Knowledge Engineering & Platform Lead

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.

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.
 

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.
• Work with the Global Chief Knowledge Officer, Head of Knowledge Technology Platforms, Knowledge, Innovation, Data Governance and Practice Group SMEs to design and deliver the next generation of legal knowledge solutions for A&O Shearman.
• Oversee the knowledge engineering and ontology management capability for legal knowledge, ensuring agreed taxonomies, ontology relationships, entity models, metadata standards and governance controls are embedded consistently across platforms.
• Lead the migration from legacy knowledge platforms to a modern, AI-enabled knowledge ecosystem, ensuring continuity of service, data quality, adoption and measurable business value.
• Establish and maintain platform implementation standards and metadata schemas that keep the knowledge model accurate, governed, scalable and fit for search, retrieval-augmented generation, automated classification and other AI-enabled services.
• Partner with Practice Group SMEs and Knowledge teams to capture and validate domain knowledge, translating legal and practice expertise into maintainable ontology relationships, platform rules and metadata structures.
• Work with Data & AI, Enterprise Architecture, Information Security, Risk and Compliance teams to ensure the knowledge model aligns with enterprise architecture, regulatory obligations, client confidentiality, access controls and responsible AI requirements.
• Act as the strategic bridge between senior business stakeholders, lawyers & innovation teams, technical teams and technology vendors, shaping requirements, resolving competing priorities and communicating a clear product vision.
• Lead and coordinate a global matrix network of Knowledge Tech colleagues, Knowledge Lawyers, Innovation teams, Practice Group SMEs, Data Governance colleagues, Data & AI specialists, platform owners and third-party providers to deliver the product roadmaps.
• Drive adoption and continuous improvement of legal knowledge solutions by using data-driven insights, user feedback and market developments to improve knowledge discovery, reuse and lawyer experience.
• Stay ahead of legal technology, AI, search, ontology, knowledge graph and enterprise data trends, using external insight to inform platform evolution and investment priorities.
• Contribute to budget planning, vendor performance management, benefits tracking and operational performance across the knowledge platform portfolio.
   

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.
• Have an understanding, or willingness to learn, the capabilities of existing Legal technology solutions such as M365, MS Teams, iManage and Search and how they can be integrated so that we can use them to solve the business challenges faced by our lawyers.
• A passion for innovation and user-centric design, with the ability to identify and implement new ideas and solutions.
• Experience in a variety of roles that evidence an ability to challenge and embed new working practices whilst leading a can-do culture focusing on curiosity, collaboration, learning and development.
• Demonstrable experience managing SaaS-based applications, preferably within a legal or professional services context.
• Strong vendor management skills and experience negotiating contracts.
• Knowledge of current legal technology, AI, search, knowledge graph, ontology and enterprise data trends.

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