Sr. Manager, Legal Operations

Job Description

We are hiring a Senior Manager, Legal Operations to own outside counsel management and legal billing operations for a large, global pharmaceutical company. The role centers on managing a global law firm panel, negotiating rates and AFAs, enforcing billing compliance, and driving cost efficiency through analytics and strategic spend governance. The ideal candidate brings at least 7 years of hands-on in-house legal billing and outside counsel management experience, proficiency with enterprise e-Billing platforms such as TeamConnect, and the ability to operate as a subject-matter authority across Legal, Finance, and Procurement. This is a high impact individual contributor role for an experienced legal operations professional who brings deep expertise regarding in house legal billing operations, outside counsel management, and strategic legal spend governance. The Senior Manager will have a significant impact on how Gilead engages with outside counsel — managing our law firm panel, competitive RFP process, and rate negotiations through billing compliance, performance management, and analytics. The right candidate will hit the ground running drawing on strong experience and knowledge of best practices and how to support them in a complex global organization. This position reports into the Senior Director, Legal Technology & Operations and is Foster City, CA based.

Responsibilities:

Outside Counsel & Vendor Management

• Manage and continuously optimize a global law firm panel ensuring competitive pricing across Gilead's key practice areas and geographies.
• Support RFP processes and robust evaluation frameworks that assess quality, value, and strategic fit alongside price.
• Manage and track outside counsel agreements including hourly rates, blended rates, volume discounts, and Alternative Fee Arrangements (AFAs) such as fixed fees and fee caps.
• Maintain a rigorous rate benchmarking program, leveraging market data to inform ad hoc rate approvals, regular rate review cycles, and negotiation strategy.
• Coordinate outside counsel management infrastructure: outside counsel guidelines (OCGs), standard engagement letters, billing policies, matter budgeting requirements, and staffing approval processes.
• Serve as the primary relationship manager for strategic law firm relationships re operations and billing.
• Identify potential opportunities to shift work to lower cost providers and alternative legal service providers (ALSPs)

Legal Billing Operations

• Support the annual legal budgeting process and monthly forecasting exercise, working with senior stakeholders to track exposure, significant matters, and budget impact.
• Support the strategic use of TeamConnect for ebilling and matter management, including user engagement and support.
• Oversee ebilling workflows and coordinate legal spend reporting and dashboards.
• Develop and maintain SOPs, playbooks, and training materials
• Implement and enforce billing compliance controls — including LEDES format requirements, timekeeper rate approvals, billing guideline validations, and invoice review protocols
• Identify opportunities to automate manual billing and reporting workflows, reducing administrative burden and improving data accuracy

Reporting & Analytics

• Work with the Legal Operations team to further develop and enhance dashboards and reports for Legal stakeholders that support strategic decisions on resourcing, firm relationships, and legal spend governance.
• Clearly present complex spend data, insights and recommendations to senior stakeholders
• Develop KPIs and scorecards to assess law firm performance

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE

Minimum Required Education and Years of Experience

• Bachelor's Degree and Eight Years’ Experience OR
• Masters' Degree and Six Years’ Experience OR
• Ph.D.

Preferred Education and Years of Experience

• A minimum of 7 years of progressive, hands-on experience in legal operations, legal finance, or in-house legal billing — with direct responsibility for outside counsel management and/or e-billing operations in a large, complex organization.
• Demonstrated expertise in law firm rate negotiation, AFA structuring, and billing guideline enforcement
• Proficiency with enterprise e-billing and matter management platforms (TeamConnect or equivalent)
• Experience with rate benchmarking tools and market data sources
• Strong communication skills and ability to work within a cohesive team
• Demonstrated ability to partner across functions, including Legal, Finance, Procurement, and IT, and to influence without direct authority.
• Experience in a global pharmaceutical, biotech, or similarly complex regulated industry.
• Familiarity with CLOC or other Legal Operations competency frameworks and industry benchmarking.
• Experience supporting an outside counsel management program — including reviewing OCGs and managing law firm panels.

People Leader Accountabilities

Create Inclusion

• knowing the business value of diverse teams, modeling inclusion, and embedding the value of diversity in the way they manage their teams.

Develop Talent

• understand the skills, experience, aspirations and potential of their employees and coach them on current performance and future potential. They ensure employees are receiving the feedback and insight needed to grow, develop and realize their purpose.

Empower Teams

• connect the team to the organization by aligning goals, purpose, and organizational objectives, and holding them to account. They provide the support needed to remove barriers and connect their team to the broader ecosystem.