Legal Knowledge Engineer

Cleary Gottlieb is a pioneer in globalizing the legal profession. We have 14 offices in major financial centers around the world but we operate as a single integrated global partnership and not as a U.S. firm with a network of overseas locations. The firm employs approximately 1100 lawyers from more than 50 countries.

Since 1946 our lawyers and staff have worked across practices industries jurisdictions and continents to provide clients with simple actionable approaches to their most complex legal and business challenges whether domestic or international. We support every client relationship with intellectual agility commercial acumen and a human touch.

The Legal Knowledge Engineer (LKE) is a hands-on problem solver within Clearys Practice Innovation Team working closely with lawyers and practice groups to design and implement technology-enabled workflows. This role is ideal for a former practicing attorney with large law firm experience who brings legal judgment curiosity and technical fluency to build governed practice-ready solutions. LKEs partner across the firm to configure test and operationalize AI and legal technology tools that enhance how legal work is delivered.

Practice-Facing Build & Support

• Partner with lawyers to translate needs into functional compliant workflows in firm-approved AI and legal tech platforms.
• Prototype test and refine workflows based on user feedback to ensure they are practice-ready and scalable.
• Serve as the first-line technical partner during pilots and rollouts providing responsive hands-on support to users.

Product Management & Governance

• Document all builds configurations and prompts within team repositories and playbooks.
• Define success criteria and ensure Responsible AI and data governance standards are met.
• Work with team members to track the lifecycle of pilots and production builds.

Vendor & Market Collaboration

• Test new features surface issues and recommend improvements to vendors.
• Represent the voice of the user to ensure vendor development aligns with practice needs.
• Identify market signals and lawyer feedback to guide technology priorities.

Strategic Insight

• Translate hands-on experimentation into insights that shape our roadmap and adoption strategy.
• Recommend which tools and workflows to scale refine or retire.
• Contribute to firmwide discussions on responsible AI use and practice modernization.

Education & Experience

• JD required; prior experience practicing law preferably at an AmLaw-level or other complex transactional or litigation practice strongly preferred.
• Bachelors degree in Computer Science Information Systems Engineering or a related analytical field is advantageous in addition to legal qualifications.
• 25 years of experience in legal technology product implementation consulting or AI-enabled workflows.
• Experience configuring automation workflow or AI tools in a professional services setting.
• Familiarity with low-code/no-code platforms (e.g. Power Automate Copilot Studio).

Skills & Competencies

• Proven ability to apply legal reasoning and judgment to technology-enabled workflows; comfortable engaging directly with partners and senior lawyers on practice-specific requirements.
• Strong understanding of large law firm workflows and professional obligations; able to translate legal reasoning into structured technology-driven processes.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with comfort engaging lawyers and technologists.
• Proven ability to document builds and maintain operational discipline.
• Ability to work iteratively manage competing priorities and follow through to completion.
• Deep curiosity about the role of AI and technology in transforming professional work and a commitment to staying current with developments in the field.
• Professional maturity initiative and intellectual agility; a self-starter who contributes ideas and takes ownership of outcomes.

The estimated base salary range for this position is $180000 to $250000 at the time of posting. The actual salary offered will depend on a variety of job-related factors including skills education training credentials experience scope and complexity of role responsibilities geographic location and performance. This role is exempt meaning it is not overtime pay eligible.

Cleary provides a comprehensive benefits package including health care benefits. More information can be found here:Benefits

We are an equal opportunity employer. Consistent with these goals the firm prohibits any form of discrimination or harassment based on any category protected by law. Cleary provides reasonable accommodations to enable otherwise qualified employees to perform the essential functions of their position provided the accommodation does not pose an undue hardship to the Firm.