AI Platform Owner

We are currently recruiting for an AI Platform Owner to join our London office.

DEPARTMENT PURPOSE

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 30+ countries. To ensure that a consistent and standardized 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 500 technologists based predominantly in the UK, Singapore and increasingly in the US.
The AI Platforms team is positioned to partner with the firm’s global AI leadership to evaluate and operationalize AI use cases in building the law firm of the future.

Technology Platforms
To own, improve and simplify the firm’s key technology ‘building blocks’ by designing, building and managing the technology platforms which are fundamental to delivering the strategic business goals.

ROLE PURPOSE

The AI Platform Owner is responsible for defining, building, and evolving the firm’s AI platform capabilities to accelerate AI innovation across the firm. This role leads the strategic direction, architecture, and operational delivery of AI infrastructure to support business units in developing AI solutions in a governed, scalable, and secure manner.
The role has accountability for the platform's design, capacity, performance, and cost and is empowered to make decisions to meet the required outcomes to build an industry leading AI platform for rapid adoption of AI capabilities in business processes.
This is a pivotal role for the firm’s goal to continue to innovate in the AI space. The role defines the strategy and roadmap for the platform, managing the prioritization of demand to ensure that the platform is continually improved to meet business requirements. The role will actively engage with business leaders to derive business value from AI.

ROLE & RESPONSIBILITIES

• Platform strategy and vision: Define and maintain the strategic vision and roadmap for the AI platform, aligning it with overall business objectives and the needs of developers.
• Governance & Enablement: Establish governance frameworks for AI usage across the enterprise, enabling responsible innovation and compliance with regulatory standards.
• Platform Development & Operations: Lead the technology selection, design, and implementation of AI infrastructure and integration with other platforms.
• Performance monitoring and KPIs: Define and track key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of the platform, including performance, stability, adoption, and overall business value. Use this data to inform future roadmap decisions.
• Stakeholder collaboration: Act as a liaison between business units, technical teams (engineering, data science), and other stakeholders to gather requirements, understand pain points, and communicate platform plans and updates effectively.
• Technical enablement: Actively socialize and drive the adoption of the AI platform across the organization by providing training, documentation, and support to enable teams to self-serve AI capabilities.
• Team Leadership: Manage and motivate a team of skilled IT professionals and third-party service providers, ensuring delivery excellence and continuous improvement. This includes providing regular feedback, conducting performance check-in meetings in alignment with the firm’s performance management tool, Compass, and collaborating with HR on recruitment and performance management if needed.
• Market and technology research: Stay current with the rapidly evolving AI landscape, including generative AI, machine learning tools, and cloud platform updates, to ensure the platform remains innovative and competitive.
• Other duties and responsibilities as assigned.

KEY REQUIREMENTS

Experience

• Minimum of 5 years in product ownership or management, focus on AI or software development preferred.
• Deep understanding of cloud-native AI services (e.g., Azure AI Foundry, Databricks, Microsoft Fabric, Power BI).
• Strong background in data architecture, governance, and platform integration.
• Experience managing cross-functional team, budgets, and vendor relationships.
• Broad knowledge of modern IT delivery methodologies and their implementation within large organizations
• At least 10 years’ background in IT industry. With 5+ years of experience leading large scale technology teams and budgets.

Personal

• Strategic thinker with a hands-on approach to delivery.
• Passionate about enabling AI innovation responsibly.
• Comfortable operating in complex, global organizations.
• Proactive, creative, and collaborative attitude.
• Ability to manage ambiguity and conflicting priorities

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.
Our approach to hybrid working seeks to combine and maximise the benefits of effective remote working with the benefits of being in the office. Our current hybrid working arrangements require office based working for a minimum of 60% of your time (i.e. three days per week for a full time role) in accordance with our hybrid working policy.

Additional information - External

A&O Shearman is a global industry-leading law firm, with nearly 50 offices in 28 countries worldwide. Our fluency in English law, US law, and the laws of the world’s most dynamic markets, enables us to provide unmatched insight and seamless delivery to clients. We work on challenging and important deals and disputes that have the potential to shape the future.
We offer exceptional opportunities for our people; opportunities to work for the world’s leading businesses; to transform the status quo, and to deliver your best work, helping you and your career to thrive, while delivering unparalleled outcomes for our clients.
Whether you're helping clients solve complex challenges, transforming the ways we manage our business, or ensuring the smooth-running of our operations, this is an environment where you can belong and excel. We provide first-rate training and development, we are committed to an inclusive environment, and we provide support and ways of working that help you optimise your wellbeing.
What truly defines a career with us? We recruit the best and ask for the best of you. And together, we will redefine success.