Director of Applied AI and Engagement

New York, NY

Summary

AI is transforming legal work and related business functions in real time. The Director of Applied AI and Engagement leads the team that turns that transformation into working tools, trained people, and measurable results across the firm.

As a key member of the AI and Knowledge department, the Director will lead the Applied AI and AI Engagement teams. These teams include AI Legal Engineers who build and maintain AI workflows for attorneys and business professionals, adoption specialists and trainers who make those workflows part of daily practice, and AI Engagement Attorneys who represent that work to clients. This role reports to the Managing Director of AI and Practice Solutions.

This is an execution-focused leadership role. The Director will set priorities, turn the needs of practice groups and departments into working solutions, hold the team to a high standard of quality and reliability, and be accountable for adoption and impact, as well as recruit, develop, and retain a team in one of the most competitive talent markets in legal.

Success in this role means that AI tools and workflows are built, deployed, and relied on across the firm and that the firm can demonstrate results in adoption, quality, and client value. The ideal candidate is a proven manager and team builder who understands how lawyers work, is fluent enough in AI to guide technical work with confidence, and is more dedicated to deploying solutions than creating strategy documents.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Applied AI and AI Engagement teams, including AI Legal Engineers, adoption and support specialists, training staff, and AI Engagement Attorneys, directly and through managers. Set priorities, allocate resources, and hire, develop, and retain talent in a highly competitive market.
• Own the delivery roadmap for firmwide AI workflows and tools. Turn needs from practice groups and departments into applied solutions and ensure the team ships reliable, well-documented work on schedule.
• Set the standards for how AI workflows are designed, tested, released, and maintained. Oversee human review checkpoints and guardrails appropriate to legal work, professional responsibility obligations, and business and administrative work.
• Drive adoption. Collaborate with Professional Development and IS on training and enablement programs, including the training responsibilities that Legal Engineers carry alongside their build work, and act quickly where AI is available but not being used.
• Define, track, and report the metrics that matter, including adoption, usage, quality, time saved, and client impact. Use them to prioritize work, make the case for investment, and communicate the firm’s AI value story to leadership.
• Oversee the firm’s client-facing AI engagement, including support for client requests, pitches, and ongoing client initiatives, along with the case studies, materials, and value narrative behind them. Partner with Business Development, Finance, and practice leaders on client-related initiatives.
• Partner with Practice and Client Solutions on product management, data strategy, and solution development, so that what the team learns from real use shapes vendor, platform, and build decisions.
• Collaborate closely with K&I, Information Systems, Information Security, and Professional Development to ensure that workflows and training are aligned, secure, and well supported. Stay current on regulatory developments, client requirements, and data protection obligations that affect AI use.
• Evaluate new tools, models, and techniques for potential value. Favor what can be deployed and sustained, and retire what is not working.
• Manage the team’s budget and staffing plan, and plan headcount growth as adoption and demand grow.
• Represent the firm’s applied AI program to partners, clients, and industry peers as a practitioner who can show working results.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required, with a preference for Law, Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field.
• Juris Doctor degree from an accredited law school preferred.
• Admission to practice a plus, with a preference for New York.
• 8+ years of experience in legal technology, knowledge management, legal operations, or AI implementation in a law firm or comparable professional services environment, including 5+ years leading and developing teams.
• A record of taking AI or technology initiatives from concept to firmwide production and adoption, with measurable results.
• Hands-on fluency with generative AI, including prompt design, agentic workflows, retrieval augmented generation (RAG) concepts, and evaluation methods, sufficient to guide and challenge technical work.
• Experience recruiting, leading, and retaining multidisciplinary teams.
• Strong stakeholder management skills, with the credibility to earn trust and influence among partners, senior attorneys, business leaders, and clients.
• Experience defining metrics, reporting on adoption and impact, and building a business case for investment.
• Working knowledge of the legal AI vendor and tooling landscape, and experience evaluating and managing vendors.
• Comfort operating in ambiguity, with the discipline to scope work, set priorities, ship, and iterate.
• Sound judgment about where AI is, and is not, the right tool. An instinct for risk, confidentiality, compliance, and quality control across both legal and business output.
• Proven ability to handle confidential information with discretion and sound judgment, and a clear understanding of the confidentiality obligations that come with working in a law firm.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to write clearly and present with confidence to senior stakeholders and partners.

Compensation: $200,000.00-$325,000.00 annually plus bonus