Legal Operations Manager - In-House - Fin Services - Permanent - Melbourne

Summary

A rare chance for an experienced legal operations professional to join a large Australian financial services organisation in Melbourne. Reporting to the General Counsel and Head of Compliance, this newly created permanent role owns the legal and compliance operations roadmap across technology, process improvement, reporting and workflow automation. It will suit someone who likes designing and building processes and technology and enjoys working alongside senior stakeholders in a complex, regulated business.

The Company

Our client is a well-established Australian financial services organisation with a large customer base and a strong reputation as an employer.

Based in Melbourne, the business operates in a heavily regulated and fast-moving sector. Its Legal and Compliance function is well resourced, well regarded internally and led by a technology-minded General Counsel.

The legal team is close-knit, collaborative, and full of genuinely good operators who back each other. People are high performers, and there is real mutual respect across the group, and the wider business is supportive of the function rather than merely tolerant of it. Candidates who meet this team tend to want the job.

The Role

As Legal Operations Manager you will own the technology and process roadmap for the Legal and Compliance teams. This is a genuine greenfield role. You will have a clean slate to put the right systems and ways of working in place, with backing from a General Counsel who understands the value of the role and a business that has given it priority.

Your first six months will focus on establishing the legal electronic front door and matter management capability, improving document management, building reporting dashboards, and agreeing a realistic delivery plan that produces early visible wins.

Day to day, you will:

• Deliver the legal and compliance technology and process roadmap, then set the next 12 month optimisation plan.

• Build and embed automated workflows, procedures, and templates that cut manual effort and measure the time saved.

• Produce dashboards and reporting on legal and compliance activity, spend, and cycle times, with quarterly insights and recommended actions

• Lead needs assessments, vendor evaluations, implementation, rollout and training for legal and compliance systems.

• Work with Information Security and Technology to keep systems secure, current and well supported.

• Track technology and vendor spend against budget and find sensible cost savings.

• Partner with Risk, Finance, and Technology on joint projects, run internal training, and mentor junior team members.

• Provide day-to-day operational support to the team and lead special projects as they come up.

About You

You do not need to be a practising lawyer. Our client is looking for a proven operator who has driven efficiency inside a legal or compliance function and knows from experience what works and what does not. Strong candidates may come from legal operations, consulting, project delivery or legal technology backgrounds.

You are execution first. Ideas matter, but delivery plans matter more. You read the room well, adapt your style to stakeholders who range from highly structured to ideas driven, and you bring solutions rather than problems.

You will ideally bring:

• Tertiary qualifications in law, business, information systems or a related field, or equivalent experience in legal operations, process improvement or technology change.

• Extensive experience uplifting process and technology efficiency in a legal or compliance function, with a track record of rolling out legal tech and delivering measurable gains.

• Sound project and change management skills, with the perseverance to see complex change through.

• Strong analytical capability, including data analysis and business intelligence tools such as Power BI.

• Solid systems capability across the Microsoft suite plus tools on other platforms, with system administration experience highly regarded.

• Experience in a regulated financial services environment, along with exposure to compliance and risk frameworks (desirable).

On Offer

• Package of $260,000 to $280,000, including superannuation, depending on experience.

• Up to 15% superannuation, comfortably above the standard rate.

• 20 weeks of paid parental leave and early access to long service leave after three years.

• Permanent, full-time role based in Melbourne.

• Direct reporting line to the General Counsel and Head of Compliance.

• Genuine ownership of the legal operations function and its roadmap.

• A greenfield brief, with the mandate and budget to build it properly.

• High visibility across Legal, Compliance, Risk, Technology, and Finance.

• A close-knit, high-performing, and genuinely collaborative team, with strong leadership backing.

• Generous study and professional development support, including dedicated training days each year.

• Financial coaching and support towards personal financial advice.

• Additional leave over the Christmas office closure, plus a wider benefits program.

Why Apply?

This role will appeal to someone who wants:

• A high-profile in-house role with a direct line to the General Counsel

• Real ownership of a legal and compliance operations roadmap, not a seat on someone else's project

• The chance to build systems, workflow and reporting capability from a clean slate

• Broad exposure across Legal, Compliance, Risk, Finance, and Technology

• Scope to scale the function over time, including into other states and potentially offshore

• A purpose-led Australian organisation where the work is visible and valued

• A team culture worth moving for, collaborative, supportive, and full of high performers

Next Steps

This role is moving quickly. If it is of interest, please apply via SEEK with your CV. For a confidential discussion, contact Andrew Murdoch at Dovetail Legal Recruitment at ••••@dovetaillaw.com.au.

All inquiries and applications will be treated in strict confidence.

Dovetail Legal Recruitment

Founded in 2015, Dovetail Legal Recruitment is Australia’s only dedicated in-house legal recruiter. We have made 400+ placements, assisted hundreds of companies, and supported the careers of thousands of lawyers across the Australian legal market.