Director Strategic Business Operations

Req ID: 16315

Work Flexibility: Hybrid

Acuity Inc. (NYSE: AYI) is a market-leading industrial technology company. We use technology to solve problems in spaces, light and more things to come. Through our two business segments, Acuity Brands Lighting (ABL) and Acuity Intelligent Spaces (AIS), we design, manufacture, and bring to market products and services that make a valuable difference in people’s lives.

We achieve growth through the development of innovative new products and services, including lighting, lighting controls, building management solutions, and an audio, video and control platform. We focus on customer outcomes and drive growth and productivity to increase market share and deliver superior returns. We look to aggressively deploy capital to grow the business and to enter attractive new verticals.

Acuity Inc. is based in Atlanta, Georgia, with operations across North America, Europe and Asia. The Company is powered by approximately 13,000 dedicated and talented associates. Visit us at www.acuityinc.com.

Job Summary

This role serves as a Legal Operations and Strategic Enablement leader responsible for improving the way the Legal team plans, prioritizes, executes, and measures work. The role will provide strategic project and operating-model leadership for priority Legal initiatives, lead disciplined outside counsel governance and legal vendor management, strengthen legal spend forecasting and budgeting, support compliance operations, and improve cost predictability, reporting, and value realization from external spend.

This position partners closely with Legal leadership, attorneys, Finance, Procurement, Compliance, IT, HR, and other stakeholders to translate priorities into clear plans, governance routines, legal department metrics, timelines, and measurable outcomes. The role is expected to bring structure, judgment, and practical execution support to complex or cross-functional initiatives, including legal process design, legal technology adoption, department reporting, compliance operations support, and special projects that support attorneys and Legal leaders.

This role is expected to help Legal leaders operate with greater discipline, transparency, and accountability by designing enterprise legal processes, reporting, governance routines, vendor-management practices, and operating rhythms that allow attorneys and legal leadership to focus on higher-value legal work.

Key Tasks & Responsibilities (Essential Functions)

Strategic Projects, Legal Operations & Team Enablement

Partner with Legal leadership to plan, manage, and execute strategic initiatives requiring project management, operational support, and cross-functional coordination.
Develop project plans, milestones, governance structures, ownership models, and implementation timelines to drive successful outcomes.
Identify risks, dependencies, resource needs, and decision points, providing practical recommendations and escalation when needed.
Support special projects related to process improvement, compliance, workforce initiatives, legal technology, reporting, outside counsel management, and business-facing implementation.
Build scalable frameworks, templates, playbooks, and governance routines that improve consistency, accountability, and execution across the Legal function.
Maintain momentum on key initiatives by tracking progress, clarifying next steps, and ensuring stakeholder follow-through.

Legal Operations Strategy & Process Excellence

Translate Legal leadership priorities into actionable operating plans, execution roadmaps, metrics, and reporting frameworks.
Provide visibility into Legal Operations priorities, status, resourcing, risks, and outcomes.
Design and improve legal processes that enhance efficiency, compliance, client service, accountability, and consistency.
Support legal technology adoption by defining workflows, documentation, reporting requirements, and user-facing tools.
Leverage data, dashboards, and stakeholder feedback to identify improvement opportunities and support informed decision-making.
Partner with Finance, Procurement, HR, IT, Compliance, and other functions to drive aligned execution and operational excellence.

Communications & Change Management

Develop clear, structured communications for Legal team members and business partners regarding priorities, process changes, governance routines, technology adoption, and key initiatives.
Create regular updates and reporting on progress, risks, spend, vendor performance, metrics, and outcomes.
Support change management efforts, including rollout of new processes, technologies, operating models, and governance practices.
Establish clear communication channels, escalation paths, and decision-making routines to improve efficiency and reduce ambiguity.

Outside Counsel, Vendor Management & Legal Spend

Lead outside counsel and legal vendor governance, including selection support, engagement standards, performance management, and relationship oversight.
Partner with attorneys and Finance to manage legal spend forecasting, budgeting, accruals, fee review, and cost-control initiatives.
Monitor vendor performance, spend trends, matter status, and resource utilization to identify efficiency, savings, and service improvement opportunities.
Develop reporting, scorecards, benchmarks, and metrics to measure performance and support decision-making.
Coordinate value-added services from outside counsel and vendors, including training, process improvements, technology support, and business partnerships.
Ensure outside counsel and vendor engagements are appropriately scoped, cost-effective, and aligned with business objectives and legal strategy.

