Product Manager - Technology Innovation

About Ropes & Gray

Ropes & Gray is a preeminent global law firm. The firm has been ranked in the top three on The American Lawyer's prestigious A-List for eight consecutive years and #1 on Law.com's UK A-List twice in the past three years-rankings that honor the "best of the best" law firms.

The firm has approximately 2,500 lawyers and professionals serving clients in major centers of business, finance, technology, and government in Boston, Chicago, Dublin, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Milan, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Seoul, Shanghai, Silicon Valley, Singapore, Tokyo and Washington, D.C.

The firm has consistently been recognized for its leading practices in many areas, including asset management, private equity, M&A, finance, real estate, tax, antitrust, life sciences, health care, intellectual property, litigation & enforcement, privacy & cybersecurity, and business restructuring.

Ropes & Gray is an equal opportunity employer.

Overview

Under the leadership of the Director of Technology Innovation, the AI Product Manager will drive the strategy, roadmap, delivery, and adoption of AI products across the firm-spanning internally developed tools and integrations as well as selected commercial offerings. The ideal candidate is passionate about technology and its application to solving business problems, viewing obstacles as exciting challenges that demand creative solutions. The Product Manager will translate attorney and business needs into secure, compliant, high-value custom AI capabilities that improve delivery of client service and business operations at the firm. This person understands business process analysis and can evaluate technology solutions for business needs.

This position requires close collaboration with other groups within the Information Services department to ensure any new and innovative technology solutions fit into the firm's overall information technology and information security landscape.

Responsibilities

• Own the product lifecycle for internally built AI solutions, including discovery and requirements gathering, prioritization, roadmap, backlog, testing, delivery, launch, and continuous improvement. Ensure clear problem statements, success metrics, and release notes are documented.
• Lead internally built AI tools and integrations. Work with the application development team on solution build and design, including architectural tradeoffs, model/feature choices, and phased rollouts.
• Partner with other groups in IS to evaluate and manage selection, configuration and adoption of commercial AI products for the firm, such as Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT Enterprise and others.
• Assist with AI and technology adoption programs, including communications, enablement, training content, office hours, and feedback loops; partner with Practice Technology, Legal KM and practice groups to help capture exemplars and playbooks.
• Run product usage analytics, including reporting on adoption, satisfaction, quality/accuracy, and time saved for owned products and partner with Practice Technology and Legal KM to assist with same for other tools.
• Collaborate with Practice Technology and Legal KM, as appropriate, to manage stakeholders across practices/offices; synthesize requirements from attorneys, business support leaders, and technologists; maintain a transparent, ranked backlog.
• Collaborate with Practice Technology and Legal KM in maintaining standards, playbooks, prompt libraries, model cards, and decision logs; contribute to firm policies on responsible AI.
• Maintain an understanding of technologies currently available for the legal market as well as the roadmaps for many of the larger providers of such products.
• Continuously monitor industry trends, emerging technologies, and competitive developments to identify opportunities for innovation or elimination of redundant products and solutions.
• Collaborate with Practice Technology and Legal KM on conducting technology pilots and building out prototypes or proof of concept solutions to validate the feasibility and effectiveness of new technologies.

Qualifications

• Technology Expertise - must have solid working knowledge of a variety of technologies including, but not limited to, generative AI, web application development, search, collaboration technologies, Microsoft solution stack, expert systems, database and report design, and IA/UX principles.
• Must be able to get consensus and collaborate across many business units; ability to explain complex concepts in layman's terms; ability to communicate with all levels of management and staff establishing straightforward productive relationships.
• 5+ years of professional experience in a global professional services organization. Law firm experience preferred.
• Bachelor's degree required.
• Experience working with application development teams to deliver custom solutions.
• Strong working knowledge of modern AI concepts (LLMs, prompt design, RAG, embeddings/vector stores, evaluation techniques) and of enterprise platforms (APIs, events, identity/permissions).
• Understanding of system, application and network architecture.
• Knowledge of deploying and managing Azure resources.
• Knowledge of databases, database design principles and ability to query data.
• Familiarity with information security/risk frameworks (e.g., ISO 27001, ISO 42001, NIST) and with legal/regulated-data considerations.
• Demonstrates excellent professional presence and business acumen.
• Analytical and conceptual thinker with experience developing creative, strategic solutions for business problems.
• Excellent relationship management and interpersonal skills.
• Goal oriented with high standards for quality, performance and excellent attention to detail.
• High comfort level working in a continually changing environment and managing multiple competing priorities.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills, including the ability to effectively communicate technical information to both technical and non-technical personnel.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.

Compensation and Total Rewards Package

Ropes & Gray is proud to offer a comprehensive Total Rewards package to our business support team members. The firm also offers comprehensive health and well-being benefits, personal and professional development, career growth opportunities and a collegial and supportive culture. The anticipated pay range for this role is listed below and represents our good faith and reasonable estimate of the starting salary range at the time of posting. In addition, this role is eligible for a discretionary bonus based on performance. The actual offered rate for this position will be determined based on job-related, non-discriminatory factors, including qualifications and experience, geographic location, education, external market data and consideration of internal equity.

• Boston, Chicago, Washington D.C.: $150,100 - $240,150
• New York: $161,000 - $257,600

Working Conditions

This position requires hybrid on-site presence as an essential function of the role. Consistent and predictable on-site presence is required for ongoing business continuity, professional development and effective collaboration with colleagues and management.