Firm Operations Project Manager

Cooley LLP; Washington (District of Columbia); Hybrid; USD 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Health Savings Account

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

Flexible spending accounts

Commuter benefits

Life insurance

AD&D

Long-term care

PTO 21 days

Paid holidays 10

Parental leave

Job summary

Cooley LLP is seeking a Firm Operations Project Manager to lead and coordinate multiple high-profile projects within the Firm Operations team. The role requires strong PM and planning experience, with flexibility for extended hours and travel.

The position supports a hybrid work model, combining in-office collaboration with remote work, and reports to Firm Operations leadership. A Bachelor’s degree and PMP are preferred. Compensation ranges with location, experience, and skill set.

Qualifications

• After orientation at Cooley LLP, proficiency in the Microsoft Office suite and iManage is required.
• Ability to work extended and/or weekend hours, as required.
• Ability to travel, as required.
• 3+ years of project management and planning experience; senior candidates 5+ years.

Responsibilities

• Establish familiarity with project lifecycles including agile software development and vendor selection.
• Research project frameworks to start and deliver projects efficiently.
• Analyze work to ensure cost-effective options and propose changes where appropriate.
• Document and measure business needs and project outcomes, guiding stakeholders end-to-end.
• Research market relevance and monitor changing conditions impacting scope.
• Build and maintain delivery/test plans to surface risks and dependencies early.
• Maintain project plans in the firm’s PPM platform as the single source of truth.
• Prepare change management and communication plans for delivery readiness.
• Deliver key artifacts: roles, scope, requirements, test and release plans, etc.
• Communicate progress and risks to leadership; elevate when in doubt.
• Coordinate with teams to manage resource constraints and overlapping work.
• Adhere to evolving delivery standards and establish program KPIs and reports.

Skills

Project management

Microsoft Office

iManage

Travel readiness

Education

Bachelor’s degree

PMP credential

Tools

iManage

Job description

Firm Operations Project Manager

Cooley LLP is seeking a Project Manager to join the Firm Operations team.

About Cooley

Cooley is a global law firm with an expansive practice and more than 3,000 employees and partners worldwide. We value and celebrate diverse perspectives and strive to create a workplace where every individual can thrive. At the core of Cooley’s success is the exceptional talent and unwavering spirit of our people. We embrace individuality while fostering a ‘one-firm’ culture where collaboration and creativity thrive. Our people are the foundation of our success and the driving force behind everything we do.

Hybrid Schedule Philosophy

As part of the Cooley culture, we recognize and appreciate the value of being together, in person, to build comradery with others in the office and to be a contributing member of the Cooley office. However, we also appreciate the benefits and flexibility that come from remote working. As such, the default assumption for employees and partners is a hybrid schedule: some in-office presence and some work from home days absent certain essential in-office roles that require five (5) days/week in-office

Position summary

Cooley Firm Operations embraces a culture of excellence and transparency, and all members of the department are expected to move this agenda forward. The Firm Operations Project Manager will proactively manage multiple related critical projects to achieve a specific organizational goal(s), ensuring that all requisite projects are being actively driven and seamlessly coordinated with the firm’s evolving platform/data and digital workplace strategies. The Firm Operations Project Manager should, at a moment’s notice, be able to report accurately and cohesively regarding the status of a given project and should feel comfortable managing up to five high-profile initiatives simultaneously. As a team member within central firm operations, the Firm Operations Project Manager is expected to understand the full intake/demand cycle, inclusive of budgeting and procurement so that they may guide their program stakeholders through an end-to-end experience with all operational aspects of program-related business.

Specific duties and responsibilities

• Establish rapid familiarity with various project lifecycles including but not limited to agile custom software development, software and vendor selection (RFI/RFP), process reengineering initiatives
• Extensively research project frameworks where required to quickly self-start and deliver various types of projects successfully
• Critically analyze work on receipt and on an ongoing basis, ensuring the most efficient and cost-effective options are employed, factoring in detailed assessments of in-house assets and proposing business process changes where appropriate
• Ensure that business needs and desired project outcomes are documented and measured (during and post-implementation) at a detailed and comprehensive level, continually leading to better decisions and investments
• Extensively research and understand market relevance (and alternatives) and monitor for changing conditions that may impact the scope or body of work
• Proactively build and maintain delivery and test plans that are built to surface issues, risks and dependencies as early as possible
• Ensure that project/task dates, assignments and regular updates are made consistently in the project management platform (project plans in the firm’s PPM platform should serve as one-stop shop for what’s happening on a given project at any point in time)
• Ensure stakeholder and firm operational readiness for delivery of work, build and deliver change management and communication plans accordingly
• Ensure that all key project artifacts are delivered – roles and responsibilities, scope statement/charter, business requirements, test plan, release plan, change management and communication plan, etc
• Proactively and transparently communicate bodies of work, progress/stoppages, potential risks and issues to team leadership on a proactive and ongoing basis; when in doubt, elevate
• Work intra and inter team to understand, evaluate and action enterprise resource constraints, work/delivery overlap, and areas where outcomes and business benefits are not adequately well-defined to warrant firm investment
• Adhere to consistently evolving and improving delivery standards established by team/department leadership
• Establish and maintain program-level KPIs and reports
• All other duties as required.

Skills and experience

Required: After orientation at Cooley LLP, exhibit proficiency in the Microsoft Office suite, iManage and other firm applications. Ability to work extended and/or weekend hours, as required. Ability to travel, as required. 3+ years project management and planning experience implementing projects. Senior candidates must have 5+ years applicable experience in the field.

Preferred: Bachelor’s degree. Certified Project Manager (from accredited program) and/or PMP credential. Experience with a suite of projects/programs inclusive of process reengineering and improvement, software and vendor evaluation and selection (RFPs) and implementation, and agile custom software development. Experience working in the legal and/or operations industry.

Competencies

• Ability to trust and elicit trust
• Strategic, critical thinking and reasoning skills
• Excellent verbal and written comprehension skills
• Strong business acumen
• Risk intelligent, anticipatory and perceptive
• Proactive and agile, able to think 5 steps ahead
• Outcome-driven and solution-oriented; driver and task-maker rather than task-taker
• Deep blend of delivery experience and business analysis experience
• Able to juggle and prioritize multiple competing priorities; swift turnaround on deliverables to be able to manage multiple critical initiatives at once
• Comfortable operating within a grey area and willing to ask questions and ask for help
• Expert collaboration and communication skills, ability to professionally convey clear and concise information to any audience

Cooley offers a competitive compensation and excellent benefits package and is committed to fair and equitable employment practices. EOE.

The expected annual pay range for this position with a full-time schedule is $110,000 - $160,000. Please note that final offer amount will be dependent on geographic location, applicable experience and skillset of the candidate. Senior level candidates may be considered for this position and would be eligible for a higher salary range based on experience.

We offer a full range of elective benefits including medical, health savings account (with applicable medical plan), dental, vision, health and/or dependent care flexible spending accounts, pre-tax commuter benefits, life insurance, AD&D, long-term care coverage, backup care for children and/or adults and other parental support benefits.

In addition to elective benefit options, benefited employees receive firm-paid life insurance, AD&D, LTD, short term medical benefits as well as 21 days of Paid Time Off (“PTO”) and 10 paid holidays each year.

We provide generous parental leave and fertility benefits. New employees will attend a detailed benefit orientation to learn more about our many benefits and resources.