Skills and Minimum Experience Required

Required

Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Operations Management, Information Systems, Economics, Finance, or a closely related field required.
8–12+ years of progressive experience in strategic operations, legal operations, consulting, and/or in‑house legal leadership support, including substantial responsibility for operating-model design, financial and performance analysis, process improvement, governance, technology-enabled workflows, and cross-functional program execution.
Demonstrated ability to translate ambiguous, cross-functional priorities into clear execution plans, operating models, governance routines, milestones, decision frameworks, reporting mechanisms, and measurable outcomes.
Experience designing or improving processes, playbooks, workflows, dashboards, reporting tools, data visibility, stakeholder communications, and adoption plans for enterprise functions.
Proven experience driving operational change and adoption.
Applied knowledge of legal department operating models, legal spend and vendor governance, financial and performance analysis, enterprise process design, technology-enabled workflows, data governance, and executive-level reporting.
Strong financial and analytical acumen including knowledge of budgeting, forecasting, investment analysis, ROI assessment, business case development, financial modeling, metrics, dashboards, and executive reporting. Experience partnering with senior leaders and cross-functional stakeholders such as Legal, Compliance, Finance, Procurement, IT, HR, or other enabling functions to improve operating discipline, scalability, and measurable business outcomes.

Preferred

Experience in a public company or complex, regulated environment.
Exposure to global legal operations or multi‑group legal teams, global expansion, M&A integration, or enterprise operating model transformation.
Background working with enterprise legal departments of meaningful Outside Counsel spend scale.
Project management, process automation, shared services, data governance, analytics, executive communications, or chief-of-staff-style enablement experience.

We value diversity and are an equal opportunity employer.  All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regards to race, color, age, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, ethnicity or national origin, disability, pregnancy, religion, covered veteran status, protected genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law. 

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Accommodation in the Application Process: Acuity Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. It complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and other applicable laws requiring reasonable accommodation of persons with disabilities in employment. This includes the provision of reasonable accommodation in the application process. If you believe you need reasonable accommodation to assist with our online application system or any aspect of the application process, please contact Human Resources at (770) 922-9000, and select option 4.  Please be prepared to identify the requisition / position applied for and the aspect of the application process for which you believe accommodation is needed. The company will engage in an interactive process with you to better understand the request and to determine whether reasonable accommodation is needed and available.

Any unsolicited resumes sent to Acuity Inc. from a third party, such as an Agency recruiter, including unsolicited resumes sent to an Acuity Inc. mailing address, fax machine or email address, directly to Acuity Inc. employees, or to Acuity Inc. resume database will be considered Acuity Inc. property. Acuity Inc. will NOT pay a fee for any placement resulting from the receipt of an unsolicited resume.

Acuity Inc. will consider any candidate for whom an Agency has submitted an unsolicited resume to have been referred by the Agency free of any charges or fees. This includes any Agency that is an approved/engaged vendor, but does not have the appropriate approvals to be engaged on a search.

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As you navigate your job search, please keep the following in mind:

No Financial Requests: Acuity will never ask candidates for payment, credit card information, banking details or other financial information during the interview process.

Verify Recruiter Communications: Legitimate communications from Acuity recruiters will come from an “@acuityinc.com” email address. If you are contacted by a recruiting agency regarding a role with Acuity, the agency should clearly identify itself and its relationship to Acuity. If you suspect any suspicious activity, verify the agency legitimacy by contacting +1 877-584-1411, option# 0.

Be Alert for Suspicious Activity: Exercise caution if you receive unsolicited outreach with unusual requests, grammatical errors, requests for personal or financial information, or pressure to act quickly. Always verify the sender before sharing information or clicking links.

Report Suspected Fraud: If you receive a suspicious message or believe someone is impersonating Acuity or one of our recruiting partners, please contact +1 877-584-141, option# 0, report the incident to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, or to your state attorney general.

Nearest Major Market: Atlanta
Job Segment: Operations Manager, Compliance, Machinist, Financial, Procurement, Operations, Legal, Manufacturing, Finance

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