Head of IDAM & Emerging Technologies

At Ashurst Perkins Coie, we're helping shape the future economy. With a global team of more than 3,500 legal professionals across 52 offices, we partner with leading organisations to solve complex challenges across a diverse range of industries, with a distinct strength in technology, energy & infrastructure, and financial services. Our people work on market-leading matters that drive innovation, growth, and transformation around the world. For Ashurst Perkins Coie, innovation is our tradition.

What makes Ashurst Perkins Coie a great place to work?

• Flexible work options
• Health and wellbeing benefits, gym membership, and discounted corporate health plans
• Career advancement - client secondment opportunities, global opportunities, and award-winning Learning & Development programs

The Opportunity:

This pivotal role is made for a leader who sees equity, belonging, and inclusive progress as essential to security and innovation. You will empower a high-performing, diverse team advancing global AI capabilities in a top 20 AMLAW firm.

The Head of Identity, Data, AI & Quantum Security is responsible for leading the firm's global strategy for protecting its most critical digital assets and enabling the secure adoption of emerging technologies.

The role provides strategic leadership across identity security, information protection, artificial intelligence, agentic AI governance and quantum security readiness. It ensures these capabilities are governed consistently across the enterprise, aligned with business strategy, and capable of meeting evolving client, regulatory and geopolitical expectations.

As a member of the Global Cyber Security Leadership Team, the role partners closely with executive leadership, technology, legal, risk and business stakeholders to ensure security accelerates innovation while preserving client trust, regulatory compliance and operational resilience.

Key responsibilities of the role include:

• Lead, mentor, and inspire a global, diverse team of IAM and AI security experts, fostering a culture of equity and belonging.
• Partner with legal, technology, and business leaders to design and govern secure, compliant access to legal, client, and AI-enabled systems worldwide.
• Direct the development of secure agentic AI systems.
• Guide business teams in their development of AI systems to ensure proper identity and access management of agents and AI tools.
• Enable transformative AI initiatives by embedding robust security, privacy, and legal compliance (ISO frameworks, GDPR, HIPAA, ABA guidelines, and local laws) into all processes.
• Continuously develop IAM and AI security programs that address the needs of a multicultural workforce, promoting access equity at every stage.
• Ensure thorough assessment, monitoring, and response to emerging security threats in both traditional and AI environments.
• Support regulatory reviews, client audits, and risk assessments with clear, thorough documentation and leadership engagement.
• Lead Agile and DevOps based teams.
• Champion secure and ethical adoption of new technologies, setting standards that exceed industry and client expectations.
• Deliver ongoing education, guidance, and cultural competency training focused on security, regulatory changes, and cross-border innovation alignment.

This is a full-time, permanent role based in our London office with hybrid working. Global travel will be required in this role.

More information can be found in the job description attached to the role on our careers site: Careers | Ashurst Perkins Coie

About you:

The successful candidate will have:

• 6+ years progressive security, tech, or IAM experience; at least 3 years leading global or multicultural teams, with law firm/regulated industry experience strongly preferred.
• Experience with Agentic AI development, governance, and security.
• Professional or lived experience advancing equity and belonging in tech environments.
• Expertise managing identity life cycles and privileged access (SSO, MFA, IAM platforms) in legal or highly regulated settings.
• Advanced and AI security knowledge, including governance, risk modeling, and ethics in the context of legal tech.
• Thorough knowledge of data protection, privacy, and client confidentiality frameworks in the US, UK, Australia, and other regions (e.g., ISO, GDPR, HIPAA, ABA).
• A demonstrable track record delivering secure, innovative solutions that balance client trust, compliance, and legal technology adoption.
• Bachelor's degree in Information Security, Computer Science, or similar required. Advanced degree preferred.

#LI-HYBRID #LI-IW1