Strategy & Operations Manager

Job Description

Cozen O’Connor is a leading U.S. law firm with a long track record of growth and an entrepreneurial leadership team that takes the business of law seriously. We are hiring a Strategy & Operations Manager to join the Office of the Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer that works on the most important issues facing the firm.

This role suits someone who likes variety, ambiguity, and proximity to decision-makers. In any given quarter you might help a practice group sharpen its growth strategy, help the firm shape and deploy a high-impact AI tool, and lead an end-to-end rebuild of a core operational process. You will work across practices, departments, and firm leadership. The role offers broad exposure to firm leadership and to the full scope of running a modern professional services firm.

Responsibilities

The portfolio is broad. Expect a mix of strategy, operations, and transformation work across three areas:

Firm Strategy

• Support the development and execution of the firm’s strategic plan.
• Partner with practice group leaders, department heads, and administrative leaders on growth strategy, market expansion, pricing, talent, and other commercial topics.
• Build the analyses, materials, and recommendations that firm leadership uses to make decisions.
• Translate findings into actionable plans the business actually adopts — and stay involved through execution.

AI & Innovation

• Identify high-value AI use cases in partnership with our innovation team, and help shape buy-vs-build decisions.
• Help deploy AI, focusing on the hard work of process design, change management, and adoption that determines whether AI tools deliver value.
• Stay close to how AI is reshaping legal services and surface new opportunities early.

Operational Transformation

• Lead end-to-end redesigns of complex, cross-functional business processes — from diagnosis through implementation and adoption.
• Identify opportunities to simplify and modernize how work gets done across the firm.
• Bring structured problem-solving and project management discipline to operations work.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in management consulting, strategy, or business operations roles. Experience at a top management consulting firm is a strong plus.
• A demonstrated ability to structure ambiguous problems, do the analytical work to solve them, and drive recommendations into execution.
• Strong analytical toolkit — fluent in Excel and PowerPoint, comfortable working with data, and increasingly fluent with AI tools.
• Excellent written and verbal communication; the ability to make complex topics simple and to brief senior executives effectively.
• Project management discipline — you can run multiple workstreams in parallel, hit deadlines, and manage stakeholders without being asked.
• Genuine curiosity about AI and emerging technologies and how they will reshape professional services.
• High EQ, low ego, and the kind of judgment that earns trust with senior leaders on sensitive work.
• A bachelor’s degree is required. An MBA, JD, or other advanced degree is a plus but not required.
• Experience in legal, financial, or other professional services is helpful but not required.

Why Cozen O’Connor

• A real seat at the table. You will work directly with the firm’s most senior leaders on the issues they care most about — with the mandate to drive ideas through to execution, not just shape them.
• Scope and variety. Strategy, operations, AI, growth — you will touch all of it.
• A front-row seat to the AI shift. This is one of the most interesting moments to be in legal services, and the firm is investing accordingly.
• Hybrid flexibility. Based in Philadelphia, New York, or Washington, D.C., with a hybrid in-office/remote schedule.
• Compensation and benefits. A competitive package.

The salary range for this role is $150,000 - $175,000 and represents the Firm’s good faith and reasonable estimate of the range of possible compensation at the time of posting. Actual compensation will be dependent upon a number of factors, including but not limited to, the candidate’s relevant experience, qualifications and location.