Senior Analyst, Strategic Applications in Belfast

Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer is a world-leading global law firm, where our ambition is to help you achieve your goals. Exceptional client service and the pursuit of excellence are at our core. We invest in and care about our client relationships, which is why so many are longstanding. We enjoy breaking new ground, as we have for over 170 years. As a fully integrated transatlantic and transpacific firm, we are where you need us to be. Our footprint is extensive and committed across the world’s largest markets, key financial centres and major growth hubs.

The Opportunity

Strategic Applications is a revenue-generating legal technology team sitting within Digital Legal Delivery. The team designs, builds, and delivers technology-enabled legal solutions directly on client matters. This is not an internal IT function — the team operates commercially, with the majority of its work charged to client matters and directly tied to live legal processes.

The team's primary focus is the corporate and transactions side of the business, which the firm is actively investing in and growing. Typical work includes M&A transaction management, due diligence workflow automation, contract lifecycle management, and technology-enabled advisory on complex corporate mandates. The team also supports a wider range of legal disciplines, including compliance, volume claims, and regulatory work.

Because the team's output is chargeable and integral to live legal processes, the standard of delivery — technically and commercially — is the highest. Errors, delays, or poorly executed solutions have direct consequences for client outcomes and fee recovery. Every member of the team is expected to understand this environment and to take personal responsibility for the quality and risk profile of their work.

The Solutions Architect and Senior Analyst are two new, complementary roles being introduced to strengthen the team's capability. The Architect is responsible for designing and integrating the technical infrastructure underpinning client solutions; the Senior Analyst is responsible for executing those solutions at the delivery level. The two roles are designed to work in close collaboration and are expected to maintain a shared understanding of the end-to-end workflow on every engagement they work on together.

Role Overview

This role sits within a fee-earning team and a fee-earning practice group (Digital Legal Delivery). The Senior Analyst is a core practitioner and problem-solver, responsible for the hands-on execution of client mandates to the highest standard of quality, accuracy, and timeliness.

This is not a purely technical or tool-operation role. The Senior Analyst is expected to understand the legal workflow they are supporting from end to end — what the client is trying to achieve, where the process sits within the broader matter lifecycle, and why the technical approach being taken is the right one for that context. The ability to connect technical execution to legal outcome is as important as the ability to use the tools and design a solution.

A defining expectation of this role is that solutions and recommendations are developed from the client's need outwards, not from the tools available inwards. The Senior Analyst will regularly encounter situations where a process could be approached in multiple ways; the right approach is the one that best serves the client, not the one that is most technically straightforward. The Senior Analyst is also expected to consult with the Manager and the Solutions Architect to consider the value and commercial considerations when deciding the best approach to take.

The Senior Analyst works in close collaboration with the Solutions Architect, with the two roles forming the core of the team's delivery capability. The Architect sets the technical design and integration framework; the Senior Analyst executes within it, and feeds insight from delivery back into design. Effective collaboration between the two roles is essential.

The Senior Analyst is a primary practitioner across the team's core toolset, including: Clio Operate (ShareDo), Contract Express, DocuSign, HighQ, Legatics. They are also expected to use Generative AI tools as a standard part of their day-to-day work — applying them responsibly, accurately, and in strict compliance with client and regulatory requirements.

Key Responsibilities

• Execute data loading, configuration, and workflow tasks on live client matters, proactively identifying process improvements, data quality issues, and format improvements and raising them with the manager promptly.
• Maintain data tracking and audit trails in accordance with client and regulatory requirements, demonstrating clear understanding of why these records matter in a legal context.
• Manage and maintain data templates for use across client matters, ensuring they remain accurate, consistent, and fit for purpose as matters evolve.
• Generate client reporting and data dashboards, proactively identifying opportunities to improve or streamline the client experience.
• Troubleshoot user issues on live matters, identify recurring patterns, and proactively propose targeted training or process changes.
• Manage user access and maintain data security with a clear and demonstrable understanding of the firm's and regulators' requirements.
• Archive projects and workflows in line with matter lifecycle requirements.
• Understand the commercial context of every engagement: be aware of how your work contributes to the team's fee recovery.

Generative AI — Client Delivery

• Use Generative AI tools to execute client matter tasks, including document analysis, data extraction, and drafting support.
• Validate and quality assure all Gen AI-generated outputs before they are incorporated into client deliverables.
• Identify opportunities within live client matters where Gen AI can reduce time, improve accuracy, or enhance the quality of client reporting.
• Apply Gen AI tools in strict compliance with the firm's data handling, client confidentiality, and AI governance requirements.
• Support the testing and quality assurance of Gen AI-enabled workflows as they are deployed on new or evolving client engagements.

Solution Design & Build Support

• Map user requirements and legal workflows end to end.
• Engage directly with business stakeholders and wider project teams to understand client challenges.
• Investigate operational procedures, identify key risks, challenges, and sub-tasks.
• Support user acceptance testing (UAT) on new and updated solutions.
• Actively engage with the team backlog, identify where tasks can be progressed, and execute in accordance with project and team guidelines.
• Create data templates, liaise with clients and legal teams for inputs, and present recommendations clearly and constructively.
• Actively review product roadmaps and identify continuous improvement opportunities on existing solutions.

Risk & Governance

• Identify and escalate risks on live client matters promptly.
• Maintain rigorous standards of data security and client confidentiality at all times.
• Understand the implications of errors in a billable environment.

Qualifications, Skills and Experience

• Proven, hands-on experience with the team's core toolset.
• Strong practical experience with collaboration, workflow, and automation tools.
• Proficiency in process mapping.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel.
• Experience with data visualisation and reporting tools.
• Formal business analyst experience.
• Experience supporting or leading UAT processes.
• Exposure to or experience of incorporating Generative AI legal assistant tools.
• Knowledge of agile project management.
• Experience working within a structured project team environment.

Legal & Commercial Skills

• Demonstrable experience of a law firm environment and supporting legal process via technology.
• Ability to demonstrate end-to-end understanding of at least one legal workflow type.
• Awareness of matter economics.
• Strong problem-solving skills.
• Excellent communication skills.
• Ability to prioritise effectively in a fast-paced environment.
• Consistent, exceptional attention to detail.
• Ability to think strategically.

Personal Attributes

• Approaches every engagement client-need-first.
• Understands legal workflows end to end.
• Takes personal responsibility for the quality and risk profile of their work.
• Collaborative and generous with knowledge.
• Commercially aware.
• Proactive and constructive in raising risks, errors, and improvement opportunities.
• Demonstrates rigorous attention to detail.
• Enthusiastic about legal technology and Generative AI.

Measures of Success

• Delivery quality: Client matter tasks are executed accurately, completely, and on time.
• Risk record: No material data security incidents, client confidentiality failures, or AI governance breaches.
• Commercial contribution: The role's utilisation and delivery quality demonstrably supports the team's fee recovery.
• Client satisfaction: Clients and supervising partners express confidence in the quality of the work produced.
• Innovation contribution: The number of process improvement recommendations raised and implemented.
• UAT effectiveness: New and updated solutions are tested thoroughly before deployment.
• Collaboration: The Solutions Architect and wider team benefit from the Senior Analyst's delivery insight.

Note: Applications close at midday 12:00pm (BST) on Friday 29 May 2026.

Diversity & Inclusion: We are committed to attracting people from all backgrounds and creating a respectful and inclusive culture where everyone thrives.