IT Senior Product Owner II

About Kirkland & Ellis

At Kirkland & Ellis, we don’t just meet the standard for legal excellence — we set it. Our culture is built on teamwork, ingenuity and an unwavering commitment to continuous growth. We tackle the most sophisticated legal challenges with bold ideas and innovative solutions, powered by the exceptional experience and ambition of our 7,000+ people, including 4,000+ attorneys, across 24 offices worldwide. Our dedicated professionals share our lawyers’ commitment to excellence and show up each day to do meaningful work that helps drive global business, investment and innovation forward.

Responsibilities

• Drive Product Delivery: Translate product strategy into structured, delivery-ready workstreams, ensuring engineering and IT teams can execute efficiently and effectively.
• Lead SaaS & AI Integrations: Deliver end-to-end implementations of SaaS platforms and AI tools, leveraging established patterns or creating new ones to meet evolving needs.
• Build Integration Frameworks: Develop and maintain reusable integration patterns (e.g., APIs, identity management, data exchange) to accelerate future deployments.
• Own the Backlog: Create, refine, and prioritize user stories and requirements, aligning business goals with technical feasibility and delivery capacity.
• Manage Agile & Waterfall Execution: Apply agile sprint methodologies or structured waterfall approaches—adapting your strategy based on project scope, complexity, and regulatory requirements.
• Facilitate Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with business, engineering, QA (Quality Assurance), data, risk, and security teams to align on requirements, dependencies, and governance.
• Lead Sprint & Delivery Cadence: Act as the primary IT-facing product voice during sprints, reviews, and milestone check-ins—driving decisions that balance speed, scope, and quality.
• Define Requirements & Acceptance Criteria: Produce clear, detailed documentation that enables teams to build, test, and deliver with minimal ambiguity.
• Oversee User Acceptance Testing (UAT): Ensure solutions meet business needs, security standards, and are ready for deployment within the broader technology ecosystem.
• Track Performance & Delivery Health: Monitor key delivery metrics (e.g., velocity, cycle time), manage risks, and communicate progress through dashboards and stakeholder updates.
• Manage Risk & Compliance: Identify and mitigate risks, ensuring alignment with data governance, security standards, and responsible AI practices.
• Engage with Vendors: Coordinate with third-party providers to align on configurations, integrations, and delivery milestones.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience required; Scrum certifications (Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), SAFe Product Owner/Product Manager (SAFe PO/PM)) preferred; Project Management Professional (PMP) or similar is a plus.
• 5+ years in product ownership, business analysis, or delivery management within a technology-driven environment, including experience with SaaS and AI integrations.
• Strong experience working across agile and waterfall frameworks, with the ability to apply or blend methods based on project needs.
• Hands-on experience with APIs, Single Sign-On (SSO), identity federation, data exchange, and workflow integration across modern platforms.
• Proven ability to write clear user stories, functional requirements, and acceptance criteria that enable efficient delivery.
• Exceptional interpersonal skills with the ability to align technical teams, business stakeholders, and product leadership.
• Proficiency with agile tools such as Jira or Azure DevOps, along with Microsoft Office; familiarity with reporting tools like Power BI is a plus.
• Understanding of data security, compliance, and responsible AI frameworks, with experience partnering with risk and security teams.
• Highly organized, self-directed, and able to manage multiple concurrent initiatives while maintaining quality and momentum.
• A genuine interest in AI, legal technology, and emerging tools that transform how work gets done.

Pay

The base salary range below represents the low and high end of the salary range for this position in Chicago. This range may differ based on your geographic location and cost of living considerations.

• Chicago: $133,000 - $166,000
• New York: $133,000 - $183,000

Benefits

At Kirkland & Ellis, we consider compensation more than just a base salary. We offer an exceptional range of flexible benefits including:

• Comprehensive healthcare
• Paid time off
• Retirement plans
• Personal support and tailored learning and development opportunities