Knowledge Engineering & Platform Lead

We are recruiting for a Knowledge Engineering & Platform Lead to join our Information Technology team in London.

Information Technology team - London

The core of the global technology department's mission is to provide stable, reliable, and secure platforms and services to our partners, staff and clients and fulfil our regulatory obligations across 28 countries. To ensure that a consistent and standardised IT service is delivered to all offices, IT is managed and led as a global function, enabling all offices to benefit from complete systems integration and economies of scale. We have around 700 technologists based predominantly in the UK, Singapore and increasingly in the US.

Enterprise Architecture and Technology Platforms;

To develop and maintain the firm's technology strategy and enterprise architecture. In parallel, own, improve and simplify the firm's key technology 'building blocks' by designing, building and managing the core technology platforms which are fundamental to delivering strategic business goals.

What you will do

Reporting to the Head of Knowledge Technology Platforms, the Knowledge Engineering & Platform Lead is a senior role responsible for developing and delivering the firm-wide strategy for legal knowledge platforms, ontology management and knowledge engineering. Working with the Global Chief Knowledge Officer and key Knowledge, Technology, Data and AI stakeholders, the role designs the structures, standards and governance needed to make legal knowledge discoverable, reliable and reusable across A&O Shearman.

By leveraging data-driven insights and emerging technologies, the role champions the continuous improvement of legal knowledge solutions and enables lawyers globally to find, trust and reuse the firm's legal knowledge more effectively.

• Lead on the development of the product strategy and multi-year roadmap for the firm's legal knowledge platforms, ensuring alignment with Knowledge, Technology, Data & AI and wider firm strategies.

What you will have

Experience:

• At least 10 years' experience in technology, knowledge management, legal technology, data platforms or a closely related discipline, ideally within legal, professional services or another regulated sector.
• At least 5 years' experience leading strategic platform, knowledge engineering, legal knowledge, data or AI-enabled transformation programmes.
• Demonstrable experience defining and delivering product strategy and roadmaps for enterprise platforms with global stakeholder communities.
• Demonstrable senior-level experience designing, governing or operationalising ontologies, taxonomies, metadata models, knowledge graphs or structured knowledge frameworks, including their use in AI-enabled search, retrieval-augmented generation, automated classification or knowledge discovery.
• Strong understanding of data quality, metadata management, content lifecycle governance, access controls and information security principles.
• Knowledge and understanding of existing Knowledge Management processes and best practices, including where there are shortcomings, bottlenecks and frustrations in processes or technology.
• Strong understanding of legal workflows, legal knowledge, practice group needs and the way legal knowledge is created, governed, reused and consumed across jurisdictions.
• Proven ability to influence senior stakeholders, resolve competing priorities and drive adoption of new working practices in a complex global matrix environment.
• Proven vendor, budget, roadmap and benefits-management experience.
• Demonstrates a strong professional interest in technology, automation, artificial intelligence, and data-driven decision-making within the legal sector. Literacy in AI technologies (LLMs, embeddings, RAG, Agents) and how these can be applied to knowledge management workflows.

Personal:

• High level of personal credibility, impact and influence with proven ability to work effectively and persuasively at all levels
• Excellent industry knowledge (understanding the work and needs of individual lawyers and practice groups and the potential opportunities and cross-overs in developing, adapting and deploying different technologies).
• Proven business acumen and ability to understand how they add value to the function, firm or clients.
• Promotes the firm's values at all times, and is comfortable working within a large and complex, matrixed environment with multiple stakeholders and interest groups.
• Proven leadership qualities, with a track record of guiding teams towards achieving strategic objectives.
• Excellent presentation, communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to build and sustain strong client and colleague relationships in a global matrix organisation

Should you require additional support at any stage of the recruitment process due to a disability or a health condition, please do not hesitate to contact a member of our recruitment team who will work with you to provide any adjustments as required.

We are an equal opportunities recruiter and do not discriminate on the basis of race, colour, sex, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, or any other protected characteristic.

We recognise that our people are our most valuable asset, which is reflected in the wide range of benefits that are available to our employees. Some of these benefits include: our occupational pension scheme, group income protection cover, private medical insurance, mental health resources and free apps, health and wellbeing services encompassing an onsite gym, wellbeing centre and GP service, emergency back-up care support, parental and special leave, holiday entitlement increasing with length of service, holiday trading, season ticket loans and online discounts and lifestyle management services.