Legal Operations Lead

Bridgewater Associates; Kansas City (KS); On-site; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Bridgewater Associates is seeking an experienced Legal Operations Lead to join its Legal & Regulatory Group. The role owns operational, technology, vendor, and financial workstreams to run the department as a data-driven, forward-looking unit.

In the near term, you’ll review invoices, administer e-billing and matter management systems, manage vendors and outside counsel, and support AI adoption. Long term, lead budgeting, metrics, and process design across Legal and Compliance.

Qualifications

• Experience in a mature legal operations function.
• Ability to own detailed workstreams independently with governance and cost discipline.
• Strong operational and analytical acumen in a legal context.

Responsibilities

• Own the day-to-day administration of the Legal Department’s technology stack including CLM, e-billing, document management, and compliance-monitoring platforms; manage vendor relationships and renewals.
• Oversee e-billing and outside-counsel invoice review end-to-end, ensure compliance with billing guidelines, track accruals and spend, and reduce leakage.
• Manage onboarding, matter setup, billing questions, and rates for outside counsel and legal service providers; monitor performance and vendor records.
• Help evolve outside-counsel and vendor management strategy, design and run RFPs, negotiate alternative fee arrangements, and build an outside-counsel panel.
• Partner with COO on budgeting, forecasting and spend reporting; provide data and analysis for planning and senior decision-making.
• Develop and maintain Legal Operations KPIs, including spend, matter volume, cycle times, and vendor performance.

Job description

About Bridgewater

Bridgewater Associates is a premier asset management firm, focused on delivering unique insight and partnership for the most sophisticated global institutional investors.

Bridgewater Associates is a community of independent thinkers who share a commitment to excellence. By fostering a culture of openness, transparency, and inclusion, we strive to unlock the most complex questions in investment strategy, management, and corporate culture.

Explore more information about Bridgewater on our website here.

Our Culture

Our culture is anchored in excellence, meaning constant improvement, and it is deeply tied to our mission. Because markets are objective, competitive, and getting smarter everyday, we need to keep rapidly improving to have any chance of beating them. Truth is our most essential tool for engaging with the markets and constantly improving because once you know what's true about your problems and opportunities, you can determine how to get better. Valuing truth means being transparent about your decision-making and mistakes, giving and receiving feedback with humility, and fighting for the best answers over hierarchy, ego, or self-interest. Operating this way is hard – it's only possible because we build meaning in our work and relationships. This meaning comes from the audacity of the mission, and the joy of working alongside people who make you a better version of yourself. The culture, like Bridgewater itself, is always evolving. In 1997 our founder Ray Dalio wrote down his lessons, starting with a Philosophy Statement which remains our foundation. This later evolved into a set of 300+ Principles. In 2022, when Ray transitioned the company, we re-underwrote several of those principles and evolved others, with a specific focus on Meritocracy. Today the culture sits, alongside our people, as our most important edge. When we get it right, it’s the engine that powers everything else.

Explore more information about Bridgewater’s culture on our website here.

About the Legal & Regulatory Department

The Legal & Regulatory Group (LRG) partners with Bridgewater’s businesses to safeguard the legal and regulatory interests of the firm and its clients, manage legal risk, and ensure employees uphold the highest legal and ethical standards. Our team maintains in-house expertise across a broad range of areas, including corporate, investment management, private funds, governance, intellectual property, employment, commercial law, dispute resolution, regulatory affairs and compliance. We work closely with departments across the firm and manage active relationships with external counsel. As part of our commitment to excellence and continuous improvement, we integrate advanced technology and broader service initiatives into our legal practice. We leverage cutting‑edge artificial intelligence and advanced technology platforms to strengthen our strategic capabilities and deliver scalable, forward‑looking solutions that support businesses across the firm. The team also maintains a deep and ongoing commitment to pro bono service, reflecting our belief that the full strength of our legal expertise should be deployed not only for our clients but also in service of the broader community.

About the Role

We are seeking an experienced Legal Operations Lead to join our Legal & Regulatory Group (LRG), reporting to the Chief Operating Officer of the Legal Department. This role owns key operational, technology, vendor, and financial workstreams that enable the department to run as an efficient, data‑driven, and forward‑looking business unit.

This is a growth role by design. In the near term, the Legal Operations Lead will spend meaningful time in the details — reviewing invoices, administering our e‑billing and matter management systems, managing vendors and outside counsel, enforcing outside counsel guidelines, and supporting the responsible adoption of artificial intelligence. That operational foundation has to be excellent before more strategic work can be layered on top of it.

In the long term, the role is expected to grow into broader ownership of the Legal Operations strategy, including vendor and outside counsel guidelines, the legal technology roadmap, budget and spend management, metrics and reporting, and process design across Legal and Compliance.

The ideal candidate brings strong operational and analytical acumen, has hands‑on experience in a mature legal operations function — whether at a larger organization or law firm — and is comfortable independently owning detailed workstreams while maintaining strong governance, security, and cost discipline. We are looking for someone who is excellent at the fundamentals and eager to take on greater ownership and strategic scope as the role and function evolve.

Responsibilities

• Own the day-to-day administration of the Legal Department’s technology stack, including matter management, contract lifecycle management (CLM), e‑billing, document management, legal research, and compliance‑monitoring platforms; manage vendor relationships, renewals, implementations, and ongoing adoption.
• Own the e‑billing and outside‑counsel invoice review process end to end, including reviewing invoices for compliance with billing guidelines, managing approvals, timely tracking accruals, maintaining accurate spend data, and identifying and resolving spend leakage.
• Manage the operational lifecycle of outside counsel and other legal service providers, including onboarding, matter setup, billing questions, timekeeper rates, staying apprised of outside counsel market rate data, guideline compliance, vendor records, and ongoing performance management.
• Help evolve the department’s outside‑counsel and vendor management strategy, including designing and running RFPs, negotiating alternative fee arrangements, discounts, and caps, and building a more formal outside‑counsel panel and performance scorecard process.
• Partner with the COO on departmental budgeting, forecasting, and financial management, maintaining accurate spend reporting, identifying variances and trends, and preparing data and analysis to support planning and executive‑level decision‑making.
• Build and maintain Legal Operations reporting and KPIs, including metrics on spend, matter volume, cycle times, vendor performance, and other measures of departmental efficiency and effectiveness.