Senior eDiscovery Technology Manager

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP•New York, NY

2d•$190,000 - $220,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Senior Legal eDiscovery Technology Manager is the firm’s principal consultative expert on the strategy, execution, and governance of discovery technology. This role blends deep technical mastery with sophisticated understanding of the legal, procedural, and practical impacts of decisions made across the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM). You will provide senior‑level advisory support to litigators, case teams, and clients—helping them leverage technology, analytics, defensible workflows, and data‑driven decision‑making to meet discovery obligations efficiently and strategically. By cultivating strong consultative relationships, you will guide stakeholders toward best practices, reduce risk, manage cost, and enhance the quality and defensibility of outcomes. Alongside your consultative responsibilities, you will lead a specialized eDiscovery team, serving as both a people manager and a high‑level technical escalation point. You will own operational excellence, continuous improvement, and the long-term roadmap for the firm’s discovery technologies, including RelativityOne and adjacent platforms. Strategic Consultative Leadership Serve as the firm’s senior SME on eDiscovery technology, processes, and defensibility. Advise litigators and client teams on the technical, practical, and legal effects of collection, preservation, processing, review, and production decisions. Partner with matter teams to shape discovery strategy, using analytics, data insights, and advanced workflows to control cost and risk. Build strong advisory relationships with attorneys and clients, helping them define requirements, anticipate challenges, and optimize outcomes People Leadership & Team Operations Supervise, coach, and develop a small eDiscovery team; provide mentoring, feedback, and certification guidance. Manage team workload distribution, prioritization, resource planning, and escalation coverage. Establish clear development paths and ensure staff readiness for complex assignments Own work intake, triage, prioritization, and on‑call/escalation coverage to meet urgent court and regulator deadlines. Define and track KPIs/SLAs (e.g., cycle time, cost/GB, review reduction %, precision/recall indicators, rework rate, client satisfaction). Service Delivery & EDRM Governance Govern defensible workflows across identification, preservation/legal hold, collection, processing, review, and production. Lead matter kickoffs and lessons‑learned; enforce QC checkpoints and exception handling; manage complex productions and rolling deadlines. Maintain a robust knowledge base (SOPs, runbooks, templates) and conduct periodic audits for adherence and effectiveness. Technology Strategy & Platform Ownership Own the roadmap and best‑practice configurations for RelativityOne (workspaces, permissions, analytics, processing, productions, upgrades, performance). Evaluate, integrate, and govern adjacent platforms (e.g., Reveal, Everlaw, Nuix, Logikcull) to address matter‑specific needs and reduce vendor lock-in. Ensure coverage for modern data sources (Microsoft 365/Purview, Teams, Slack, Zoom, WhatsApp, Google Workspace/Drive, Salesforce, Jira/Confluence, mobile/cloud apps). Promote automation (Relativity scripts/APIs, PowerShell, Python) for repeatable, resilient pipelines and measurable gains in speed/quality. Define and scale AI‑assisted review (CAL/TAR), analytics‑driven prioritization, and validation protocols (sampling, QC, audit trails). Implement dashboards for operational analytics (velocity, hit‑rate, model efficacy, budget burn, SLA performance); use insights to optimize process and spend. Vendor, Budget & Stakeholder Partnership Lead RFPs/SOWs, negotiate rate cards, and manage vendor SLAs and quality gates; assess managed services options when advantageous. Own budget forecasting and cost tracking for eDiscovery program operations. Serve as primary point of escalation for litigators, investigations teams, practice leadership, GC’s office, and clients on high‑stakes matters. Drive change management (release notes, training, communications) to land new workflows and platform features. Perform other duties as assigned.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in information technology, Computer Science, Legal Studies, or related discipline (or comparable experience)
8-10+ years of progressive eDiscovery experience; 1-2+ years direct people management of eDiscovery/litigation support teams in an AmLaw 100 or enterprise legal setting.
Relativity certifications: RCA, plus R1 Pro, Analytics Specialist, or Master‑level credentials.
Expert-level skills with RelativityOne, including performance optimization, advanced analytics, and complex productions.
Proven ability designing and validating TAR/CAL and analytics-driven review workflows.
Working proficiency with additional platforms (e.g., Reveal, Everlaw, Nuix, Logikcull) and the ability to select the right tool for the matter.
Demonstrated expertise with modern data sources (M365/Teams, Slack, Zoom, WhatsApp, Google Workspace, Salesforce, Jira) and cloud collection considerations.
Hands‑on automation experience (Relativity scripts, APIs, PowerShell and/or Python) to standardize and accelerate workflows.
Track record of budget ownership, vendor management, SOWs/RFPs, and KPI‑driven service delivery.
Exceptional communication, stakeholder management, and executive presentation skills

Nice To Haves

PMP/ITIL or equivalent program/portfolio management training.
J.D. or advanced legal/technical degree.

Responsibilities

Serve as the firm’s senior SME on eDiscovery technology, processes, and defensibility.
Advise litigators and client teams on the technical, practical, and legal effects of collection, preservation, processing, review, and production decisions.
Partner with matter teams to shape discovery strategy, using analytics, data insights, and advanced workflows to control cost and risk.
Build strong advisory relationships with attorneys and clients, helping them define requirements, anticipate challenges, and optimize outcomes
Supervise, coach, and develop a small eDiscovery team; provide mentoring, feedback, and certification guidance.
Manage team workload distribution, prioritization, resource planning, and escalation coverage.
Establish clear development paths and ensure staff readiness for complex assignments
Own work intake, triage, prioritization, and on‑call/escalation coverage to meet urgent court and regulator deadlines.
Define and track KPIs/SLAs (e.g., cycle time, cost/GB, review reduction %, precision/recall indicators, rework rate, client satisfaction).
Govern defensible workflows across identification, preservation/legal hold, collection, processing, review, and production.
Lead matter kickoffs and lessons‑learned; enforce QC checkpoints and exception handling; manage complex productions and rolling deadlines.
Maintain a robust knowledge base (SOPs, runbooks, templates) and conduct periodic audits for adherence and effectiveness.
Own the roadmap and best‑practice configurations for RelativityOne (workspaces, permissions, analytics, processing, productions, upgrades, performance).
Evaluate, integrate, and govern adjacent platforms (e.g., Reveal, Everlaw, Nuix, Logikcull) to address matter‑specific needs and reduce vendor lock-in.
Ensure coverage for modern data sources (Microsoft 365/Purview, Teams, Slack, Zoom, WhatsApp, Google Workspace/Drive, Salesforce, Jira/Confluence, mobile/cloud apps).
Promote automation (Relativity scripts/APIs, PowerShell, Python) for repeatable, resilient pipelines and measurable gains in speed/quality.
Define and scale AI‑assisted review (CAL/TAR), analytics‑driven prioritization, and validation protocols (sampling, QC, audit trails).
Implement dashboards for operational analytics (velocity, hit‑rate, model efficacy, budget burn, SLA performance); use insights to optimize process and spend.
Lead RFPs/SOWs, negotiate rate cards, and manage vendor SLAs and quality gates; assess managed services options when advantageous.
Own budget forecasting and cost tracking for eDiscovery program operations.
Serve as primary point of escalation for litigators, investigations teams, practice leadership, GC’s office, and clients on high‑stakes matters.
Drive change management (release notes, training, communications) to land new workflows and platform features.
Perform other duties as assigned.