Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP is one of the world’s leading international law firms. With offices across the globe, the firm provides coordinated legal advice and transactional capability to a remarkable roster of clients—including many of the world’s largest corporations, financial institutions, and private equity firms. For more than 130 years, Simpson Thacher has built a reputation for superior performance, intellectual rigor, and an unwavering commitment to excellence.
We are committed to leveraging cutting-edge technology, including artificial intelligence, to enhance our legal services and drive innovation across all practice areas. As part of our ongoing digital transformation strategy, we are seeking exceptional talent to lead our AI initiatives and position the firm at the forefront of legal technology.
The Project Manager will be a strategic leader responsible for creating and driving the project charter, plan, adoption, implementation, and governance of AI technologies across Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP. This role sits at the intersection of technology, legal practice, and program management, requiring an individual who can translate complex AI capabilities into tangible, firm-wide value. The successful candidate will oversee a portfolio of AI projects, manage cross-functional teams, and work closely with senior stakeholders to ensure that AI initiatives align with the firm’s strategic objectives and deliver measurable outcomes.
Responsibilities
- Lead the strategic planning, execution, and delivery of AI programs and initiatives across the firm, ensuring alignment with organizational priorities and business objectives.
- Manage the end-to-end lifecycle of AI projects, including requirements gathering, vendor evaluation, implementation, change management, and post-deployment optimization.
- Oversee the deployment and adoption of AI platforms including Anthropic’s Claude, Harvey (AI for legal professionals), and Microsoft Co-Pilot across practice groups and business services.
- Report into the Program Management Office (PMO), implementing governance frameworks, reporting structures, and standardized methodologies.
- Apply Agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban, SAFe) to manage iterative AI development cycles, ensuring rapid delivery of value while maintaining quality standards.
- Serve as the primary liaison between technology teams, legal professionals, firm leadership, and external AI vendors, translating technical capabilities into business language.
- Develop and maintain program roadmaps, budgets, risk registers, and status reports for executive-level stakeholders and steering committees.
- Contribute to driving organizational change management to foster AI adoption and digital literacy across the firm, including training programs and communication strategies.
- Ensure all AI implementations comply with legal, ethical, and regulatory requirements, including data privacy, confidentiality, and responsible AI principles.
- Manage relationships with key technology partners and outside partners including Anthropic, Harvey AI, and Microsoft, negotiating contracts and ensuring service-level performance.
- Mentor and coach the PMO team on best practices for running AI programs.
Education
Skills and Experience
- 5–10 years of progressive experience in program or project management, with at least 4 years managing AI/ML projects or digital transformation initiatives.
- Proven track record of successfully delivering large-scale AI programs in complex organizational environments, preferably in professional services or legal.
- Demonstrated experience with Anthropic’s products and platform, including hands-on familiarity with Claude for enterprise use cases.
- Experience implementing and managing Harvey AI or similar AI platforms purpose-built for legal professionals.
- Strong expertise in Microsoft Co-Pilot deployment and integration, including configuration for enterprise-grade workflows.
- Advanced proficiency in Agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban, SAFe) with relevant certifications (CSM, PMI-ACP, or SAFe Agilist).
- Extensive PMO experience, including establishing governance frameworks, portfolio management, resource planning, and executive reporting.
- Exceptional communication skills—both written and verbal—with the ability to present complex technical concepts to non-technical audiences, including partners and C-suite executives.
- PMP, PgMP, or equivalent project/program management certification required.
- Strong understanding of AI/ML concepts, natural language processing, large language models, and their practical applications in knowledge-intensive industries.
- Excellent stakeholder management skills with a track record of building trusted relationships with senior leaders and cross-functional teams.
- Coaching and mentoring fellow PMO team members.
Preferred
- Experience working in a top-tier law firm, Big Four consultancy, or large financial institution.
- Familiarity with legal technology ecosystem (document management, e-discovery, contract lifecycle management).
- Certifications in AI/ML (e.g., Google Cloud AI, AWS Machine Learning, or Microsoft AI certifications).
- Experience with responsible AI governance frameworks and ethical AI deployment.
- Knowledge of legal industry regulations around data privacy, confidentiality, and privilege.
- Experience managing enterprise-level budgets exceeding $5M annually.
- Background in vendor management and contract negotiation for SaaS/AI platforms.
- Familiarity with prompt engineering, AI fine-tuning, and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) architectures.
Salary Information
NY Only: The estimated base salary range for this position is $150,000 to $180,000 at the time of posting.
The actual salary offered will depend on a variety of factors, including without limitation, the qualifications of the individual applicant for the position, years of relevant experience, level of education attained, certifications or other professional licenses held, and if applicable, the location in which the applicant lives and/or from which they will be performing the job. This role is exempt meaning it is not overtime pay eligible.
Simpson Thacher will not sponsor applicants for work visas for this position.
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