Head of Legal Operations & Chief of Staff

Scale AI · San Francisco, CA

Executive San Francisco, CA Posted May 16, 2026 180,600 – 225,750 USD

The Head of Legal Operations and Chief of Staff acts as the primary strategic partner to the General Counsel, ensuring the department’s operational goals are in lockstep with the company’s broader vision. This role is responsible for turning the Legal & Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) team into a high-performing business unit–- providing the processes, technology, and data insights necessary to enable a 30+-person global team. You will lead a 2-person Legal Operations team, focusing on high-level strategy and enabling your team to lead their respective workstreams with high degrees of autonomy and accountability.

You will:

Strategic Partnership (Chief of Staff): Partner with the GC and Legal Leadership (Commercial, Corporate, Litigation, Product, GRC, and Public Sector) to define and execute long-term strategy. Own operational planning cycles, including the OKR process, roadmap development, and All-Hands meetings, to ensure cross-functional alignment and maximize the team’s impact.
Team Leadership & Mentorship: Manage and mentor the Contracts Manager and Legal Program Manager, empowering them to lead their functional areas with high autonomy. Provide mentorship on a dotted-line basis to subject matter experts (e.g., Corporate Paralegal, Privacy Program Manager), ensuring process consistency and high-standard workstreams across the broader Legal & GRC organization.
Success Management: Design and own the reporting framework for tracking departmental success. Oversee the development of automated dashboards that provide real-time progress against goals, utilizing AI to synthesize data into actionable insights for the GC and Legal Leadership Team.
Legal Finance & Vendor Strategy: Manage the global Legal budget, forecasting, and accruals. While partnering with the Procurement team for general needs, you will directly lead the strategy for Legal-specific vendors, including outside counsel and legal tech providers. Drive outside counsel management strategy, emphasizing data-driven performance reviews and the negotiation of arrangements that optimize litigation and specialty matter spend.
Process & Technology: Maintain and optimize a world-class Legal & GRC tech stack (e.g., CLM, e-billing, and litigation tools). Drive business velocity by designing streamlined intake and triage systems for Product and Engineering teams and implementing practical, automated workflow solutions.
Risk & Litigation Operations: Direct the litigation technology strategy, including the legal hold lifecycle and e-discovery workflows, to ensure defensible compliance in partnership with IT and Security. Develop and maintain strategic risk registers that provide the GC, Legal Leadership, and executive leadership with a clear, data-driven view of the company’s risk landscape.

Ideally you'd have:

Experience: 10+ years of professional experience, with a solid background in Legal Operations, Strategy, or Management Consulting in a high-growth environment.
Education: Bachelor’s degree required. An Engineering degree, MBA, or JD is a significant plus.
Technical Proficiency: Practical experience with legal technology (e.g., Ironclad, Brightflag) and a curiosity for how AI/automation can solve routine legal hurdles. Familiarity with litigation-specific tools (e.g., Logikcull, Relativity, or specialized legal hold software) is highly preferred.
Analytical & Risk Modeling: Ability to design and maintain strategic risk registers and financial models. You can translate raw data from various workstreams into a cohesive risk landscape (e.g., impact vs. likelihood heatmaps) that informs executive decision-making. Partner with the GC and Legal Leadership to model potential exposure, manage entity-related risks, and inform corporate reserves.
Mindset: A pragmatic, "get it done" attitude. You can navigate ambiguity, represent the GC in executive forums, and prioritize the tasks that provide the most value to the department.
Communication: Exceptional ability to translate operational data into clear, concise updates for the GC and executive leadership.

Compensation packages at Scale for eligible roles include base salary, equity, and benefits. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position and may be inclusive of several career levels at Scale; it will be determined during the interview process based on work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, qualifications, interview performance, and relevant education or training. Scale employees in eligible roles are also granted equity based compensation, subject to Board of Director approval. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for your preferred location during the hiring process, and confirm whether the hired role will be eligible for equity grant. You'll also receive benefits including, but not limited to: comprehensive health, dental and vision coverage, retirement benefits, a learning and development stipend, and generous PTO. Additionally, this role may be eligible for additional benefits such as a commuter stipend.

Please reference the job posting's subtitle for where this position will be located. For pay transparency purposes, the base salary range for this full-time position in the locations of San Francisco, New York, Seattle is:

$180,600—$225,750 USD

PLEASE NOTE: Our policy requires a 90-day waiting period before reconsidering candidates for the same role. This allows us to ensure a fair and thorough evaluation of all applicants.

About Us:

At Scale, our mission is to develop reliable AI systems for the world's most important decisions. Our products provide the high-quality data and full-stack technologies that power the world's leading models, and help enterprises and governments build, deploy, and oversee AI applications that deliver real impact. We work closely with industry leaders like Meta, Cisco, DLA Piper, Mayo Clinic, Time Inc., the Government of Qatar, and U.S. government agencies including the Army and Air Force. We are expanding our team to accelerate the development of AI applications.

We believe that everyone should be able to bring their whole selves to work, which is why we are proud to be an inclusive and equal opportunity workplace. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability status, gender identity or Veteran status.

We are committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with physical and mental disabilities. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation in the application or recruiting process due to a disability, please contact us at accommodations@scale.com. Please see the United States Department of Labor's Know Your Rights poster for additional information.

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