Leads a hands-on software engineering organization developing AI-enabled legal automation platforms. Responsibilities include setting technical direction, reviewing architecture and code, owning delivery and platform reliability, managing distributed teams, translating legal workflow requirements into scalable systems, and partnering with product, legal operations, executives, vendors, and clients. The role requires oversight of multi-tenant security, AI capabilities, Agile delivery, hiring, mentoring, and engineering quality.
Overview
Consilio is seeking for a hands-on Director of Software Development to lead the engineering team to work on our some of our market leading AI-enabled legal automation platforms that governs the end-to-end lifecycle of legal operations processes (including third-party subpoena response and data subject access requests). This is a working technical leader, not a purely administrative one: you will split your time between setting technical direction, reviewing architecture and code, and unblocking your team, while also owning delivery, people management, and quality across a blended team of inshore and offshore developers. You will partner closely with product, legal operations subject-matter experts, and company leadership to translate complex legal workflow requirements into a scalable, secure, AI platform.
ResponsibilitiesHands-on technical leadership
- Stay directly involved in architecture, design reviews, and code review; write and troubleshoot code alongside the team when needed, especially on critical-path or high-risk work
- Set and enforce engineering standards for code quality, testing, security, and documentation
- Own the technical roadmap for the platform, including its evolving AI-enabled capabilities (automated workflow steps, intelligent document handling, and related legal-automation features)
- Evaluate and introduce new technologies, frameworks, and AI/ML tooling that improve platform capability, reliability, or velocity
Delivery and execution
- Translate business and legal-operations requirements into technical designs, epics, and sprint-level plans
- Run agile ceremonies and manage delivery against roadmap commitments and client-facing milestones.
- Identify and resolve technical risks, bottlenecks, and cross-team dependencies before they impact delivery.
- Own production reliability, performance, and security posture for the platform, including multi-tenant data isolation and role-based access controls.
Cross-functional collaboration
- Partner with product management, legal operations subject-matter experts, and client-facing teams to shape the platform roadmap
- Report progress, risks, and technical trade-offs to executive leadership
- Coordinate with external partners and vendors on integrations where relevant
- Directly manage a blended team of inshore and offshore software developers, engineers, and QA staff, structured for follow-the-sun or overlapping-hours delivery
- Hire, onboard, mentor, and performance-manage team members across all locations, holding both onshore and offshore staff to the same engineering bar
- Build and coach a team structure that pairs senior technical leadership with distributed development capacity, evolving hiring and staffing strategy as the platform and team scale
- Establish clear communication norms, documentation practices, and handoff processes to keep a geographically distributed team aligned and productive
- Foster a collaborative, accountable engineering culture across time zones and locations
- 10+ years of professional software development experience, with 4+ years in a hands-on engineering leadership role (Director, Senior Engineering Manager, or equivalent)
- Demonstrated experience building and leading distributed teams that combine onshore/inshore and offshore or nearshore developers
- Strong, current hands-on technical ability — able to read, review, and contribute to code, not solely manage from a distance
- Proven track record delivering complex, multi-tenant, web-based enterprise software from architecture through production
- Experience with modern software architecture: RESTful APIs, relational databases (PostgreSQL or similar), cloud infrastructure, and secure, role-based multi-tenant systems
- Solid grounding in Agile/Scrum delivery practices, including sprint planning, backlog management, and release management
- Excellent communication skills, with experience presenting technical strategy and status to executive stakeholders
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience
- Experience in legal technology, legal operations, eDiscovery, or another regulated/compliance-driven enterprise software domain
- Hands-on exposure to applying AI/ML capabilities within a product (e.g., intelligent document classification, automation of manual workflow steps, LLM-based features)
- Experience with workflow or business-process-configuration engines (configurable stages, tasks, and rules-driven automation)
- Familiarity with SSO/identity integration, audit/compliance logging, and enterprise security requirements
- Experience integrating with or migrating to project/issue-tracking systems (e.g., Jira) and CI/CD toolchains
- Advanced degree (MS in Computer Science or related field) a plus
- Relevant certifications (AWS, PMP, or Scrum/SAFe) a plus
#LI-LC2
#LI-Remote
Consilio LLC Chicago, Illinois, USA Office
Chicago, United States
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