Director of Group Legal & Legal Operations

Director of Group Legal & Legal Operations

Industry: Consumer

Location: London

Reports to: Chief Legal Officer

Direct reports: 3

The Opportunity

We are working with a major international organisation to appoint a Director of Group Legal & Legal Operations into a senior leadership role within its global legal function.

Sitting on the Legal and wider Business Leadership Teams, the role combines senior legal leadership, Legal Operations, transformation, technology, procurement and governance. A key focus will be building a more efficient, scalable, data-led and future-ready legal function, with particular emphasis on AI, legal technology and process improvement.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and develop the Legal Operations strategy, improving legal service delivery, processes and ways of working.
• Drive the adoption of legal technology, automation and AI-enabled tools across the function.
• Identify practical AI use cases across areas such as drafting, research, contract review, knowledge management, matter triage and reporting.
• Establish scalable processes across matter intake, contracting, workflow management and legal service delivery.
• Define and track Legal KPIs, management information and performance reporting.
• Partner with senior stakeholders across Technology, Finance, People and Strategic Projects.
• Provide senior legal support on significant commercial and strategic matters.
• Manage Legal and Procurement budgets, external counsel relationships and legal spend.
• Oversee Procurement and support corporate and subsidiary governance.
• Lead, coach and develop a high-performing team across Group Legal, Legal Operations and Procurement.

Candidate Profile

We are looking for a senior qualified lawyer, likely 12+ PQE who has strong experience in consumer lead businesses, with strong commercial judgement and the credibility to operate at C-suite and leadership level.

The successful candidate will bring:

• Broad commercial legal and corporate governance experience, ideally gained within or closely supporting a consumer-focused business.
• Strong Legal Operations or legal transformation experience.
• Practical understanding and proficiency in AI, legal technology and automation.
• Experience improving legal processes, service delivery and operating models.
• Confidence using data, KPIs and reporting to drive decision-making.
• Experience managing external counsel, budgets and supplier relationships.
• Strong stakeholder management and the ability to lead through influence.
• A track record of driving change and continuous improvement.
• A highly adaptable and agile approach, comfortable operating in a fast-changing environment.
• An engaging and energising leadership style, with the ability to bring people with them through periods of change.
• A collaborative mindset, with a strong focus on working together across teams and functions.
• A genuine commitment to coaching, developing and empowering others to perform at their best.

Candidates do not need to be technologists, but they should be confident users of AI and legal technology and able to demonstrate how these tools can improve the efficiency, quality and scalability of a modern legal function.

If this is of interest please click apply.