JOB SUMMARY

We are seeking a highly skilled and forward-thinking AI Legal Expert at Director level to lead the legal interpretation, assessment, and risk mitigation of Responsible AI-related clauses across our enterprise. This role is critical in ensuring compliance with evolving global AI regulations, managing legal risks in AI development and deployment, and supporting cross-functional governance of trustworthy AI systems

RESPONSIBILITIES

Key Responsibilities:

•    Interpret and advise on legal clauses related to Responsible AI across global jurisdictions (e.g., EU AI Act, UAE AI Regulation, US Executive Orders).
•    Conduct legal risk assessments for AI and algorithmic systems used internally and externally.
•    Develop internal guidance and legal playbooks for contractual clauses related to AI governance, algorithmic accountability, data usage, and explainability.
•    Partner with Data Science, Technology, Risk, Procurement, and Compliance teams to embed legal guardrails across the AI lifecycle.
•    Review and negotiate AI-related terms in vendor and customer contracts to ensure legal and ethical use of AI technologies.
•    Track and analyse developments in AI-related legislation and regulatory guidance to inform enterprise compliance strategy.
•    Advise on AI incident response, liability attribution, and emerging legal risks (e.g., deepfakes, algorithmic harm, generative content).
•    Contribute to AI governance councils and represent Legal in internal audits and external regulatory engagements related to AI.
•    Educate and upskill legal and business teams on responsible AI frameworks and legal implications.

Strategy

•    Lead and establish a team of model validation professionals, fostering a culture of technical excellence, innovation, and regulatory compliance.
•    Develop and execute a strategic vision for model validation that incorporates emerging trends in ML, data science, and GenAI.
•    Align validation practices with organizational objectives and industry best practices, including MRM frameworks.
•    Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including data science, risk management, and compliance, to ensure cohesive model governance.

Governance activities for the role:
•    Legal Interpretation and Compliance: The AI Legal Expert will be responsible for interpreting and advising on legal clauses related to Responsible AI across various global jurisdictions. This includes ensuring compliance with evolving AI regulations such as the EU AI Act, UAE AI Regulation, and US Executive Orders.
•    Risk Assessment and Mitigation: Conduct legal risk assessments for AI and algorithmic systems developed externally by third parties. The expert will identify potential legal risks and develop strategies to mitigate them aligned with internal and external teams.
•    Development of Guidance and Playbooks: Creating internal guidance and legal playbooks for AI governance, algorithmic accountability, data usage, and explainability. These documents will serve as a reference for embedding legal guardrails across the AI lifecycle.
•    Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partnering with various teams such as Data Science, Technology, Risk, Legal Procurement, and Compliance to ensure that legal guardrails are integrated throughout the AI lifecycle. This collaboration is crucial for maintaining trustworthy AI systems.
•    Contract Review and Negotiation: Reviewing and negotiating AI-related terms in vendor and customer contracts to ensure the legal and ethical use of AI technologies. This involves safeguarding against potential misuse and ensuring compliance with legal standards.
•    Monitoring Legislative Developments: Tracking and analyzing developments in AI-related legislation and regulatory guidance to inform the enterprise's compliance strategy. Staying updated on legal changes is essential for proactive governance.
•    Incident Response and Liability Management: Advising on AI incident response, liability attribution, and emerging legal risks such as deepfakes, algorithmic harm, and generative content. This includes developing protocols for addressing incidents and managing liabilities.
•    Participation in Governance Councils: Contributing to AI governance councils and representing the Legal department in internal audits and external regulatory engagements related to AI. This ensures that legal perspectives are included in governance discussions.
•    Education and Upskilling: Educating and upskilling legal and business teams on responsible AI frameworks and legal implications. This helps in building a knowledgeable workforce that can effectively manage AI-related legal issues.

Key Stakeholders

•    Enterprise Legal
•    Technology
•    Third party risk management
•    CDO AI Safety
•    Risk framework owners 

Qualification
•    Education     Experience in financial services, healthcare, or other highly regulated sectors.
•    Exposure to AI incident response planning, model validation, or fairness/bias testing methodologies.
•    Certification or formal training in AI governance, responsible AI, or technology law.
•    Languages     English

Role Specific Technical Competencies
•    Data Science
•    Customer centric
•    Stakeholder management
•    Develop training and awareness programs
•    Risk management 
•    Legal Third party contract management 

About Standard Chartered

We're an international bank, nimble enough to act, big enough for impact. For more than 170 years, we've worked to make a positive difference for our clients, communities, and each other. We question the status quo, love a challenge and enjoy finding new opportunities to grow and do better than before. If you're looking for a career with purpose and you want to work for a bank making a difference, we want to hear from you. You can count on us to celebrate your unique talents and we can't wait to see the talents you can bring us.

Our purpose, to drive commerce and prosperity through our unique diversity, together with our brand promise, to be here for good are achieved by how we each live our valued behaviours. When you work with us, you'll see how we value difference and advocate inclusion.

Together we:

• Do the right thing and are assertive, challenge one another, and live with integrity, while putting the client at the heart of what we do
• Never settle, continuously striving to improve and innovate, keeping things simple and learning from doing well, and not so well
• Are better together, we can be ourselves, be inclusive, see more good in others, and work collectively to build for the long term

What we offer

In line with our Fair Pay Charter, we offer a competitive salary and benefits to support your mental, physical, financial and social wellbeing.

• Core bank funding for retirement savings, medical and life insurance, with flexible and voluntary benefits available in some locations.
• Time-off including annual leave, parental/maternity (20 weeks), sabbatical (12 months maximum) and volunteering leave (3 days), along with minimum global standards for annual and public holiday, which is combined to 30 days minimum.
• Flexible working options based around home and office locations, with flexible working patterns.
• Proactive wellbeing support through Unmind, a market-leading digital wellbeing platform, development courses for resilience and other human skills, global Employee Assistance Programme, sick leave, mental health first-aiders and all sorts of self-help toolkits
• A continuous learning culture to support your growth, with opportunities to reskill and upskill and access to physical, virtual and digital learning.
• Being part of an inclusive and values driven organisation, one that embraces and celebrates our unique diversity, across our teams, business functions and geographies - everyone feels respected and can realise their full potential.