Senior AI Engineer

Morrison & Foerster, LLP • Boston, MA

38d • $133,000 - $195,000

About The Position

The Senior AI Engineer, aligned with department and firmwide objectives and priorities and under the direction of the Director of Data Science Analytics, designs, integrates, operates, and continuously improves the Firm’s generative-AI platform built on third-party providers (e.g., ChatGPT Enterprise). The role also leads structured evaluations of additional providers (e.g., Harvey, Legora). Focus is on building reliable, secure, and compliant services that connect these providers to Firm systems (ServiceNow, Salesforce, SharePoint/OneDrive, iManage, Workday, Microsoft 365), along with custom GPTs and enterprise connectors. Success is measured by developer and attorney adoption, measurable productivity gains, service reliability, and adherence to Responsible AI and client obligations.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Data Science, or a related field required; Master’s preferred.
• 8+ years of professional experience in software or AI engineering, including at least 3 years building LLM-powered applications.
• Deep experience with cloud and DevOps technologies (Docker/Kubernetes, CI/CD, IaC) and one or more major cloud AI stacks (Azure strongly preferred).
• Strong working knowledge of retrieval systems, vector databases, embeddings, and agent frameworks such as Semantic Kernel or LangChain.
• Proven experience with ChatGPT Enterprise, custom GPT design, and secure tool integration.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in legal or other highly regulated industries with familiarity in confidentiality, privilege, retention, and client OCGs.
• Exposure to Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Studio, Microsoft Graph connectors, and Teams/SharePoint extensibility.
• Understanding of SOC 2 and ISO 27001 controls, DLP, eDiscovery, and data-classification best practices.
• Strong ownership mindset with the ability to drive initiatives from inception to completion.
• Excellent organizational and project management skills, balancing multiple priorities under deadlines.
• Exceptional analytical and communication skills with the ability to simplify complex ideas for diverse audiences.
• High attention to detail, proactive problem-solving approach, and strong technical aptitude.
• Collaborative team player who thrives in a dynamic, cross-functional environment.
• Demonstrated commitment to client service excellence and continuous improvement.

Responsibilities

• Co-own the strategy, roadmap, and daily operations of the Firm’s generative-AI platform in partnership with the Director of Data Science Analytics.
• Design, implement, document, and maintain scalable, secure REST/GraphQL services and SDKs that wrap third-party LLMs and expose agentic and RAG functionality for internal developers.
• Integrate AI services with enterprise platforms including ServiceNow, Salesforce, SharePoint/OneDrive, iManage Cloud, Workday, and Microsoft 365/Copilot & Copilot Studio.
• Build and operate Model Context Protocol (MCP)-compliant tools and servers; define resource schemas, capability negotiation, and authentication/authorization patterns.
• Maintain vector and embedding stores (e.g., Azure AI Search, pgvector, Pinecone) and RAG pipelines; tune chunking, metadata enrichment, and re-ranking for legal-grade accuracy.
• Provide reference implementations, SDK snippets, and quick-start examples to accelerate adoption by IT and development teams.
• Partner with attorneys, Knowledge Management, and business staff to identify high-value use cases; co-design custom GPTs with clear instructions, approved knowledge sources, and guardrails.
• Build and maintain custom connectors (Actions/OpenAPI and enterprise connectors) to systems such as ServiceNow, Salesforce, iManage, SharePoint/Graph, and internal APIs.
• Establish governance for GPTs, including naming, versioning, review workflows, RBAC/workspace scoping, and data partitioning; manage release channels and deprecations.
• Develop evaluation and safety checks (offline test sets, red-team prompts, accuracy/latency/cost KPIs) and instrument usage analytics with feedback loops.
• Deliver templates, prompts, and “starter GPTs”; run enablement sessions and office hours for safe self-service by attorneys and staff.
• Maintain runbooks and support processes for GPT incidents, drift, and provider updates.
• Lead structured evaluations and bake-offs against ChatGPT Enterprise baselines, defining decision criteria with AI/KM Consultants, Information Security, Governance, Risk, Procurement, and Compliance teams.
• Design representative test suites (accuracy, hallucination rate, retrieval fidelity, tool-use reliability, latency, throughput, cost) and implement automated evaluation harnesses.
• Support Information Security in performing security and privacy due diligence (SOC 2/ISO mappings, encryption, retention, auditability, incident response), and align with client guidelines.
• Assess interoperability (MCP support, Actions/OpenAPI, webhooks, SSO/RBAC, logging/observability) and integration effort with Firm systems and RAG pipelines.
• Build proofs of concept with attorneys and staff, document ROI and risk, and recommend go/no-go and migration plans.
• Produce decision memos detailing evaluation criteria, results, mitigations, financial impacts, and vendor lock-in strategies.
• Implement policy and technical controls for privacy, confidentiality, privilege, and data residency in coordination with Information Security and Governance.
• Build guardrails against prompt injection, data exfiltration, and PII exposure; ensure auditability and eDiscovery readiness.
• Manage vendor diligence, provider SLAs, roadmap feedback, and incident escalation.
• Implement observability (structured logs, tracing, metrics, audit trails) and automated regressions and canary testing for APIs, GPTs, and connectors.
• Evaluate and prototype new AI use cases for feasibility, risk, and ROI; productionize successful pilots.
• Lead enablement for developers and non-technical users through training, style guides, API contracts, and prompt engineering best practices.
• Contribute to Firm Responsible AI standards, guidance, and communications with technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Benefits

• MoFo offers a comprehensive benefits package starting on your first day.
• A variety of options for medical, dental, vision, life and disability coverage to meet the needs of you and your family.
• Industry-leading parental leave and family benefits including adoption and fertility treatment options and backup child and elder care.
• Global wellness program, including free access to Talkspace and Calm apps.
• Annual community service day to make an impact on your community and a birthday holiday just for fun.
• Education reimbursement annually.
• Dedicated Talent Development team.
• Competitive annual profit-sharing contribution.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 1,001-5,000 employees