Director, Legal Technology ServicesSan Mateo, CA
Role OverviewThe Director, Legal Technology Services (LTS) will establish and lead a dedicated function within IT Foundational Services (ITFS), part of Digital, Technology and Information, Services (DTIS). The function will support the global Legal, Public Policy & Environment, Social & Governance (LPPESG) organization in achieving their technology agenda focused on driving scale and preparing the org for the future through use of AI, data, automation solutions and knowledge management. Reporting to the Vice President of ITFS, with a dotted-line relationship to the Director of Legal Operations, this leader will collaborate with Legal Operations, LPPESG Practice groups and IT teams to define the multi-year legal technology roadmap and own the execution and operation of the Legal technology portfolio reliably and at scale.
Key ResponsibilitiesThe Director will be responsible for standing up the LTS function and leading the phased transition of technology services from Legal Operations to LTS. This leader will balance strategic direction, organizational leadership, technical delivery and operational accountability across four areas, and will serve as the senior technology partner to Legal leadership.
Build and Lead Legal Technology Services- Build, coach and develop a team of legal technology engineers and service professionals responsible for solution delivery and production support.
- Define and own the function's strategy, operating model, service catalog, engagement approach, technical standards and service-management practices.
- Set organizational objectives and performance expectations, manage the function's budget, headcount and vendor/partner spend, and align delivery with Legal Operations through the dotted-line relationship to the Director of Legal Operations.
- Foster a culture of customer focus, inclusion, technical excellence and continuous improvement across the organization. Lead Technical Strategy,
Delivery and Platform Lifecycle- Set the technical direction and provide technical leadership across Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM), Document Management System (DMS), Knowledge Management/Search, matter management/Entity Lifecycle Management (ELM), eBilling, Intellectual Property (IP) management, litigation and eDiscovery, legal hold, workflow, compliance, analytics and emerging legal technologies.
- Own the technical lifecycle of legal platforms from architecture and design through configuration, development, integration, deployment, optimization, support and retirement, including build-versus-buy and vendor selection decisions.
- Maintain an integrated, enterprise-level view of platform dependencies, lifecycle risk, technical debt and opportunities for standardization or consolidation, and drive the resulting multi-year investment roadmap.
- Translate approved product roadmaps into technical strategy, plans, sequencing and engineering capacity and funding requirements aligned with enterprise standards.
- Lead complex global implementations from solution architecture and system design through deployment, stabilization and transition to support.
- Hold the organization accountable for integrations, data migration, testing, release management and implementation readiness across platforms and geographies.
- Ensure solutions meet enterprise architecture, security, privacy, data governance and technology standards while addressing requirements specific to the LPPESG organization.
Ensure Secure and Reliable Operations- Own accountability for the technical health, reliability and performance of the legal technology portfolio.
- Establish and govern production support, monitoring, incident and escalation management, problem management, root-cause analysis, release controls and operational service metrics, and report results to senior leadership.
- Develop plans for platform resilience, scalability, and recoverability, supported by documentation and knowledge transfer that reduce key-person dependencies.
- Partner with DTIS infrastructure, service management, security, data and engineering leaders to ensure legal technology solutions meet enterprise requirements and make effective use of shared capabilities.
Partner, Innovate and Influence- Build trusted relationships with LPPESG, Legal Operations and DTIS leadership and with Architecture, Information Security, Privacy, Procurement, Finance and other enterprise functions; drive outcomes through influence in a matrixed organization.
- Partner with Legal practice leaders as business subject-matter experts and Legal Operations as product owners to translate approved requirements into technology solutions, clearly communicating technical options, dependencies, risks and trade-offs to executive stakeholders.
- Lead the technical strategy for approved uses of artificial intelligence, including generative AI, across legal workflows, systems, data and knowledge, ensuring solutions are secure, governed, scalable and maintainable.
Required Experience and Qualifications- Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience
- 15+ years of experience in legal technology, enterprise applications, technology consulting or a related field, including significant experience delivering legal technology solutions in complex organizations.
- 8+ years of experience leading technical teams, including leading managers or multi-level organizations, with accountability for both solution delivery and production services, and experience managing budgets and vendor relationships.
- Demonstrated depth across several areas of the enterprise legal technology landscape and the ability to set technology strategy and roadmaps for them.
- Proven success leading large-scale, global technology implementations across architecture, integrations, data migration, testing, deployment and stabilization in a matrixed enterprise.
- Strong understanding of enterprise application architecture, SaaS and cloud technologies, APIs and integrations, identity and access management, data management, information security and service management.
- Strong strategic planning, capacity and financial management, stakeholder management and executive communication skills, with the ability to build cross-functional partnerships and influence senior leaders without direct authority.
Preferred Qualifications- Experience leading enterprise legal technology within a global corporation, legal technology company or consulting organization.
- Experience modernizing fragmented or decentralized legal technology environments and establishing service management disciplines, service-level agreements, operational KPIs and governance.
- Experience with legal data architecture, analytics, workflow automation, enterprise integrations and AI and generative AI solutions.
- Professional involvement in relevant industry associations, such as the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC) or Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC), or relevant certifications in legal operations, legal innovation or legal technology.
At SIE, we consider several factors when setting each role's base pay range, including the competitive benchmarking data for the market and geographic location.
Please note that the base pay range may vary in line with our hybrid working policy and individual base pay will be determined based on job-related factors which may include knowledge, skills, experience, and location.
In addition, this role is eligible for SIE's top-tier benefits package that includes medical, dental, vision, matching 401(k), paid time off, wellness program and coveted employee discounts for Sony products. This role also may be eligible for a bonus package. Click
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The estimated base pay range for this role is listed below.
$223,100-$334,700 USD
