Director of Artificial Intelligence

About Colombo & HurdColombo & Hurd, PL is a nationally recognized immigration law firm dedicated to representing professionals, investors, businesses, and families from across Latin America and around the world. Since our founding in 2006, we've grown to a global team of over 400, including more than 35 U.S. based immigration attorneys. Named the Top Immigration Law Firm in Central Florida by the Orlando Business Journal, we take pride in our mission to provide exceptional legal representation while advancing the cause of immigrants. Our commitment to excellence, innovation, and integrity defines who we are. Role SummaryThe Director of AI is responsible for leading Colombo & Hurd's artificial intelligence function - spanning governance, delivery, and vendor partnership. Reporting directly to the CIO, this role owns the firm's AI governance framework, manages the roadmap of AI tools across the case lifecycle, leads the firm's proprietary AI platform strategy, and serves as the primary relationship owner for AI delivery partners. The right candidate brings strong technical leadership experience with meaningful hands-on work in generative AI and LLM-based systems, a track record of deploying technical solutions in production environments, and the credibility to drive governance discussions with firm leadership. Key Responsibilities AI Strategy and Governance • Own and enforce the firm's AI Acceptable Use Policy. • Develop and maintain an AI governance framework aligned with firm risk, data privacy, and professional responsibility obligations. • Serve as the primary intake point for AI use case requests from the business, assessing feasibility, risk, and appropriate path to delivery. • Advise the CIO on AI direction, platform decisions, and emerging capabilities relevant to immigration law practice. • Monitor applicable AI regulatory developments and translate requirements into firm policy and practice. Proprietary AI Platform Leadership • Conduct a thorough audit of the firm's proprietary AI platform - evaluating architecture, prompt design, integrations, access controls, and operational posture. • Drive the platform roadmap, identifying improvements, new use cases, and integration opportunities across the case lifecycle. • Establish and enforce configuration, prompt engineering, and deployment standards across firm-built AI tools. • Ensure all AI tooling aligns with the firm's native architecture, data residency requirements, and attorney-client privilege obligations. Vendor and Partnership Management • Serve as the primary relationship owner for the firm's AI development partners, managing scoping, delivery quality, timeline, and commercialization boundaries. • Define and enforce the boundary between vendor-handled use cases and internal build, ensuring alignment with the firm's Build/Own vs. Configure/Platform framework. • Review and validate code and configurations delivered by vendor partners prior to deployment into firm environments. • Evaluate emerging AI vendors and tools against firm standards for security, data handling, and architectural fit. Team Leadership and Collaboration • Provide day-to-day direction and technical oversight to the AI Developer, including assessing fit, redirecting work, and managing deliverables against firm priorities. • Collaborate with Legal, Operations, and Practice leadership to identify and prioritize AI opportunities aligned with firm strategy. • Support change management and user adoption for AI tools rolled out across the firm. • Build AI literacy across the firm, helping stakeholders understand what current tools can and cannot do. Required Qualifications • 5 or more years of experience in software engineering, machine learning, or technical leadership, with at least 1 to 2 years of that time spent building or debugging LLM-based systems (prompt engineering, RAG, agent orchestration). • Demonstrated experience leading technical initiatives in a production environment. • Experience conducting technical audits of software or AI systems - evaluating architecture, data flows, and access controls. • Working knowledge of AI governance frameworks, acceptable use policy design, and responsible AI principles. • Experience managing vendor relationships for technical delivery, including code review, quality oversight, and scope management. • Strong communication skills - able to translate technical concepts for non-technical audiences. • Demonstrated track record of managing or directing technical contributors. Preferred Qualifications • Experience in legal, professional services, or a similarly regulated environment where data sensitivity and professional responsibility obligations apply. • Familiarity with Microsoft Azure AI services, including Azure OpenAI, Entra ID, and related security controls. • Experience with retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) architecture, vector search, and LLM orchestration frameworks. • Understanding of data privacy obligations relevant to AI