Legal Engineer - Chicago

Axiom Law; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 71,000 - 310,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

Paid holidays

PTO

Flexible work arrangements

Professional development opportunities

Job summary

Axiom in Chicago seeks an experienced Legal Engineer to lead the design of a practical risk taxonomy and operating model across Legal, Engineering, Privacy, Compliance, and AI Governance.

You will inventory terminology, interview stakeholders, and standardize data structures; translate taxonomy into roles, governance, and workflows for enterprise-wide adoption.

The role offers collaboration with multiple functions and opportunities to advance enterprise risk capabilities.

Qualifications

• Experience in legal engineering, legal operations, enterprise risk management, GRC, compliance operations, or legal technology.
• Ability to map requirements into structured fields, classifications, workflows, and reporting structures.
• Experience working across Legal, Engineering, Privacy, Compliance, Product, and business stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Lead the development of a practical risk operating model spanning Legal, Engineering, Privacy, Compliance, AI Governance, and business functions.
• Assess how risk is currently identified, classified, assessed, owned, governed, monitored, and evidenced across the organization.
• Inventory existing risk terminology, categories, classifications, tags, fields, and data structures across current tools and business processes.
• Interview key stakeholders across Legal, Privacy, Compliance, business teams, and AI Governance to understand current practices, requirements, pain points, and future-state needs.
• Identify inconsistencies, duplication, gaps, unclear ownership, and opportunities for standardization across existing risk processes.
• Design an enterprise risk ontology/taxonomy establishing clear definitions and relationships across risk domains, types, controls, obligations, processes, owners, and evidence.
• Translate the taxonomy into an actionable operating model defining roles, responsibilities, decision rights, governance structures, escalation pathways, and ongoing maintenance processes.

Skills

Legal Engineering

GRC

Compliance Operations

Legal Technology

Tools

GRC Platforms

Enterprise Workflow Platforms

Job description

Join Our Team as a Legal Engineer at Axiom

Location: Chicago

We are currently seeking an experienced Legal Engineer to lead the design and development of a practical, scalable enterprise risk taxonomy and operating model for a large, complex organizations.

Responsibilities:

• Lead the development of a practical risk operating model spanning Legal, Engineering, Privacy, Compliance, AI Governance, and business functions.
• Assess how risk is currently identified, classified, assessed, owned, governed, monitored, and evidenced across the organization.
• Inventory existing risk terminology, categories, classifications, tags, fields, and data structures across current tools and business processes.
• Interview key stakeholders across Legal, Privacy, Compliance, business teams, and AI Governance to understand current practices, requirements, pain points, and future-state needs.
• Identify inconsistencies, duplication, gaps, unclear ownership, and opportunities for standardization across existing risk processes.
• Design an enterprise risk ontology/taxonomy establishing clear definitions and relationships across:
• Risk domains and categories.
• Risk types and attributes.
• Controls and mitigations.
• Legal and regulatory obligations and requirements.
• Processes, systems, owners, and supporting evidence.
• Translate the taxonomy into an actionable operating model defining roles, responsibilities, decision rights, governance structures, escalation pathways, and ongoing maintenance processes.

Qualifications:

• Experience in legal engineering, legal operations, enterprise risk management, GRC, compliance operations, or legal technology.
• Strong understanding of risk taxonomies, ontologies, control frameworks, governance models, and structured data.
• Experience mapping complex legal, privacy, compliance, AI, or regulatory requirements into operational workflows and technology systems.
• Demonstrated ability to conduct current-state assessments and design scalable future-state processes and operating models.
• Experience working across Legal, Engineering, Privacy, Compliance, Product, and business stakeholders.
• Strong workshop facilitation, stakeholder interviewing, process mapping, and requirements-gathering skills.
• Ability to translate legal and risk concepts into structured fields, classifications, workflows, controls, evidence requirements, and reporting structures.
• Experience implementing or designing workflows within GRC, legal technology, compliance, risk management, or enterprise workflow platforms.
• Strong project management skills, including roadmap development, stakeholder coordination, issue tracking, and executive-level communication.

Compensation:

The estimated total compensation for full-time Axiom attorney roles is $104,500-325,000 per year and for non-attorney roles is $71,250-309,750 per year. Compensation decisions are based on various factors, including, but not limited to, experience, skills, certifications, location, and business needs. Employees may be eligible for additional benefits, including health, dental, and vision insurance; paid holidays and PTO; flexible work arrangements; and professional development opportunities and tools.

About Axiom:

For over 25 years, Axiom has pioneered the alternative legal services industry, now serving more than 1,500 legal departments globally with our unique blend of world-class legal talent and advanced AI tools, delivering innovative solutions ranging from that combine top-tier talent with cutting-edge technology. We tackle complex legal matters across 12 practice areas for clients ranging from Fortune 100 to SMBs, empowering our legal professionals to engage in meaningful work that advances their careers. Our Talent NPS score of +71% and our Client NPS score of +64% highlight our commitment to excellence (Reported scores were Axiom’s average for 2025 - the legal industry average NPS score is +35%). Join our forward-thinking community where you’ll keep your career dynamic and multi-faceted, be part of a company that values agility, collaboration, and excellence, and love both the law and your life.

Learn more about life at Axiom.

Axiom is the global leader in high-caliber, on-demand legal talent. Covering North America, the UK, Europe, and APAC, we enable legal departments to drive efficiency and growth and meet the demands of today’s business landscape with best inclass alterative legal services.

Diversity is core to our values and we are proud to be an equal opportunity employer. Axiom ensures equal employment opportunity in recruitment and employment, without discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, color, nationality, national or ethnic origin, religious creed or belief, political opinion, sex, gender, gender identity, gender identity status, pregnancy or maternity, age, disability, alienage or citizenship status, marital (or civil or other partnership recognized by law) status, genetic predisposition or carrier status, sexual orientation, military service, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. Axiom prohibits and will not tolerate any such discrimination or harassment.

Upon request and consistent with applicable laws, Axiom will provide reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities who require accommodations to participate in each stage of the recruitment process. To request an accommodation, please contact [e-mail].

Axiom respects your privacy. For an explanation of the kind of information we collect about you and how it is used, our full data privacy notice is available here.

Employment with Axiom may be contingent upon successful completion of a background check, providing proof of identity, and possessing the necessary legal authorization to work. Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, NY Fair Chance Act, and Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

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