Application Engineer

Role overview

We are looking for a talented and adaptable Application Engineer to join our Business Systems team. This is a T-shaped role: you will bring deep technical expertise in at least one discipline that is of direct value to the team (AIS and REST APIs, SQL, Power Platform or Fabric), and combine it with the breadth and curiosity to act as a technical product owner across a defined portfolio of business-critical applications.

You will be comfortable talking to a range of people and translating technical ideas for non-technical audiences. You will work closely with business users, technology colleagues and third-party vendors to ensure your portfolio of applications remains reliable, scalable, secure and aligned to the firm's evolving needs. This will require strong troubleshooting skills and a solid understanding of system integrations, data structures and flows, and application architecture, as well as practical experience of managing the operational health of applications, including application configuration, patching and upgrade management. This is an excellent opportunity to help shape and improve our technology landscape, enhance operational efficiency, and drive digital and cloud transformation.

We are a close-knit and supportive team of 15 people, dedicated to sharing knowledge and cross-skilling to support and improve the diverse set of business-critical applications we look after. We are more interested in the quality of your technical thinking and your track record as a developer and product owner than in the specific languages you have coded in or the products you have previously managed. Above all, we are looking for someone with the flexibility and appetite to pick up new technologies and take ownership of whatever tools and platforms the role requires, which will include:

Application Portfolios

It is likely that the successful candidate will initially take joint ownership of one of the following application portfolios, dependent on their background and the team's priorities at the time of joining.

Document Management

Products in the portfolio include: iManage products (Work, SPM, IRM and RAVN), SharePoint and HighQ

Finance

Products in the portfolio include: Elite 3E, OneAdvanced Time Capture (Carpe Diem), Emburse (expenses management) and payroll systems

Key responsibilities

The key responsibilities of this role are set out below and there may be others which are not listed. You may be required on occasion to work outside our normal working hours of 9:30am to 5:30pm.

Technical Product Ownership

• Serve as the technical product owner for assigned business applications, managing their technical direction and ensuring alignment with the Technology department’s roadmap, business strategy and user needs.
• Stay informed of product updates, upgrades and roadmap developments and manage their implementation.
• Maintain and prioritise the product backlog, including new features, upgrades, maintenance tasks, defect resolution and security updates.
• Serve as a subject matter expert (SME) for your portfolio, promoting optimal use of the applications and proactively identifying opportunities for business improvement.
• Engage regularly with application stakeholders and users to ensure they are informed of progress and change, and to monitor and improve user experience.

Design and Development

• Collaborate with stakeholders to gather requirements and translate them into practical application changes or enhancements.
• Work with internal and external teams to securely design, develop, test and optimise enhancements to your assigned applications.
• Participate in or lead agile ceremonies such as sprint planning, backlog refinement and retrospectives.

Application Management and Support

• Manage the configuration, deployment and ongoing support of your portfolio of applications.
• Troubleshoot and resolve complex technical issues, escalating to vendors where necessary.
• Act as the primary liaison between internal users, procurement, support teams and vendors for your portfolio.
• Manage vendor relationships, including coordinating support cases, overseeing service levels, and negotiating enhancements or customisations.
• Monitor usage and performance, proactively addressing issues and identifying opportunities for improvement.
• Maintain thorough documentation relating to change control, configuration, processes and procedures.

Cybersecurity and Risk

• Maintain best practice security policies and procedures for the applications, any data they handle or store and their integrations, complying with internal and external security standards.
• Identify and manage risks and vulnerabilities in your portfolio and in its roadmap, and proactively support their mitigation.
• Participate in audits, risk assessments and business continuity planning as it relates to your application portfolio.

Candidate profile

Candidates for this position must have:

Essential:

• Proven experience of managing and supporting business-critical applications in a complex professional services, or similarly demanding, environment.
• Deep technical expertise in at least one discipline directly applicable to the team: Azure Integration Services and REST APIs, SQL, Power Platform or Fabric.
• Strong troubleshooting skills and a solid understanding of system integrations, data structures and flows, and application architecture.
• Experience with application configuration, patching and upgrade management.
• Excellent stakeholder engagement, communication and documentation skills, with the ability to convey technical concepts clearly to non-technical audiences.
• A collaborative approach and a genuine enjoyment of working as part of a close-knit team.
• Adaptability and a willingness to learn new skills and ways of working and to take on additional responsibilities as the team's needs evolve.

Desirable:

• Experience in the legal sector or a similarly regulated professional services environment.
• Familiarity with legal sector compliance and IT security standards, such as GDPR, ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials Plus.
• Experience with agile or iterative delivery methodologies and tools.

What We Offer:

• The opportunity to work in a dynamic, fast-paced environment at one of the world's leading law firms.
• A varied and evolving role with real scope to develop your technical skills and take ownership of business-critical products.
• A supportive and experienced team that values knowledge-sharing, collaboration and continuous improvement.
• Competitive salary and a comprehensive benefits package.

We welcome applications irrespective of race, colour, ethnic or national origin, disability, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, religion, belief or marital status.