Business Innovation Strategist

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP•Washington, DC

2d•$120,000 - $170,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Business Innovation Strategist will turn Business Services’ momentum in AI and automation into a high-performing portfolio of change and transformation across Finance, HR, Risk and Compliance, Marketing and Business Development, Client Value, and Operations. The role may be based in Akin’s Dallas, New York, or Washington, DC office, with hybrid work capabilities. Reporting to the Director of Innovation and AI, the Strategist will work with the Innovation & AI team, the Project Management Office (PMO), Technology teams, subject matter experts, departmental leaders, and vendors to identify high-value processes and take solutions from prototype to production. The role will use the firm’s existing toolsets to deliver measurable value and return on investment, while accounting for the constraints of a highly regulated firm and the particular needs of law firm operations. This hands-on role has autonomy and responsibility for leading cross-functional change. It includes assessing and prioritizing opportunities, guiding structured improvement programs, developing departmental AI capability and adoption, and measuring and reporting benefits. The Strategist will help shape a newly created function and support a lasting culture of innovation across Business Services and the firm.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.
At least five years of experience in process improvement, transformation, or innovation; ideally in professional services.
Background in business analysis and workflow design, including documenting current- and future-state processes and writing proposals.
Current, hands-on experience applying generative AI and/or automation to real business processes.
Demonstrated record of delivering cross-departmental initiatives with measurable efficiency or performance gains.
Experience facilitating workshops to map processes, identify blockers, and document requirements.
Experience building consensus among senior stakeholders, onboarding end users, and supporting sustained use of future-state solutions.
Exposure to enterprise platforms such as ServiceNow, Workday, Intapp, or Aderant.

Nice To Haves

Strong understanding of how Finance, HR, Risk and Compliance, Marketing and Business Development, and Operations function in a corporate or law firm setting.
Strong working knowledge of Microsoft 365, including Copilot, Teams, SharePoint, and Power BI or equivalent reporting tools.
Familiarity with low-code automation such as Power Automate.
Collaborative approach and ability to build trust, influence without formal authority, and communicate directly about areas for improvement.
Comfort working in a newly created role within an evolving function where processes and precedents are still being established.

Responsibilities

Monitor developments in AI, automation, and other transformative technologies shaping the legal industry.
Contribute to innovation case studies, publications, and internal reports, and represent the firm at legal technology conferences and events.
Serve as the primary contact for Business Services requests relating to AI and process improvement; assess and evaluate proposed opportunities.
Work with department leaders to surface, assess, and prioritize opportunities by impact, effort, and readiness, and contribute to a ranked project and opportunity pipeline.
Translate operational pain points into scoped initiatives with owners, success criteria, and measurement.
Lead cross-functional improvement programs from scoping through post-implementation review.
Guide work through demos, proofs of concept, proofs of value, pilots, and deployment.
Work with subject matter experts to map current processes, design target workflows, configure or prototype solutions, and test them against real work.
Partner with the PMO and IT on delivery, and with Innovation on tooling, configuration, and governance.
Coordinate with Practice Innovation Strategists to address needs and triage requests so Business Services solutions align with firmwide standards.
Extend the firm’s AI capability pathway into Business Services and build a network of departmental champions to sustain local adoption.
Work with HR, Learning & Development, and IT Training to incorporate AI and process topics into existing curricula through role-specific, workflow-based sessions.
Document and share playbooks, templates, and examples so solutions can be extended to other departments.
Set benefits baselines, measure results after changes, and report time saved, cost avoided, error reduction, and service improvement.
Provide regular reporting to the COO, CIO, and PMO on the pipeline, work in progress, and realized benefits.
Keep work aligned with firm AI governance, information security, information governance, and data standards.