Legal AI Program Manager

Harbor Labs is building the next generation of AI-enabled legal services. We partner with leading law firms and corporate legal departments to turn emerging AI capabilities into practical, scalable ways of working often before a proven playbook exists. This role sits at the center of that work: leading complex programs, guiding senior legal stakeholders, and converting what we learn into repeatable approaches that can scale across clients and Harbor.

Build what comes next. Join a team working at the edge of legal AI where the problems are real, the answers are still emerging, and your judgment can directly shape how leading legal organizations adopt and scale new technology.

Why this role exists:

As our embedded AI engagements expand, clients increasingly need more than strong project execution. They need a leader who understands the realities of legal AI delivery, can shape the conversation with lawyers and legal-operations teams, and can turn technical and adoption signals into sound program decisions.

The Legal AI Program Manager will create the structure that allows multidisciplinary teams to move quickly without losing rigor. You will bring clarity to ambiguity, challenge assumptions constructively, and help clients make confident decisions about where AI can create meaningful value and where it cannot.

What makes this different:

This is not a traditional PMO role and it is not a schedule-management position. You will be expected to understand the work deeply enough to influence it.

You will

• operate at the intersection of AI, legal work, client delivery, and organizational change—partnering with AI delivery leaders and technical specialists while serving as a trusted advisor to senior client stakeholders.
• Because Harbor Labs is still evolving, you will have a meaningful voice in how we work, what we build, and how this capability scales. The frameworks and operating practices you create will shape future engagements, offerings, and teams.

What

you'll do:

Lead complex legal AI programs from strategy through adoption.

Create the structure, priorities, decision forums, and momentum required to move enterprise AI initiatives forward across one or more embedded client engagements.

Guide senior legal stakeholders with credibility.

Advise General Counsel, legal-operations leaders, and lawyers on use cases, sequencing, governance, adoption, and what strong AI programs look like in practice.

Orchestrate multidisciplinary teams.

Connect client leaders with Harbor specialists across AI delivery, legal operations, workflow design, change, and technology so that decisions translate into coordinated action.

Turn delivery signals into program decisions.

Translate what is happening in configuration, prompting, evaluation, workflow design, risk, and adoption into clear recommendations about scope, sequencing, staffing, and investment.

Create momentum without creating bureaucracy.

Establish an operating cadence that gives teams clarity and leaders visibility while preserving speed, experimentation, and ownership.

Challenge constructively.

Push back on weak use cases, unrealistic timelines, scope drift, or decisions that will not create sustainable value while strengthening trust and maintaining executive alignment.

Build reusable Harbor Labs approaches.

Develop practical frameworks, governance models, reporting methods, and implementation patterns that can be reused and improved across engagements.

Help shape the future of the capability.

Bring market and client insight back into Harbor Labs, identify emerging needs, and influence how our delivery model, offerings, and team evolve.

What

we're looking for:

Legal AI delivery experience.

You have led or played

• a central role in legal AI implementations—not only general technology or software projects. You understand what it takes to move from use-case selection through workflow design, evaluation, rollout, and adoption.
• Credibility with lawyers and executives.
• You can engage senior legal stakeholders as a peer, explain complex issues clearly, and hold a well-informed point of view even when it challenges the initial direction.
• A builder mindset.
• You enjoy creating structure where none exists
• , testing new approaches
• , learning quickly, and improving the playbook rather than simply following one.
• Strong program judgment.
• You know how to identify the decisions that matter, surface risk early, sequence work intelligently, and keep teams focused on outcomes rather than activity.
• Current AI fluency.
• You actively follow developments across leading model providers, agentic workflows, retrieval-augmented generation, evaluation methods, and enterprise AI patterns. You separate durable capability from hype.
• Hands-on curiosity.
• You experiment with current AI tools and understand how they behave in practice. Relevant training or credentials from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, or other leading platforms are valued, but demonstrated learning and applied experience matter more than certificates.
• Comfort with ambiguity and change.
• You are energized by an environment where roles, methods, and opportunities will evolve as the market develops and the team learns.
• Collaborative confidence.
• You work well with technical experts, consultants, operators, and client teams; you can lead without relying on hierarchy and make others better through clear thinking and strong partnership.
• Helpful experience: Experience in a law firm, corporate legal department, legal-operations team, legal technology company, or professional services environment
• Experience leading embedded, managed-services, or recurring delivery models rather than only fixed-scope projects
• Experience establishing governance, reporting, or program infrastructure for a new or rapidly evolving capability
• Exposure to product thinking, service design, change management, or enterprise technology adoption
• Experience working across global teams and complex stakeholder environments

What success looks like:

Clients view you as a trusted advisor who improves the quality and pace of their AI decisions.

Engagement teams have clear priorities, fast escalation paths, and the right level of operating discipline.

AI initiatives move beyond pilots toward practical adoption and measurable business outcomes.

Harbor Labs has stronger, more repeatable methods because of the frameworks and insight you contribute.

You have helped define how this capability and your own role within it scales over time.

Who thrives here:

• People who prefer solving ambiguous, consequential problems over maintaining established processes
• Leaders who combine strategic thinking with hands-on execution
• Curious practitioners who learn emerging technology by using it
• Low-ego collaborators who challenge ideas, not people
• Individuals who want meaningful ownership and the opportunity to influence how a new capability grows

About Us:

Harbor is the preeminent provider of expert services across strategy, legal technology, operations, and intelligence. Our globally integrated team of 900+ strategists, technologists, and specialists navigate alongside our clients – leading law firms, corporations, and their law departments – to provide essential resources and invaluable insights.

Anchored in a rich heritage of deep knowledge, steadfast relationships, and mutual respect, our unwavering dedication lies in shaping the future of the legal industry and fostering enduring partnerships within our community and ecosystem.