Principal Solutions Engineer

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati is seeking a Principal Solutions Engineer to join their technology team. The role involves serving as a senior technical authority for designing and delivering business solutions, leading the development of complex solutions, and mentoring technical professionals while ensuring data governance and compliance.

Responsibilities:

• Design, implement, and maintain integrations between multiple internal and external platforms
• Define end-to-end solution architectures spanning SaaS, PaaS, on-prem and cloud systems
• Lead solution design through to build and implementation; guide developers, data engineers, and admins while removing blockers
• Produce high-quality artifacts (process diagrams, sequence/data-flow diagrams, API specs, data models, non-functional requirements)
• Establish integration patterns (REST/GraphQL APIs, event-driven messaging, ETL/ELT), data contracts, and reference implementations
• Design, implement, and maintain integrations between multiple internal and external platforms (e.g., CRM, business intelligence tools, legal platforms, marketing automation systems, and financial systems) to drive automation and operational efficiencies
• Advance trend analysis reports for various departments, practice, and industry groups to influence business development and marketing strategies
• Collaborate with the communications and events teams to track the success of marketing campaigns and identify opportunities for optimization
• Develop and maintain performance dashboards to provide real-time insights into key business development and marketing metrics
• Partner with the data operations team to extract, transform, and load (ETL) data from marketing platforms, the firm data lake, and external sources
• Perform administrative tasks within Salesforce, including audits and automation flow development
• Partner with KM/Data teams to architect data pipelines, authoritative sources, and governed taxonomies/metadata
• Serve as the primary technology advisor to business sponsors; translate objectives into clear solution roadmaps and measurable outcomes
• Provide thought leadership on best practices for data architecture, integration, and business intelligence
• Assess and recommend tools and technologies to support the firm’s business development and marketing initiatives
• Ensure the firm stays ahead of trends in business technologies (including AI advancements) and leverages cutting-edge solutions
• Apply pragmatic project management (Lean/Kanban/iterative) with clear milestones, risks, assumptions, and dependencies
• Define acceptance criteria and test plans; drive UAT, cutover, change management and user adoption
• Maintain solution runbooks, support models, and knowledge transfer for IT operations
• Embed least-privilege, ethical walls, client confidentiality, data residency, and retention requirements in every design
• Align with firm policies and client OCGs; partner with InfoSec on threat modeling, DLP, MDM, device posture, and vendor risk
• Lead initiatives to incorporate AI-driven solutions into business development workflows
• Use AI models to automate and enhance business insights, creating more personalized client interactions and smarter opportunity identification
• Design responsible AI/RAG use cases with appropriate guardrails, auditability, and privacy

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in a technical field, preferably Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering or similar
• Advanced degree or additional study or experience in a related field (business, management, operations, data science, machine learning, AI, etc.)
• 8-12+ years of experience in enterprise application architecture/solution design, including 4+ years leading cross-functional delivery
• Demonstrated success delivering complex, integrated business solutions in a law firm or adjacent professional-services environment
• Strong grasp of business processes in legal (client/matter intake, conflicts/ethical walls, time & billing, pricing, DMS/KM, marketing/CRM, HR/PD)
• Experience working with legal specific technologies, CRM systems, ERM platforms, marketing automation, and experience management tools (e.g., Salesforce, Pardot, Marketo, Introhive, Foundation, Aderant)
• Proficiency in integration, database, and business intelligence technologies (e.g., APIs, SQL, Excel, Power Bi, Tableau, Foundation, Intapp, Smartsheet, Microsoft Fabric)
• Excellent communication, stakeholder management, and the ability to translate technical concepts to non-technical business leaders
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to translate complex data into actionable insights
• Proven expertise across: Cloud & Identity: Microsoft 365/Entra ID (AAD), Azure (App Services, Functions, Storage, SQL, Key Vault), conditional access
• Content & Collaboration: SharePoint/Teams/Viva, intranet/portal patterns, document automation, e-signature workflows
• Legal Systems (familiarity): NetDocuments or iManage; Intapp (Conflicts/Intake/Time); Aderant or Elite 3E; InterAction/CRM; records/ERM; eDiscovery
• Integration & Data: API design, message queues, ETL/ELT, data modeling, metadata/taxonomy, search indexing
• Dev Practices: CI/CD (Azure DevOps/GitHub), Terraform, test automation, versioning, feature flags
• Security & Compliance: SSO/MFA, secrets management, encryption, DLP/IRM, logging/monitoring, audit trails
• Experience implementing enterprise search or legal-focused search/insight platforms and RAG/AI augmentation in a governed environment
• Exposure to knowledge graph/ontology design for legal content and matter data
• TOGAF or equivalent architecture framework familiarity; PMP/CSM or strong delivery track record
• Certifications: Microsoft Azure Architect/Administrator/Developer; Power Platform; NetDocuments/iManage admin a plus