Director, Head of Legal Innovation

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As a fully remote company, we have Krakenites in 70+ countries who speak over 50 languages. Krakenites are industry pioneers who develop premium crypto products for experienced traders, institutions, and newcomers to the space. Kraken is committed to industry-leading security, crypto education, and world-class client support through our products like Kraken Pro, Desktop, Wallet, and Kraken Futures.

Become a Krakenite and build the future of crypto!

We are hiring a Director, Head of Legal Innovation to build and scale the systems, tools, and workflows that power how our legal team operates.

This is a hands-on role for someone who can walk into a legal organization, understand how work actually flows — not just how it is supposed to — and design and implement solutions that improve efficiency and scale. You will own the full stack of legal operations transformation, including technology selection, workflow architecture, AI enablement, and change management.

This role is ideal for someone who thrives in 0→1 environments, enjoys building systems from scratch, and prefers shipping solutions over advising on them.

• Evaluate how legal work currently flows across the organization, including intake, matter management, contracting, research, advisory work, and reporting.

• Identify capability gaps, inefficiencies, and redundancies where the legal team may be underserving the business.

• Benchmark current operations against best-in-class practices and emerging technologies to identify improvement opportunities.Design & Implement

• Architect and evolve a legal technology stack appropriate for the team’s size, complexity, and risk profile.

• Lead the evaluation, selection, and implementation of key tools, including AI productivity tools, CLM platforms, legal research and drafting tools, and workflow automation systems.

• Build scalable internal processes that teams actually adopt and use in their day-to-day work.

• Integrate internal and external systems by connecting APIs, data sources, and tools into unified automated workflows.

• Develop and execute a practical AI strategy for the legal team, including adoption, governance, and measurement of impact.

• Train and embed AI tools into day-to-day legal workflows such as contract review, legal research, drafting, summarization, and triage.

• Establish guardrails, quality standards, and ethical frameworks for responsible AI use.

• Continuously monitor the evolving AI landscape and introduce new capabilities that improve efficiency and impact.

• Lead change management across the legal organization by bringing stakeholders along through transformation initiatives.

• Enable adoption among both early adopters and skeptics, ensuring new tools and workflows are embraced.

• Build internal capability so the legal team can operate independently without relying on a single specialist.

• Provide leadership reporting on efficiency improvements, operational risk, and ROI from technology and automation initiatives.

• Proven track record building and scaling legal operations systems, including legal technology platforms, workflow automation, and operational processes in complex multi-stakeholder environments

• Hands-on experience implementing legal technology solutions such as CLM, matter management, intake systems, spend management, knowledge management, and AI-enabled legal tools

• Strong fluency with AI and workflow automation tools, with demonstrated experience designing, deploying, and driving adoption of AI solutions within legal workflows

• Deep understanding of core legal workflows (contracts, regulatory, investigations, litigation, intake, outside counsel management) and the ability to redesign inefficient processes end-to-end

• Systems thinker with a strong implementation mindset — able to move from discovery → design → build → deployment → optimization without relying on external consultants

• Ability to translate legal and business needs into technical roadmaps and scalable operational solutions

• Experience building metrics, dashboards, and performance frameworks to measure efficiency, cost, risk, and operational outcomes

• Strong communicator who can bridge legal, technical, and business teams while influencing senior stakeholders and driving cross-functional alignment

• Comfortable operating in fast-paced, ambiguous environments with a high level of ownership and bias toward execution

• Experience in a high-velocity or resource-constrained environment (startup, PE-backed company, understaffed team)

• Familiarity with data privacy, information governance, or compliance systems

• Experience managing vendor relationships and procurement

• Exposure to fintech, crypto, or other regulated, fast-paced operational domains

#LI-Remote

Unless a specific application deadline is stated in the job posting, applications are accepted on an ongoing basis.

Please note, applicants are permitted to redact or remove information on their resume that identifies age, date of birth, or dates of attendance at or graduation from an educational institution.

We consider qualified applicants with criminal histories for employment on our team, assessing candidates in a manner consistent with the requirements of the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance.

Kraken is powered by people from around the world and we celebrate all Krakenites for their diverse talents, backgrounds, contributions and unique perspectives. We hire strictly based on merit, meaning we seek out the candidates with the right abilities, knowledge, and skills considered the most suitable for the job. We encourage you to apply for roles where you don't fully meet the listed requirements, especially if you're passionate or knowledgable about crypto!

We may ask candidates to complete job-related skills or work-style assessments as part of our hiring process. These assessments are designed to evaluate competencies relevant to the role and are applied consistently across candidates for similar positions. Assessment results are considered alongside other relevant information, such as experience and interviews, and are not the sole basis for any employment decision.

As an equal opportunity employer, we don’t tolerate discrimination or harassment of any kind. Whether that’s based on race, ethnicity, age, gender identity, citizenship, religion, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy, veteran status or any other protected characteristic as outlined by federal, state or local laws. 

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