Business Data Architect

King & Spalding is a leading global law firm with a commitment to excellence, innovation, and the seamless delivery of legal services. We harness innovative technology and exceptional talent to meet the complex needs of our clients in a fast-paced and dynamic legal landscape.

We are seeking a highly skilled and experienced Business Data Architect to join our dynamic legal organization. This role uniquely blends business architecture and data engineering, with a primary focus on supporting internal operations while also enabling transformational technology solutions for our legal practice groups. The ideal candidate will bridge technical expertise with legal domain knowledge, ensuring our data architecture aligns with both business operations and strategic client service objectives.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Business Architecture & Data Strategy

• Develop and Maintain Business Architecture: Create and maintain business architecture models that support the organization's strategic objectives, with specific emphasis on legal operations and business functions.

• Data Strategy & Governance: Define and implement a comprehensive data strategy that aligns with firm-wide business goals and facilitates effective data governance across all internal departments.

• Data Flow Management: Design and manage data flows across the organization, ensuring data integrity, availability, and seamless integration between practice management, financial, HR, marketing, professional development, and operational systems.

• Data Engineering: Implement data engineering practices to build robust data pipelines, ensuring efficient processing and transformation of structured and unstructured legal and business data.

• Cross-Departmental Collaboration: Work closely with stakeholders across IT, legal operations, finance, HR, marketing, business development, and professional development to understand requirements and translate them into effective data solutions.

• Standards and Best Practices: Establish and enforce data architecture standards and best practices, ensuring consistency and quality across enterprise systems.

• Analytics Infrastructure: Develop and maintain analytics platforms that enable data-driven decision-making for business operations, resource planning, and strategic initiatives.

Legal Practice Group Support & AI Integration

• Attorney Enablement: Liaise with attorneys and practice groups to understand their data and technology needs, translating requirements into practical data architecture and AI-driven solutions.

• Legal Technology Integration: Active in the assessment, benchmarking, and deployment of legal technologies (AI, document automation, contract analysis, e-discovery, and research tools) that leverage the firm's data architecture.

• Technology Assessment: May conduct research on legal technology trends and emerging platforms and provide support to pilot programs for practice-specific applications and client-facing technology solutions.

• Training & Documentation: Assist the enablement and training teams with instructions and deliverables to attorneys and staff. Maintain thorough documentation of prototypes, experiments, design specifications, and methodologies.

Enterprise-Wide Responsibilities

• Risk Management: Identify and mitigate data-related risks, ensuring compliance with legal industry regulations, privacy standards (attorney-client privilege, confidentiality), and security requirements.

• Tools and Technology Evaluation: Evaluate and recommend tools and technologies that support the data architecture framework, with consideration for legal-specific platforms and vendor relations.

• Performance Measurement: Measure impact and ROI for data and technology projects; establish metrics for adoption and effectiveness.

QUALIFICATIONS:

Required:

• Education: Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Data Science, or related field. JD, MBA, or Master's in Library Science (MLS) strongly preferred.

• Experience: 5+ years of proven experience in business data architecture and data engineering, with demonstrated experience in a law firm or professional services environment.

• Systems of Record Expertise: Hands-on experience architecting and integrating data from multiple business systems including:

  • Marketing systems (CRM, marketing automation, business development platforms)

  • Financial systems (billing, accounting, financial reporting)

  • Professional development and learning management systems

  • Legal practice management systems (matter management, document management, time tracking)

  • HR and talent management systems

• Technical Expertise:

  • Familiarity with enterprise architecture frameworks (such as TOGAF)

  • Strong proficiency in data modeling, design tools, and data engineering practices

  • Knowledge of data governance and regulatory compliance in legal contexts

• Legal Technology Knowledge: Familiarity with legal research platforms (Westlaw, LexisNexis), practice management systems, and legal-specific data requirements.

• Soft Skills:

  • Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities

  • Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with proven ability to translate complex technical concepts to non-technical legal professionals

  • Strong project management acumen and cross-functional leadership capability

Preferred:

• Certifications: Enterprise architecture certifications are a plus.

• Additional Experience:

  • Experience with legal document automation, e-discovery platforms (Relativity), and related tools

  • Demonstrated experience leading or supporting AI/ML or analytics projects from concept to completion

  • Experience managing pilot programs, technology assessments, and vendor relations in legal or professional services

  • Deep familiarity with compliance, privacy, and security standards specific to legal technology

  • Experience with data integration across diverse business systems and creating unified data models

  • Experience with data science and analytics tools (Python, R, SQL)

• Skills: Experience with machine learning, natural language processing, and AI applications for legal content and workflows.

This role offers a unique opportunity to build and optimize the data architecture that powers critical business functions across marketing, finance, professional development, and legal practice, while also enabling advanced analytics and AI capabilities.

The firm offers a generous total compensation package with bonuses and raises awarded in recognition of individual merit-based performance. All full-time Business Services employees may participate in King & Spalding’s comprehensive benefit program including health and wellness plan, life and disability insurance, flexible spending accounts and a health savings account, a 401(k) plan, profit sharing plan, and a substantial Paid Time Off (PTO) program.

King & Spalding LLP (K&S) is committed to providing equal employment opportunity to all applicants and employees in full compliance with all state, federal, and local laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, genetic information, age, disability or any other status protected by applicable law. 

We are proud of our remarkably cohesive culture, which now encompasses more than 2,500 lawyers and business professionals worldwide. We seek to attract and develop the very best talent to work with us.