Head of Business Operations - Cooley AI

Cooley AI; San Francisco (CA); Sur place; USD 180 000 - 280 000; Plein temps

Résumé du poste

Cooley AI, the AI-focused arm of Cooley LLP, seeks a Head of Business Operations to design and run the operational backbone for a fast-growth tech-enabled legal practice. You will translate strategy into actionable plans, implement governance, and lead cross-functional efforts across budgeting, workflow automation, and tooling like Slack and Jira.

The role requires executive-level leadership, hands-on process design, and the ability to scale operations from zero to scale while partnering with

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required or equivalent professional experience.
• Proven ability to build operations from the ground up in tech-enabled environments.
• Experience designing scalable workflows and automation across functions.

Responsabilités

• Build and scale the operations foundation from scratch with practical planning cycles and governance.
• Oversee day-to-day operations and coordinate with cross-functional teams on roles and escalation paths.
• Drive alignment across teams, manage priorities, dependencies and decision points.
• Identify gaps and risks, surface issues, and drive timely resolutions with leadership.
• Translate strategy into sequenced operating plans, resource needs and measurable outcomes.
• Establish governance, escalation, and budget processes with finance partners.
• Own operating budget, forecasting, and cost optimization for AI initiatives and tooling.
• Roll out AI-enabled workflows and work instructions with playbooks and adoption metrics.

Connaissances

Leadership

Cross-functional collaboration

Strategic planning

Budgeting and financial planning

Process design and optimization

People management

Travel willingness

Formation

Bachelor's degree

Outils

Slack

Jira

iManage

Microsoft Office

Description du poste

Head of Business Operations - Cooley AI

Cooley AI is seeking a Head of Business Operations.

About Cooley AI:

Cooley AI is the wholly owned subsidiary of Cooley LLP and the frontier development arm of the leading technology law firm in the world. Our mission is to bring the best-in-class practices from the technology field into the legal domain to help lead our firm and the legal industry into the AI era. All employees of Cooley AI are employees of Cooley and are seconded to Cooley AI.

Position summary:

As a leading technology law firm, Cooley is determined to become a leader in the digital practice of law. The Head of Business Operations will build and run the operational foundation of Cooley AI. This hands-on leadership role will establish the systems, processes, governance and operating cadence needed to grow from zero to one and create the discipline needed to rapidly scale beyond. Working closely with Cooley AI leadership, this role will translate strategy into operating plans, drive cross-functional alignment and execution, own budgeting and forecasting in partnership with Cooley LLP’s finance department, operationalize AI-native workflows and ensure policies are translated into practical, scalable operating practices. The successful candidate will combine strategic judgment with operational discipline and resourcefulness to build an AI-native operating environment that enables all Cooley AI teams to collaborate and effectively execute against shared priorities. Specific duties and responsibilities include, but are not limited to, the following:

Position responsibilities:

• Build business operations from the ground up, establishing practical planning cycles, approval paths and documentation that support speed, accountability and growth
• Own day-to-day business operations and lead initiatives from problem definition through implementation, simplifying processes and coordinating with Cooley LLP’s cross-functional teams on responsibilities and escalation paths
• Drive cross-functional alignment across Cooley AI teams, ensuring priorities, ownership, dependencies and decision points are clear and coordinated
• Identify cross-functional dependencies, structural gaps, and execution risks across Cooley AI initiatives. Proactively surface issues and drive resolution with the appropriate leaders and teams
• Partner with Cooley AI leadership to translate strategic priorities into sequenced operating plans, resource requirements and measurable outcomes
• Establish clear decision rights, governance structures and escalation paths across Cooley AI initiatives to support accountability, speed and effective execution
• Own Cooley AI’s operating budget, financial planning, expense management and invoicing in partnership with Cooley LLP’s finance department; translate business priorities into spending plans and resource requirements
• Monitor spending against budget, explain variances and surface risks early; build scenario models and business cases to guide investment decisions, including software, cloud and AI model costs
• Design, implement and oversee Cooley AI’s organization-wide, AI-native workplace technology ecosystem, including Slack and Jira, to create closed-loop workflows that connect communication, collaboration, documentation and execution; partner with technical teams where engineering support is needed
• Operationalize Cooley AI policies into practical procedures and controls in partnership with security, legal, HR and other functional teams, including data handling, access, records, exceptions and escalation
• Lead rollout and adoption of AI-enabled workflows through playbooks, user guidance and feedback loops; define workflow owners and fallback procedures, measure adoption and ROI, and continuously improve operational effectiveness
• Create operating cadences and forums that enable Cooley AI leadership and functional teams to make timely decisions, resolve blockers and stay aligned on priorities and progress
• Build and lead the business operations team, setting priorities, developing talent and establishing accountability for results
• Serve as direct supervisor and mentor to direct reports
• Provide day-to-day supervision of direct reports, ensure compliance with assigned work hours and monitor for compliance with all firm and department policies. Manage staffing coverage, review and process time logs/time off requests
• Support business professional development and continued educational opportunities
• In collaboration with immediate supervisor and central HR, participate in hiring, performance appraisals, counseling, termination and other employee lifecycle events
• All other duties as assigned or 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
• 8+ years progressive experience in business operations or a related operating role, including hands-on experience building operations from the ground up in a growing technology or analogous business, with 4+ years of management experience in relevant roles
• Bachelor’s degree
• Demonstrated experience building processes or operational functions from an early stage
• Experience designing and improving organization-wide workflows, systems and processes, with a strong orientation toward automation, efficiency and scalable operations
• Proven track record of effective leadership

Preferred:

• Experience building or scaling AI-enabled business operations
• Experience designing and managing an integrated workplace technology ecosystem across platforms such as Slack and Jira, including workflow automation and systems integration
• Experience leading cross-functional rollout and adoption of AI-enabled workflows
• Experience implementing operational policies and controls in a regulated, security-conscious or professional-services environment

Competencies:

• Ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced, ambiguous environment
• Strong judgment and problem-solving skills, with the ability to identify ambiguity, surface risks and dependencies, and develop practical solutions with limited direction
• Ability to translate operational problems into governed, standardized, scalable systems