Director of Technology and Innovation

Brown Rudnick LLP; New York (NY); On-site; USD 220,000 - 270,000; Full time

Job summary

Brown Rudnick LLP is seeking a Director of Technology and Innovation in New York to lead IT operations and advance the firm’s technology strategy. You will oversee risk, financial, and software systems, manage a team, and drive a pragmatic AI and emerging tech program with measurable business impact.

The role requires 10+ years in technology leadership, a Bachelor’s degree, and strong executive communication skills to partner with the CIO, firm leadership, and attorneys.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in related field required.
• 10+ years of progressive technology leadership experience, preferably within an AmLaw200 law firm.
• Experience managing IT operations and leading teams.
• Senior technology leader with responsibility for multiple technology functions.
• Translate business strategy into practical technology priorities and execution plans.
• Strong experience with enterprise technology, SaaS, cloud platforms, cybersecurity, applications, infrastructure, and technology service delivery.
• Demonstrated experience developing and executing an AI or emerging technology strategy.
• Strong vendor management, financial management, project leadership, and organizational skills.
• Excellent executive presence and communication with attorneys, firm leadership, and technical teams.
• Ability to operate effectively in both strategic and tactical situations.
• Judgment and pragmatism balancing innovation, risk, cost, operational stability, and user experience.

Responsibilities

• Lead all IT operations for risk systems, financial systems, software applications, and IT projects.
• Oversee day-to-day IT operations leadership and ensure critical systems operate effectively.
• Provide direct management, coaching, and performance management to a team of IT professionals.
• Establish clear accountability within IT teams and ensure issues are escalated and resolved.
• Act as senior escalation point for significant technology issues affecting attorneys, leadership, clients, or operations.
• Translate business priorities into technology priorities and allocate resources accordingly.
• Partner with the CIO on strategy, roadmap, budget, and operating plan.
• Lead technology innovation with emphasis on AI strategy, responsible AI adoption, automation, and productivity tools.
• Develop practical AI and emerging technology strategies from pilot to adoption and governance.
• Evaluate new technologies based on business need, usability, security, integration, cost, risk, and ROI.
• Ensure innovation initiatives align with the firm’s broader technology environment.
• Oversee major technology initiatives with sponsorship, resources, change management, and measurable outcomes.
• Assist with management of key technology vendors and partners to ensure value and accountability.
• Maintain an operationally disciplined and user-friendly technology organization.

Skills

IT leadership

Strategic planning

Executive communication

Vendor management

AI strategy

Education

Bachelor's Degree

Tools

Cloud platforms

SaaS

Cybersecurity

Infrastructure

Job description

Office

New York, Boston, Washington D.C., or Silicon Valley

Summary

We strive to be enterprising, respectful, inclusive, insightful, and tenacious in every aspect of our business, including our interactions with clients, colleagues, and the communities where we have a presence. We rely on these core values to serve clients in key practice areas and industries - the pillars of Brown Rudnick: crisis management, which includes restructuring, investigations, and special situations; global litigation; life sciences; technology; and brand and reputation management.

The Director of Technology and Innovation is a critical leadership role for Brown Rudnick's technology organization. Partnering closely with the CIO, the Director of Technology and Innovation will provide day-to-day IT operations leadership while advancing the firm’s technology strategy and innovation agenda.

The Director’s primary responsibility is ensuring that the IT team operates effectively, including providing people, project, and technical leadership. The other important part of the role is to lead technology innovation, including identifying opportunities, evaluating risk and feasibility, implementing solutions, driving adoption, and measuring results, all with a business focus. AI strategy, emerging technologies, and practical applications of new capabilities are key areas of focus. This role requires a pragmatic technology leader who can identify technology that meaningfully enhances the firm’s operations.

Responsibilities

• Lead all aspects of IT operations for risk systems, financial systems, software applications, and IT projects.
• Provide applicable day-to-day leadership and oversight of IT operations, ensuring that critical systems, applications, infrastructure, and technology projects operate effectively.
• Provide direct management, supervision, coaching, development, and performance management to a team of IT professionals, including swiftly identifying and remediating areas of improvement and promoting a culture of accountability, collaboration, service, and continuous improvement.
• Establish clear accountability within the IT systems, applications, and project management teams, and ensure issues are appropriately escalated, resolved, and communicated.
• Act as a senior escalation point for significant technology issues affecting attorneys, firm leadership, clients, or business operations.
• Translate business priorities into technology priorities and ensure IT resources are focused on the initiatives that deliver the greatest business value.
• Partner with the CIO on the development and execution of the firm’s technology strategy, roadmap, budget, and operating plan.
• Lead Brown Rudnick’s technology innovation agenda, with particular emphasis on AI strategy, responsible AI adoption, automation, emerging legal technology, and productivity-enhancing technologies.
• Develop practical AI and emerging technology strategies that move beyond experimentation to implementation, adoption, governance, and measurable business outcomes.
• Evaluate new technologies based on business need, usability, security, integration, cost, risk, and expected return as opposed to novelty or market momentum.
• Ensure innovation initiatives are integrated into the firm’s broader technology environment.
• Oversee major technology initiatives and ensure projects have appropriate executive sponsorship, resources, accountability, change management, and measurable outcomes.
• Assist with the management of key technology vendors and strategic partners and ensure the firm receives appropriate value, service, and accountability.
• Ensure that the firm’s technology organization is operationally disciplined, strategically aligned, and capable of adopting new technologies while remaining reliable with a top class user experience.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in related field required.
• 10+ years of progressive technology leadership experience, preferably within an AmLaw200law firm or similarly complex environment.
• Demonstrated experience managing IT operations and leading teams of
• Experience serving as a senior technology leader with responsibility for multiple technology functions and complex technology environments.
• Demonstrated ability to translate business strategy into practical technology priorities and execution plans.
• Strong experience with enterprise technology, SaaS, cloud platforms, cybersecurity, applications, infrastructure, and technology service delivery.
• Demonstrated experience developing and executing an AI or emerging technology strategy.
• Strong vendor management, financial management, project leadership, and organizational skills.
• Excellent executive presence and communication skills, with the ability to communicate effectively with attorneys, firm leadership, and technical teams.
• Ability to operate effectively in both strategic and highly tactical situations.
• Demonstrated judgment and pragmatism, with the ability to balance innovation, risk, cost, operational stability, and user experience.

Who We Are

Brown Rudnick is a leading international law firm that provides exceptional, client-driven service in global litigation, crisis management (restructuring, investigations and special situations), brand and reputation management, life sciences and technology. We advise on high-profile cross-border matters while providing the kind of personal attention to clients that is typically found at boutiques. Our enterprising and tenacious lawyers serve our clients around the globe from offices in key financial centers in the U.S. and the U.K., and have been recognized by, among others, Chambers & Partners, Legal 500, Benchmark Litigation and Law360 for excellence in their fields.

Salary range based on experience level and location is estimated to be in the range of $220,000 to $270,000.

Brown Rudnick LLP is an Equal Opportunity Employer, committed to recruiting, developing, and advancing talented professionals from all backgrounds across the spectrum of diversity. All employees and applicants are evaluated on the basis of their qualifications, consistent with applicable state and federal laws, without regard to race, ethnicity, color, ancestry, religious beliefs, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, age, national origin, marital status, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, military or veteran status, or another protected characteristic, all as defined by applicable laws.