Director, Head of Legal Innovation, Kraken

• This role is ideal for someone who builds production systems, not slide decks — someone who can configure a workflow in the morning, train a team on it in the afternoon, and measure its impact by end of quarter
• 8+ years of experience in a technical, operations, or engineering-adjacent role with demonstrated senior-level execution of automation and AI solutions at scale
• Strong fluency with AI and workflow automation tools, with demonstrated experience designing, deploying, and driving adoption of AI solutions within operational or business workflows
• Demonstrated hands-on experience designing and deploying AI-powered or automated workflows in a production environment used by others, not just experimentation
• Systems thinker with a strong implementation mindset — able to move from discovery to design to build to deployment to optimization without relying on external consultants
• Proficiency with AI tooling stack: n8n, Python, Claude API/Anthropic SDK, or equivalent. Experience connecting business systems via API is required
• Solid understanding of data classification, PII handling, and cross-jurisdictional privacy and data protection obligations including GDPR and applicable data retention requirements
• Experience implementing governance and risk frameworks for AI or automation systems, including risk tiering, human review gates, audit logging, and data classification
• Strong analytical problem-solving skills with the ability to structure ambiguous operational questions into clear, actionable, automated workflows
• Strong written and verbal communication skills. Able to translate technical automation solutions for professionals, senior leadership, and stakeholders who are not technical
• We hire strictly based on merit, meaning we seek out the candidates with the right abilities, knowledge, and skills considered the most suitable for the job
• We encourage you to apply for roles where you don't fully meet the listed requirements, especially if you're passionate or knowledgable about crypto!

Desirable

• Kraken’s Legal Department is deploying AI across all four of its major practice groups — Regulatory, Litigation, Commercial, and Labor & Employment — with a detailed strategy, shared infrastructure, and a phased roadmap already defined
• We are hiring a Director, Head of Legal Innovation to serve as the primary architect and builder of AI-powered solutions within the Legal team
• This is a full-stack ownership role spanning opportunity identification, solution design, deployment, governance, and capability transfer
• You will work strategically to automate legal workflows while building the team’s data-driven infrastructure across multiple practice groups
• Design and deploy AI-powered Legal solutions
• Architect and build agentic workflows using n8n, Claude API, and MCP that take real actions in legal processes — contract review, research, drafting, intake triage, reporting, and deadline monitoring — with appropriate human oversight and approval gates
• Design and deliver solutions across priority legal use cases: NDA triage, regulatory analysis, board deck preparation, matter reporting, obligation tracking, and separation agreement drafting
• Architect the integration layer connecting internal systems (Jira, Agiloft, GEMS, SimpleLegal, Google Drive, Slack) into automated, AI-powered workflows that serve multiple practice groups simultaneously
• Build error handling, audit trails, privilege-awareness, and human-in-the-loop checkpoints into every production system before deployment
• Assess how legal work currently flows across intake, matter management, contracting, research, advice, and reporting — identify where AI and automation can eliminate manual work and reduce cycle times
• Ensure all automations comply with data classification requirements for privileged legal work product, PII, and cross-jurisdictional privacy obligations including GDPR and applicable data retention rules
• Own governance and risk for Legal AI systems
• Classify all automation builds by risk tier before work begins. No build goes to production without a named process owner, documented data flows, access controls confirmed, and privilege impact assessed
• Maintain audit logging and documentation for all systems touching privileged legal work product, attorney communications, or regulated data
• Halt or redesign builds that introduce unacceptable privilege, regulatory, or data privacy risk. Own that decision and secure organizational acceptance before proceeding
• Serve as the Legal domain representative in contributing to governance standards, AI risk management, and cross-functional build alignment across Kraken’s enterprise AI initiatives
• Multiply the Legal team’s capability
• Produce documentation, workflow templates, and runbooks that legal team members can use and maintain without ongoing technical support
• Build and lead an internal AI champions program. Train team members on AI-assisted tools and workflows deployed in production. Drive adoption, not just delivery
• Track and report on automation impact: workflow turnaround time reduced, matters per attorney increased, reporting prep time shortened, and attorney capacity unlocked for higher-judgment work
• Define and report quarterly on efficiency metrics with clear baselines and targets — driving adoption from initial rollout through full team integration
• Act as a force multiplier for the Legal team, enabling attorneys to focus on high-judgment, high-stakes decisions through process, technology, and AI enablement