Financial Systems Engineer

Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP•Wheeling, WV

3d•Hybrid

About The Position

Orrick is seeking a Financial Systems Engineer to lead the engineering management, support, and ongoing evolution of their core financial and practice management systems. This is a senior-level, hands-on engineering position requiring deep financial systems expertise combined with the ability to support a broader portfolio of enterprise and legal technology solutions. The role reports to the Manager of Database Administration.

Requirements

Expert-level, hands-on experience administering, configuring, and supporting enterprise financial systems, including performing technical customizations, upgrades, and troubleshooting.
Solid understanding of relational databases and practical experience working with Microsoft SQL Server, including writing and interpreting SQL queries, understanding database structures, and supporting data integrity and reporting needs.
Demonstrated expertise administering enterprise Microsoft Windows Server environments, including familiarity with IIS, PowerShell, and Intune/Active Directory.
Proficiency and familiarity with both traditional client/server applications and cloud-hosted / SaaS solutions in general.
Working knowledge of APIs (REST) and integration techniques (middleware, flat-file, ETL) used to connect enterprise systems and exchange data reliably.
Strong written and verbal communication skills and the proven ability to work well with others — collaborating effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Ability to work independently and in a team-oriented, collaborative environment is required.
Proven analytical and troubleshooting abilities across multiple system layers (application, database, server), with the ability to adapt to shifting priorities, demands, and timelines.
Willingness and ability to participate in an after-hours on-call rotation and to perform occasional evening/weekend work for critical issue resolution, upgrades, or maintenance windows.
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Finance/Accounting, or a related field — or equivalent hands-on experience in a technical role supporting financial systems.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with stored procedures, indexing concepts, SSRS, or SSIS is a plus.
Hands-on experience with law-firm-specific financial solutions such as Aderant Expert, Aderant Sierra (cloud/SaaS), or Thomson Reuters Elite 3E/3G is a plus, including any involvement in migrating on-premises environments to the cloud.
Background working in-house at a law firm, or at a vendor/consultancy supporting law firms, with exposure to legal financial workflows (time and billing, general ledger, AP/AR, collections).
Advanced SQL performance-tuning, execution-plan analysis, data-warehouse design, and ETL pipeline experience.
Microsoft SQL Server Clustering, Transactional Replication, Mirroring and Availability Groups experience a plus.
Practical experience with scripting and automation tools, particularly PowerShell and similar scripting languages, to support system administration, reporting, data handling, and operational efficiencies.
Vendor-specific tooling such as Aderant DocuDraft, Design Studio, or Classic/Framework customization are a plus.

Responsibilities

Administer, maintain, and optimize the firm’s financial systems, including configuration, patching, upgrades, and day-to-day troubleshooting across core modules such as client billing, accounts payable/expense management, general ledger, purchasing, fixed assets, trust accounting, and time entry.
Maintain user security, access management, and administration, ensuring role-based controls and data-governance standards are enforced.
Monitor scheduled jobs, interfaces, and system health; proactively detect issues using operating-system metrics, application logs, and performance-monitoring tools, and coordinate timely recovery or permanent resolution.
Provide advanced technical and functional support to end users (Finance staff, attorneys/professionals, billing coordinators), resolving issues through ticket close-out and ensuring user satisfaction.
Administer and maintain Microsoft SQL Server databases both on-premise and in the cloud (e.g. Azure, AWS) supporting financial and related applications, ensuring data integrity, availability, and security.
Develop and optimize SQL queries, stored procedures, views, and data endpoints, and perform query optimization, indexing, and performance tuning to maintain responsive system performance.
Support data warehouse / reporting initiatives, including optimized data models and ETL processes for financial applications, where applicable.
Perform backup, restore, and disaster-recovery procedures and validate data integrity across environments.
Support and maintain both classic client/server applications and cloud-hosted / SaaS platforms, including participation in modernization and cloud-migration initiatives.
Design, build, test, and maintain integrations and APIs between financial systems and complementary enterprise systems (time entry, expense management, DMS, CRM, HR, bank/ACH connections, e-billing platforms), using REST APIs, middleware, flat-file exchanges, or ETL pipelines as appropriate.
Administer supporting Microsoft Windows Server environments, including familiarity with IIS, PowerShell, and Active Directory.
Evaluate and implement system upgrades, patches, and new modules; plan and execute test plans including unit testing, system testing, UAT coordination, release validation, and defect triage.
Manage change-control processes, assessing the impact of proposed upgrades or new offerings and reporting findings to management before implementation; contribute to Change Advisory Board (CAB) discussions as required.
Act as a technical liaison between Finance/Accounting, IT, and business stakeholders, translating business needs into functional and system requirements.
Manage vendor relationships in accordance with service-level agreements (SLAs), escalating issues as appropriate to ensure quality and timeliness of vendor support.
Produce and maintain clear documentation for system configurations, integrations, support procedures, release notes, and operational runbooks for audit and continuity purposes; mentor junior staff and share best practices.
Apply accounting and auditing principles to ensure data integrity, internal controls, and audit trails are maintained; support month-end and year-end processing and resolve data issues affecting financial integrity.
Identify opportunities for process improvement and automation to reduce manual effort, improve user experience, and strengthen controls and auditability.
Participate in the after-hours on-call support rotation of the Applications team.
Perform other responsibilities and duties as required.