Director, Corporate Legal & Compliance Enablement - AI and Data Science

At Credit Acceptance, we are building on the foundation of a successful business while investing in the future through technology, data, AI, and continuous improvement. As we continue to evolve, our Team Members play an active role in improving experiences, driving meaningful change, and shaping the future of our business. We foster an environment where people are empowered to contribute ideas, develop their careers, make an impact, and help lead our continued transformation.
Our Enterprise teams provide the expertise, insights, and partnership that help our business and people succeed. Team Members collaborate across the organization to solve challenges, support informed decision-making, and enable the strategies and initiatives that move our business forward. We value curiosity, continuous learning, and diverse perspectives from people who are passionate about making a meaningful impact on our customers, Team Members, and business.

The Director builds and runs the AI tools, data and analytics that modernize how Corporate Legal & Compliance works. This is a hands-on role for a data scientist who can take a use case from idea to a tested, governed tool in daily use. The Director partners with attorneys, compliance professionals and Engineering, and reports directly to the Chief Legal Officer.

Outcomes and Activities:
AI, Technology and Innovation

• Develop and carry out Corporate Legal & Compliance's strategy for responsible AI adoption, aligned with Credit Acceptance's enterprise AI direction.

• Find where AI can improve legal and compliance work, such as contract review, research, drafting, complaint review, dealer and service provider monitoring, and regulatory change tracking.
• Build, test and maintain AI tools personally, using large language models, retrieval, prompt design and workflow automation.
• Redesign workflows with attorneys and compliance leaders so AI handles routine work and people keep legal and compliance judgment.

• Set standards, controls and measures for AI tools, including privileged and consumer data handling, human review and monitoring, in partnership with Engineering.

• Prioritize AI and technology work by legal and compliance quality, consumer and regulatory risk, business impact, scalability and return on investment.

• Track new AI capabilities and regulator expectations, and turn the relevant ones into practical tools.

Service Delivery and Operational Improvement

• Map how legal and compliance work is requested, assigned, managed and completed across the department.

• Find work to simplify, standardize, automate, centralize or redesign, such as manual reviews, repeat questions from Servicing and Originations, and job aids.

• Lead process improvement projects across Legal, Compliance, Servicing, Originations and Engineering.

• Use Lean, Agile and design thinking methods, and make sure improvements are adopted, measured and sustained.

Knowledge Management

• Capture and organize policies, procedures, legal guidance, templates, playbooks and regulatory interpretations so they are easy to find and keep current.

• Build a governed knowledge base that people and AI tools can search and cite.

• Reduce dependence on individual experts and improve consistency of guidance across the department and to business partners.

Data, Analytics and Performance Management

• Develop measures of legal and compliance quality, responsiveness, cycle time, outside spend, AI impact and internal client satisfaction.

• Build executive dashboards and scorecards for the Chief Legal Officer and leadership team.

• Measure adoption, use, accuracy and business results for each AI tool.

• Use data science and analytics to spot compliance trends, control gaps and bottlenecks, and to guide priorities and resources.

Leadership, Influence and Change Management

• Build alignment among the Chief Legal Officer, attorneys, compliance professionals and business leaders.

• Lead training, communication and adoption for new tools and ways of working.

• Serve as a trusted advisor to department leadership on AI, data and operating model choices.

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in data science, computer science, statistics, engineering or a related field, or equivalent experience.

• 8+ years in data science, machine learning or analytics engineering, including 2+ years building generative AI applications that people use in production.
• Advanced proficiency in Python, SQL, R or another statistical tool. 
• Strong proficiency with Databricks and Claude platforms
• Experience with LLM APIs, retrieval-augmented generation, evaluation methods and workflow automation.
• Experience building dashboards and turning data into recommendations for senior leaders.

• Experience handling confidential or regulated data.

• Ability to explain technical work clearly to attorneys and executives.

Preferred:

• Experience in consumer finance, auto finance, banking or another regulated industry.

• Experience supporting legal, compliance, risk or audit teams.

• Familiarity with model risk management and AI governance frameworks, such as the NIST AI Risk Management Framework.

• Experience with contract lifecycle, matter management, speech analytics or GRC platforms.

• Graduate degree in a quantitative field. 

Targeted Compensation: $211,674 - $246,953 base salary + annual bonus plan

Benefits

• Excellent benefits package that includes 401(K) match, adoption assistance, parental leave, tuition reimbursement, comprehensive medical/ dental/vision and many nonstandard benefits that make us a Great Place to Work

Our Company Values:

To be successful in this role, Team Members need to be:

• Positive by maintaining resiliency and focusing on solutions
• Respectful by collaborating and actively listening
• Insightful by cultivating innovation, accumulating business and role specific knowledge, demonstrating self-awareness and making quality decisions
• Direct by effectively communicating and conveying courage
• Earnest by taking accountability, applying feedback and effectively planning and priority setting

Expectations:

• Remain compliant with our policies processes and legal guidelines
• All other duties as assigned
• Attendance as required by department

Advice!

We understand that your career search may look different than others. Our hiring team wants to make sure that this would be a fit not just for us, but for you long term.  If you are actively looking or starting to explore new opportunities, send us your application!

P.S.

We have great details around our stats, success, history and more.  We’re proud of our culture and are happy to share why – let’s talk!

Required degrees must have been earned at institutions of Higher Education which are accredited by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation or equivalent.

Credit Acceptance is dedicated to providing an inclusive environment for all. We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer and value a culturally diverse workforce. We believe in ensuring all team members demonstrate mutual respect for one another. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to protected characteristics like age, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.

California Residents: Please click here for the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) notice regarding the personal information Credit Acceptance may collect from you.

Play the video below to learn more about our Company culture.