Chief Data Officer

Overview

The Chief Data Officer at Baker McKenzie will serve as the Firm’s executive leader responsible for treating data as a strategic business asset. The role is based in any Baker McKenzie Office or Center and requires balancing business stewardship with technology enablement.

Data Strategy & Business Value

Define and execute a Firm-wide data strategy aligned with client service, practice growth, matter management, and financial performance. Translate strategic objectives into a multi-year data roadmap covering governance, master/reference data, analytics, AI readiness, and self-service enablement. Create and manage a portfolio of data products with clear owners and measurable outcomes, and establish KPIs/OKRs to quantify impact.

Business Data Governance (Operating Model)

Establish an enterprise data governance model with clear decision rights, accountability, and operating cadence. Define and enforce standards for data ownership, stewardship, metadata, classification, and lifecycle/retention while ensuring consistent definitions for core Firm concepts.

Data Management & Operations (Day-2 Excellence)

Build and run an enterprise data management function addressing data quality, master/reference data, metadata management, and issue remediation. Implement quality monitoring, controls, and workflows, operationalize Master Data Management (MDM) and hierarchies, and set up a data services catalog ensuring reliability and trust.

Data Architecture, Platforms & Engineering (Technology Leadership)

Co-own the enterprise data platform strategy with Technology Leadership, lead delivery of data ingestion, transformation, and API enablement, develop a governed semantic layer and metrics framework, and embed engineering best practices.

Analytics, Insights & Decision Enablement

Deliver trusted reporting and analytics across the firm that drives actionable insights. Enable analytics for matter profitability, pricing, utilization and client insights while championing a self-service model with guardrails.

AI & Data Readiness (Responsible Enablement)

Partner with various leaders to enable responsible AI through high-quality, well-governed data. Define data readiness standards for AI use cases and ensure compliance with confidentiality, privacy, and bias considerations.

Confidentiality, Privacy, Risk & Compliance

Collaborate with Information Security and Risk/Compliance to align data governance with client confidentiality, privacy requirements, and retention policies. Implement strong access controls and support incident response protocols.

Law Firm-Specific Data Domains & Use Cases

Strengthen data across firm-critical domains such as matter lifecycle, conflicts, billing, and client relationship data. Collaborate with various departments to drive insights that improve strategic financial outcomes.

Leadership, Change Management & Culture

Lead and develop a high-performing data organization by defining roles, career paths, and training plans. Drive adoption through stakeholder engagement and foster a data-driven decision-making culture.

Budget, Vendor & Performance Management

Manage the data function budget and vendor relationships for data platforms, integration, analytics, and governance tooling. Track program performance using executive dashboards and regularly report to senior leadership.

Key Skills/Competency

• Data Strategy
• Data Governance
• Data Management
• Analytics
• Data Architecture
• AI Readiness
• Operational Excellence
• Risk Management
• Change Leadership
• Executive Communication