Title:  Sr. Manager, Outside Counsel Management

Job Summary

At NetApp, we believe that operational excellence fuels innovation. We’re looking for a strategic leader to drive our global outside counsel management and legal billing operations. This is a high-impact role that directly supports the Legal Leadership Team and influences how we manage legal spend, optimize law firm and alternative legal service provider relationships, and deliver value across the enterprise.

This is a hybrid role located in our San Jose, CA office. We require 2 days in office per week.

Why This Role Matters: As Senior Manager, Outside Counsel Management, you will lead the transformation of how NetApp engages with outside counsel and manages legal billing. You’ll architect and execute programs that ensure cost efficiency, transparency, and high-quality legal support. Your work will shape how NetApp navigates complex legal landscapes, supports business growth, and drives accountability across our legal ecosystem. 

What You'll Do

• Design and implement NetApp’s outside counsel engagement strategy in partnership with legal leadership and internal stakeholders.
• Oversee the full law firm lifecycle—from selection and negotiation to performance and billing.
• Optimize our law firm roster to ensure the right expertise and jurisdictional coverage as NetApp evolves.
• Lead global negotiations on law firm agreements, rates, and alternative fee arrangements.
• Create competitive rate intelligence and benchmarking to aid in negotiations and ad hoc rate approvals.
• Launch cost-saving initiatives including preferred firm programs, competitive RFPs, and AFA frameworks.
• Develop and maintain KPIs, dashboards, and reporting tools to track performance and spend.
• Drive annual budgeting and monthly forecasting exercises in collaboration with Finance and legal teams.
• Work with each legal team to accurately track exposure, significant matters, and budget impact for their areas.
• Manage internal compliance program for law firm vendors, partnering with appropriate internal control teams.
• Ensure proper protections are in place in standard law firm agreement language Manage NetApp’s legal billing team and oversee all billing operations.
• Implement best practices for invoice review, savings enforcement, and global billing compliance.
• Partner with tax and AP teams to put proper billing and payment procedures in place in accordance with global laws and regulations Lead the annual outside counsel budgeting process and support department-wide planning.
• Partner with the Sr. Director of Legal Operations on strategic projects and executive initiatives.

What You'll Bring

• 10 years of experience in legal pricing environment.
• Experience working with large, geographically dispersed teams preferred.
• In-depth understanding of law firm pricing and billing practices and knowledge of outside counsel management programs for large, multi-national companies. 
• Proven success designing, negotiating and evaluating fee arrangements and managing law firm relationships.
• Strong understanding of legal matter lifecycles and industry best practices.
• Exceptional communication, project management, and stakeholder engagement skills.
• Working knowledge of corporate finance/budgeting practices.
• Experience with legal billing systems and tools such as Mitratech TeamConnect or similar.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office, SmartSheets, Tableau, PowerBI.
• Experience building high-performing teams and mentoring/developing talent.
• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Economics, or related field preferred.