to flexibility, this team’s rhythm includes regular in-person connection to support collaboration, learning, and impact.

Legal Department provides core legal support to all Dolby functions, runs several IP-centric businesses, and leads government relations.

The Director of Legal Operations is a strategic leader responsible for enabling a high-performing, data-driven, and technology-enabled Legal organization. This role oversees the operational infrastructure supporting Dolby's global Legal organization and partners closely with executive leaders across Legal, Finance, IT, People & Places, Security, and business functions.

The Director will lead a team of legal operations professionals and serve as a catalyst for operational excellence, transformation, and organizational effectiveness. This role will drive the Legal department's strategy, planning, communications, technology roadmap, vendor management, knowledge management capabilities.

A critical aspect of this role is identifying, implementing, and scaling emerging technologies, including generative AI and legal-specific artificial intelligence solutions, to enhance productivity, improve decision-making, reduce risk, and enable the department to focus on higher-value work.

The ideal candidate brings a combination of operational rigor, business acumen, change leadership, and demonstrated success leveraging technology and AI to transform legal service delivery in a complex global environment.

Key Responsibilities

People Leadership

• Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing legal operations team.
• Foster a culture of innovation, accountability, collaboration, inclusion, continuous learning, and operational excellence.
• Build organizational capability in legal technology, process improvement, analytics, and AI adoption.

Strategic Planning & Transformation

• Partner with Legal leadership to define and execute the department's long-term strategic roadmap.
• Drive change management initiatives that improve organizational effectiveness, scalability, and employee experience.
• Establish annual objectives, key results, metrics, and operational priorities aligned with business goals.
• Lead continuous improvement efforts across legal processes, services, and operating models.

AI, Automation & Technology Innovation

• Develop and lead the Legal organization's technology and AI strategy.
• Identify, evaluate, implement, and govern legal technology platforms, including contract lifecycle management, e-billing, matter management, intellectual property systems, document automation, knowledge management, and AI-enabled legal solutions.
• Champion responsible adoption of generative AI tools and workflows to improve efficiency, knowledge retrieval, contract review, legal research, matter management, drafting, and reporting.
• Establish governance, risk management, security, compliance, and ethical use frameworks for AI-enabled legal technologies.
• Partner with IT, Security, and Privacy teams to ensure legal technology solutions meet enterprise standards.
• Monitor emerging legal technology and AI trends and recommend innovative solutions that create measurable business value.

Operational Excellence

• Design and implement scalable processes, policies, and operating procedures that improve efficiency, service quality, and risk management across the Legal function.
• Create and maintain operational frameworks that support a growing global legal organization.
• Lead departmental planning, resource allocation, and operational governance activities.

Financial & Vendor Management

• Partner with Business Operations to oversee the Legal department's budget, forecasting, accrual management, and financial planning processes, including identifing cost optimization opportunities and improve spend transparency.
• Manage outside counsel and legal service providers, including selection, performance oversight, fee negotiations, billing guideline compliance, and vendor governance.
• Implement data-driven approaches to managing legal spend and maximizing return on external resources.

Knowledge Management & Productivity

• Lead enterprise-class knowledge management initiatives that improve access to legal expertise, templates, policies, playbooks, and institutional knowledge.
• Implement AI-enabled knowledge discovery and content management capabilities that improve attorney productivity and consistency.
• Promote standardization and reuse of legal resources across the global organization.

Employee Engagement

• Lead Legal department employee engagement initiatives, and large-scale organizational events, including all-employee meetings, leadership forums, and global summits.
• Ensure employees are informed, aligned, and connected to department priorities and business objectives.

Cross-Functional Partnership

• Build strong partnerships across Legal, Finance, IT, Security, Procurement, People & Places, and business organizations.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to senior leaders on operational strategy, technology investments, AI adoption, and organizational effectiveness.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Operations, Information Systems, Legal Studies, or related field.
• 10+ years of progressive experience in Legal Operations, Legal Technology, Contract Administration, or related functions.
• 5+ years of people leadership experience managing high-performing teams.
• Demonstrated success leading legal operations within a complex, global, publicly traded organization.
• Direct experience implementing and scaling legal technology platforms, including CLM, e-billing, matter management, intellectual property systems, knowledge management tools, or similar technologies.
• Proven experience evaluating, implementing, and driving adoption of AI-enabled solutions within legal, compliance, or corporate functions.
• Strong understanding of AI governance, responsible AI principles, data privacy, information security, and regulatory considerations affecting legal technology.
• Experience managing multimillion-dollar budgets, vendor relationships, and outside counsel programs.
• Strong analytical, financial, project management, and change leadership skills.
• Exceptional executive communication, stakeholder management, and influencing capabilities.

Preferred Qualifications

• J.D., MBA, or other advanced degree.
• Certification in Legal Operations, Project Management, Process Improvement, or Change Management.
• Experience leading enterprise-wide digital transformation initiatives.
• Deep familiarity with generative AI platforms, legal AI solutions, workflow automation technologies, and emerging legal technology trends.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Dolby is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. Our success depends on the combined skills and talents of all our employees. We are committed to making employment decisions without regard to race, religious creed, color, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, marital status, family status, medical condition, disability, military service, pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions or any other classification protected by federal, state, and local laws and ordinances.

The San Francisco/Bay Area base salary range for this full-time position is 212,300 - 292,000 which can vary if outside this location, plus bonus, benefits, and some roles may also include equity. Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location. Within the range, individual pay is determined by work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, competencies, experience, market demands, internal parity, and relevant education or training. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range and perks and benefits for your location during the hiring process.

Dolby will consider qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the requirements of San Francisco Police Code, Article 49, and Administrative Code, Article 12