Manager of Digital Knowledge & AI

Location: Washington, DC
Schedule: 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM
FLSA: Exempt
Position Type: Full-Time/Regular

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP is a leading international law firm with more than 900 lawyers in offices throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. We are currently seeking a Manager of Digital Knowledge & AI in the Information Technology department, reporting to the Digital Workplace Director. 

The role will reside in the Washington, DC office with hybrid work capabilities and will be a senior Digital Workplace leader responsible for the strategy, delivery, governance, and continuous improvement of the firm’s knowledge management and AI‑enabled platforms. Reporting to the Director of Digital Workplace, this role serves as the primary operational and technical owner for enterprise knowledge systems and AI capabilities, ensuring information is accurate, discoverable, secure, and effectively leveraged to support attorney and business productivity.

The role provides people leadership, platform ownership, and governance oversight, balancing day‑to‑day service reliability with long‑term AI and knowledge roadmap execution. It partners closely with Information Governance, Security, Innovation, Infrastructure, and business stakeholders to ensure knowledge assets and AI solutions are scalable, compliant, ethically governed, and aligned with firm priorities, regulatory obligations, and evolving AI standards.

Key responsibilities of this position include:

• Lead the strategy, delivery, and continuous improvement of the firm’s knowledge management and AI‑enabled platforms, ensuring alignment with Digital Workplace objectives and firm priorities.
• Serve as the primary operational and technical owner for enterprise knowledge systems and AI capabilities, including knowledge repositories, enterprise search, prompt libraries, and AI‑assisted workflows.
• Enforce governance frameworks for knowledge and AI, including policies, standards, controls, and usage guidelines in partnership with Information Governance, Security, Privacy, Compliance, and Risk teams.
• Ensure firm knowledge assets are accurate, current, discoverable, and appropriately classified, supporting effective retrieval and responsible AI use.
• Oversee the ethical, secure, and compliant use of AI technologies, ensuring alignment with regulatory requirements, client obligations, and evolving firm AI governance standards.
• Provide people leadership to a team of engineers, analysts, and platform owners, including goal setting, performance management, coaching, and professional development.
• Balance day‑to‑day operational stability with long‑term roadmap planning, delivering scalable and reliable knowledge and AI services.
• Partner with Innovation, Practice Support, Legal Operations, IT Infrastructure, and business stakeholders to identify high‑value use cases and drive adoption of AI‑enabled knowledge solutions.
• Define success metrics and KPIs to measure platform effectiveness, adoption, and business value; regularly report outcomes to Digital Workplace leadership.
• Lead vendor and platform relationships related to knowledge and AI tooling, including roadmap influence, licensing optimization, and service quality management.
• Provide leadership, oversight, and day‑to‑day management of the Digital Knowledge & AI team, including setting expectations, planning and monitoring work, coaching performance, and supporting professional development.
• Collaborate closely with Digital Experience, Security, Information Governance, and other IT teams to ensure solutions are properly integrated, secure, and compliant with firm requirements.
• Monitor service health, performance, and capacity of collaboration and messaging platforms, ensuring issues are proactively identified, escalated, and resolved.
• Manage vendor relationships and external support resources related to collaboration and identity platforms, ensuring service quality and alignment with firm objectives.
• Support firmwide initiatives, system integrations, and change efforts that rely on collaboration, messaging, or identity services, ensuring solutions meet business needs and user expectations.
• Perform all responsibilities with a commitment to superior service delivery, teamwork, continuous improvement, and alignment with the firm’s core values.
• Ensures results of Enterprise Applications team by communicating job expectations; planning, monitoring, and appraising job results; coaching, counseling, and disciplining employees; initiating, coordinating, and enforcing systems, policies, and procedures.
• Maintains staff by recruiting, selecting, orienting, and training employees; maintaining a safe and secure work environment; developing personal growth opportunities.
• Serve as part of third level escalation for vendor management, administration and process management such as change assignment activities, operational reports, service request fulfillment, capacity management, and problem and incident management.
• Lead and provide in-depth problem analysis, troubleshooting, and coordination and deliver resolutions as a second- or third-level subject matter technical specialist.
• Liaise and coordinate with vendors and outsourcing partners, helping ensure that work is delivered on time, secure, and with the right quality aligned to the firm’s standards.
• Recommend, schedule, and perform software improvements, patches, or upgrades.
• Execute roadmaps that include enhancements to functions and integrations, regular maintenance such as upgrades and patches, training and supporting users in all roles.
• Assist in managing contracts and relationships with suppliers of enterprise applications under the team’s purview.
• Support other technology team members in interdependent projects and tasks.

Qualifications (Experience, Knowledge, Skills & Abilities):

• Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university in Engineering, Computer Science or equivalent work experience.
• Minimum of five (5) years of experience in a management or leadership role, demonstrating the ability to lead, mentor, and develop technical teams.
• Experience working in a law firm preferred.
• Industry certifications (Preferred): Microsoft 365 Certification, ITIL v4 Foundation or higher.
• Experience managing an enterprise application portfolio, including lifecycle planning, vendor strategy, and rationalization of tools and platforms.
• Ability to balance hands‑on technical leadership with delegation, coaching, and empowerment of senior engineers and leads.
• Experience establishing or operating within governance frameworks for enterprise platforms, including standards, decision rights, and architectural principles.
• Demonstrated ability to operate as a strategic technology leader, balancing long‑term vision, operational excellence, and people leadership in a challenging environment.
• Ability to evaluate emerging technologies and determine practical, secure, and value‑driven adoption paths.
• Experience supporting document management systems such as iManage or NetDocuments.
• Experience in management M365 Platforms.
• Experience working in a multi-cultural environment and on virtual teams.
• Working technical knowledge of SQL.
• Superb interpersonal skills with the ability to assist users of various skill levels and backgrounds on technical systems and procedures.
• Effective team collaborator with excellent oral and written communication skills; at ease leading meetings and training.
• Proven experience overseeing the direction, development, and implementation of enterprise technology solutions.
• Knowledge of applicable data privacy practices and laws.
• Exposure to project-based work structures and working on project teams.
• Results driven professional who can organize, prioritize, plan and multi-task work activities, with the ability to effectively meet deadlines in a high-pressure environment.
• Excellent communication and customer service skills with the ability to work effectively with all levels of personnel of the Firm.
• Consistently demonstrates judgment and discretion in a result orientated environment.
• Strong attention to detail.
• Strong organizational and time management skills, including the ability to organize self and others.
• Commitment to maintaining confidentiality of client and office information and adhering to the Firm’s Core Values.
• Commitment to professional growth and development.

The anticipated base salary range for this position in Washington, DC is $170,000 to $225,000.  The actual salary offered will be based on several factors, including, but not limited to, relevant education, qualifications, years of relevant experience, certifications or other professional licenses held, job-related knowledge and skills, business needs, and the location from which the work will be performed.  Additionally, salary or hourly wages may be only part of the total compensation package, which may also include a full range of health and other insurance benefits, financial and/or other benefits (including 401(k) eligibility), a discretionary bonus, and various paid time off benefits.  Additional information about benefits and rewards can be found here.

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP participates in E-Verify for purposes of verifying employment eligibility

#LI-DNI