Legal Operations Specialist

Location: San Diego, CA | Employment Type: Full-Time, Hourly

About the role

Soapy Joe's is more than a car wash—we're one of San Diego's fastest-growing companies and a recognized leader in the customer experience industry. As we continue to expand, we're building the legal infrastructure needed to support a high-growth, multi-site organization. We're looking for a highly organized, proactive, and detail-oriented Legal Operations Specialist to join our team. This is a unique opportunity to become one of the foundational members of our legal function and work directly with our General Counsel on a broad range of legal, governance, compliance, employment, litigation, and operational matters. If you enjoy solving problems, building processes, managing multiple priorities, and making a meaningful impact across an organization, we'd love to meet you.

Responsibilities

• Legal & Contract Support
  • Draft, revise, organize, and maintain legal documents including NDAs, vendor agreements, commercial contracts, policies, demand letters, and other business documents.
  • Support contract administration, document management, and legal recordkeeping.
  • Coordinate document collection, organization, and review for various legal matters.
  • Maintain legal templates, trackers, and operational workflows.
• Litigation & Claims Management
  • Assist with litigation, claims, and dispute-related matters.
  • Track deadlines, maintain matter files, and organize legal correspondence.
  • Coordinate with outside counsel, insurance providers, and internal stakeholders.
  • Support document preservation, legal holds, and information requests.
• Corporate Governance
  • Assist with board and committee materials, corporate resolutions, annual filings, and governance-related documentation.
  • Maintain corporate records, minute books, and entity-management files.
  • Support governance compliance and reporting activities.
• Employment & Compliance
  • Support employment-related legal matters including handbook updates, policy reviews, investigations, accommodation processes, and regulatory compliance initiatives.
  • Assist with compliance audits and risk-management projects.
  • Help monitor legal and regulatory developments impacting the business.
• Real Estate & Development Support
  • Organize lease files, development documentation, diligence materials, and property-related records.
  • Assist with title reports, surveys, term sheets, and construction-related documentation.
• Legal Operations & Process Improvement
  • Support matter management, legal intake, document management, and knowledge-management systems.
  • Assist in managing outside counsel engagements, budgets, invoices, and reporting.
  • Identify opportunities to streamline processes and improve efficiency.
  • Support special projects and strategic initiatives led by the General Counsel.

Requirements

• Required
  • Minimum 5 years of experience in a legal operations, paralegal, legal specialist, or similar role.
  • Experience supporting some combination of:
    • Corporate law
    • Commercial contracting
    • Employment law
    • Litigation
    • Compliance
    • Real estate transactions
    • Legal operations
  • Strong organizational, analytical, and project-management skills.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
  • Strong proficiency with Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook).
• Preferred
  • In-house legal department experience.
  • Paralegal Certificate, Bachelor's Degree, law degree, foreign law degree, or equivalent legal training.
  • Experience supporting board governance, entity management, or corporate secretarial functions.
  • Experience with legal billing systems, contract management software, or matter-management platforms.
  • Experience managing outside counsel relationships and legal budgets.

Skills

You are someone who:

• Loves creating structure and organization.
• Has exceptional attention to detail.
• Thrives in a fast-paced, high-growth environment.
• Can manage multiple projects simultaneously without losing sight of priorities.
• Communicates professionally with executives, attorneys, and business stakeholders.
• Takes initiative and works independently.
• Learns quickly and adapts to new challenges.
• Enjoys improving processes and solving problems.
• Operates with discretion and maintains confidentiality.
• Brings a positive, collaborative, and low-ego approach to teamwork.

Benefits

• Opportunity to work directly with executive leadership
• Broad exposure across legal, HR, operations, finance, real estate, and compliance
• Career growth and development opportunities
• A collaborative and entrepreneurial culture
• The chance to make a visible impact on a rapidly growing company

Pay

Competitive hourly pay of $32–$45 per hour (based on experience and qualifications)

About Soapy Joe's

At Soapy Joe's, our mission is simple: We're driven to clean cars, protect the environment, and shine in our communities. We believe in building community, leading with heart, doing the right thing, creating fans, keeping learning, being proud of our work, and having fun along the way.