Senior Innovation Engineer - California

Summary

Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP is looking for a Senior Innovation Engineer to support the Information Technology Department based out of our Palo Alto, San Francisco or Los Angeles offices. Willkie is an elite international law firm of approximately 1,300 lawyers located in 16 offices in six countries.

The Senior Innovation Engineer will support the AI & Innovation team by designing and delivering secure, scalable AI and low-code solutions that help attorneys, business professionals, and clients. This role will ship Harvey workflows and Power Automate low-code solutions, run interactive AI working sessions and office hours, and serve as the trusted AI advisor in one of the California offices. The Senior Innovation Engineer will work closely with the firm’s Learning & Technology Adoption team on enablement and training. This role will be in-office three days a week with some travel required.

At Willkie, we believe great people are the key to our success. As such, we are offering a highly competitive compensation package with exceptional benefits. If you are looking to work in a friendly, collaborative environment that affords unique opportunities to expand your professional development, this role is for you.

Responsibilities

Development & AI Enablement:

• Design, build, test, and deploy Harvey workflows (Assistants, Vaults, and Workflow Builder automations) in partnership with practice groups across Litigation, Corporate & Financial Services, Asset Management, and other practices.
• Develop Power Automate and Power Platform low-code solutions that connect Harvey, Microsoft 365, SharePoint, and firm systems of record to eliminate manual steps in attorney workflows.
• Build and maintain Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) knowledge bases for firm-approved AI tools, ensuring secure, context-aware outputs grounded in authoritative source material.
• Contribute to the firm’s growing library of reusable workflows, prompt patterns, and integration templates so that solutions built for one matter or practice can be rapidly redeployed across the firm.
• Apply the firm’s Responsible AI principles—privacy, transparency, accountability, and human oversight—in every build, consistent with Willkie’s ISO/IEC 42001 AI management system.

Interactive AI Sessions & Program Delivery:

• Help design and deliver interactive AI working sessions, office hours, and enablement programs—co-facilitating across the firm’s offices as needed—guiding attorneys from a raw workflow idea to a production-ready Harvey or Power Platform build.
• Act as a hands-on technical contributor during interactive sessions and office hours: triaging ideas in real time, pairing with attorneys to prototype, and packaging outputs for post-session hardening and deployment.
• Capture session outputs, adoption metrics, and impact data and feed them back to AI & Innovation leadership, practice group leaders, and firm management.
• Contribute to the firmwide content pipeline coming out of these programs—case studies, demo videos, and reusable prompt patterns.

Trusted Advisory & Enablement:

• Serve as the trusted AI voice for the California offices—the person attorneys and business professionals go to with workflow ideas, Harvey questions, and automation opportunities.
• Host Tech Office Hours in‑person and remotely; deliver 1:1 coaching on Harvey and Power Platform workflows; answer questions through View email address on click.appcast.io.
• Partner with the firm’s Learning & Technology Adoption team to support rollout and change management for new AI workflows and tools; provide the technical depth and “under-the-hood” knowledge that complements LTA’s broader training curriculum.
• Demo new workflows and AI capabilities in practice group meetings and working sessions across Willkie’s offices, translating what the technology does into what it means for a specific practice.
• Stay current on AI developments, Harvey releases, and Power Platform capabilities; recommend what is worth the firm’s attention and what is not.

Measurement & Continuous Improvement:

• Track workflow adoption, usage, and business impact using Harvey and Power BI analytics; translate findings into clear narratives for practice leadership and firm management.
• Partner with the Applied AI team, Innovation Advisors, Learning & Technology Adoption Specialists, IT, and Application Development to scope, design, implement, and sustain innovation projects.
• Translate attorney and business‑professional requirements into actionable technical plans; communicate progress, risks, and outcomes to AI & Innovation leadership.
• Share observations and user feedback with internal product, engineering, and governance teams, including AI governance leads, to inform vendor roadmaps and firm policy.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Systems, Computer Science, Legal Studies, Data Science, or a related field (or equivalent experience).
• 3–6 years of experience in legal technology, enterprise solutions, knowledge innovation, or a comparable professional services environment.
• Hands‑on experience building with at least one generative AI platform—Harvey strongly preferred—including prompt design, Assistants/Agents, and workflow orchestration.
• Demonstrated proficiency with Microsoft 365 and the Power Platform, particularly Power Automate and Power Apps; SharePoint Online experience a plus.
• Working knowledge of RAG patterns, vector stores, and grounding techniques for legal content.
• Comfort with REST APIs, JSON, and integration basics; familiarity with Power BI, SQL fundamentals, and at least light scripting (JavaScript, Python, or similar) is a plus.
• Strong facilitation and communication skills—able to stand in front of a room of partners, run a working session, and translate complex systems into accessible language.
• Strong grounding in data governance, responsible AI, and information security principles, particularly in a law firm or other regulated environment.
• Familiarity with other legal‑tech platforms—Lexis+ AI / Protégé, Wendell-type internal chatbots, Centari, Syntheia, Kira, CoCounsel, or similar—is preferred.
• Prior experience running working sessions, demos, or technology coaching in a professional services environment is preferred.

Tools & Platforms:

• AI & Workflow Tools: Harvey, Lexis+ AI / Protégé, Wendell Intelligence, Centari, Syntheia SuperComparer, Rain Intelligence, DeepL, Microsoft Power Platform (Power Automate, Power Apps, Power BI, AI Builder), Microsoft Logic Apps.
• Knowledge Management & Collaboration: SharePoint Online, Microsoft Teams, Thomson Reuters HighQ, Contract Express, Fliplet.
• Data & Analytics: Power BI dashboards and visualizations, SQL fundamentals, workflow adoption metrics.
• Automation & Low-Code: Power Automate, workflow automation tooling, low/no-code platforms.
• Supporting Skills: Light JavaScript, CSS, and Python for customization and integration of user‑facing KM and AI solutions.

ADA Requirements

• Ability to sit at a desk most of the working day and walk short distances
• Needs manual dexterity, speed and accuracy in handling office equipment
• Ability to work efficiently and accurately in an atmosphere of frequent interruption
• Ability to work in close proximity to other individuals
• Ability to carry light to moderate objects, e.g., files, small objects and supplies a short distance.
• Must be able to lift, carry and move objects up to 40 lbs.

Employment Status

• Exempt

Pay Range

USD $190,000.00 - USD $215,000.00 /Yr.

Pay Range Statement

The salary range for this role represents the Firm’s good faith and reasonable estimate of the range of possible compensation at the time of posting. Actual compensation will be dependent upon a number of factors, including but not limited to, the candidate’s relevant experience, qualifications and location. Willkie offers a comprehensive suite of benefit programs to all eligible employees. A summary of available benefits can be found here in the Career section of the Firm’s website.

EEO Statement

Willkie Farr & Gallagher is an Equal Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based upon actual or perceived: race (including hair texture, protective hairstyles and other traits associated with race), color, age, religious creed, citizenship, citizenship status and alienage, nationality, national origin or ancestry, ethnicity or creed, disability, genetic information or medical condition, reproductive health decision making, pregnancy or maternity, paternity, marital or civil partnership status, caregiver status, gender (including gender identity, expression, nonconformity, gender reassignment or status as a transgender individual), sex, sexual orientation or preference, veteran or military status, height, weight, any other characteristic protected by law or any combination thereof. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities in our recruiting process. If you need any assistance or accommodations due to a disability, please let the hiring manager know.

California Applicants

Pursuant to the City of Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance (FCIHO) and the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider qualified applicant with arrest and conviction records.

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