AI Platform Owner

A&O Shearman; United Kingdom; Hybrid; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading international law firm in London is looking for an AI Platform Owner to define, build, and evolve its AI platform capabilities. This role involves strategic direction and operational delivery of the AI infrastructure. The ideal candidate has at least 5 years of experience in product ownership with a strong background in cloud-native AI services. The firm offers a hybrid working model and comprehensive employee benefits.

Benefits

Occupational pension scheme

Private medical insurance

Onsite gym

Holiday entitlement increasing with service

Qualifications

• Minimum of 5 years in product ownership or management, with a focus on AI or software development.
• Experience managing cross-functional teams, budgets, and vendor relationships.
• At least 10 years’ background in the IT industry.

Responsibilities

• Define and maintain the strategic vision and roadmap for the AI platform.
• Establish governance frameworks for AI usage across the enterprise.
• Lead the technology selection, design, and implementation of AI infrastructure.

Skills

Product ownership

Cloud-native AI services

Data architecture

Team leadership

Collaboration skills

Tools

Azure AI Foundry

Databricks

Microsoft Fabric

Power BI

Job description

Job Description

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.

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.

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.