Senior IT Database and Web Platform Engineer in Birmingham

**Department**: Information Technology - IT Services

**Office Location**: Birmingham

**Reports To**: Senior Manager, Core Services and Platforms

**Working Hours**: 35 hours per week, 9:30am to 5:30pm but additional hours may be required. We are happy to consider agile and flexible working patterns. Our approach to hybrid working allows for up to 40% of time working from home and 60% working in the office.

**Firm Description**: Hogan Lovells is one of the leading global law firms. Our distinctive market position is founded on our exceptional breadth of our practice, on deep industry knowledge, and on our 'one team' global approach. Formed through the combination of two top international law firms, Hogan Lovells has over 40 offices in the Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. With a presence in the world's major financial and commercial markets, we are well placed to provide excellent business-oriented advice to our clients locally and internationally. Our people are the key to our success, which is why we seek to recruit and retain the most talented individuals in all regions of our global practice.

**Department Description**: The Information Technology Department is responsible for the implementation, provision and support of all Information and Technology services within the firm. The department is a business services function that supports and contributes to the objectives of the legal practice. Members of this department are expected to fit into the firm's culture and be committed to providing a high quality of service to our customers.

**Role Overview**: The role will report to the Senior Manager, Core Services and Platforms, responsible for all aspects of support of the firm’s database and web environments leveraging MS SQL and MS SharePoint and other services to ensure that the service is maintained to high standards required to provide resilient services to the firm and its clients, liaising with other teams and departments as necessary. This includes, but is not limited to, DevOps, SQL Server configuration and performance, Web application Infrastructure and support, SharePoint architecture & infrastructure, reporting Infrastructure, Single Sign On, Multi-Factor Authentication and Azure Services. The team works very closely with IT Application groups and across business services to deliver changes to key platforms and systems. The role will work with services hosted on premise, in the cloud, or in third party locations operating under contracts with Hogan Lovells.

**Key Responsibilities / Accountabilities**:

• Providing third-line support to a rich array of high profile legal and information systems which are fundamental to the firm.
• Proactive management and analysis of the global server estate which encompasses Web, SSO, SharePoint and SQL Server infrastructure, and identify opportunities for improvement.
• Ensuring the design and architecture of Web, SharePoint, Azure Cloud Services and SSO infrastructure meets the underlying service level targets.
• Daily monitoring and optimisation, adhering to Microsoft best practice guidelines, to ensure all servers and environment are performing to their optimal ability.
• Deep dive technical troubleshooting when issues are escalated by support functions.
• Technology and system innovation to ensure current systems are kept up to date and within software and hardware supported guidelines and recommendations.
• Work collaboratively with other business services and Vendor teams with a focus on prompt delivery of deployments and support in a rapidly changing environment whilst working under pressure.
• Participate on a technology on-call rota for the Information Infrastructure team.

**Operational Efficiency**:

• Provide support and SME direction on the firms SQL estate, SharePoint estate, Azure Cloud Services, SSO and Identity Management, working with Business Service teams and vendors in supporting and improving the service offerings.
• Management of Azure SharePoint cloud services, SSO and SQL estate globally, ensuring availability, load balancing and disaster recovery solutions are operational.
• Management of Web and SharePoint farm estate globally, ensuring operational uptime and deliver improvement to services through code releases and deployments.
• Delivery of code releases, platform upgrades and deployments to the firms IT infrastructure ensuring work meets change process and delivery standards.
• Technology and system innovation to ensure current systems are kept up to date and work with business service and Vendor teams to continually improve the service offerings.

**Continuous Process Improvement**:

• Continually seek to improve on performance levels by taking advantage of new technology and anticipating changes in market practices, industry trends, process trends etc.
• Review and improve processes regularly; identify inefficiencies and improve operational processes through system documentation and knowledge articles in the firms CMDB.

**Core Responsibilities**:

• The Senior Database and Web Platform Engineer is expected to act as a team lead and coach to other team members. A thorough understanding of technical issues and resolutions, they will assist in handling operational issues, orchestrating project, operational assignments, and liaising with other IT and wider business teams and vendors as needed.
• Proactively identify and resolve infrastructure issues before they impact the user/customer.
• Provide input into the overall management of the Core Services and Platforms team, including resourcing, budgeting, technology roadmaps, tasks and the oversight of all Core Services and Platforms projects.
• Represent the team in the broader IT organisation, including in project, supplier and management meetings, reporting progress on issue resolution and major project work.
• Create and maintain standards, procedures and policies to enhance new and existing services whilst ensuring Change Control and Service Management principles are followed.
• Oversee and manage system changes, deployment of applications, monitoring of service health and troubleshooting problems whilst ensuring a good service is maintained.
• Ensure effective Capacity Planning, Reporting and Monitoring processes are in place to cover services within the remit of the Core Services and Platforms team as defined in the Terms of Reference.
• To create detailed documentation of all systems and procedures that are relevant to the service including Root Cause Analysis and Knowledge Base articles to enhance the support of the services provided by the team.
• Contribute to departmental strategy, manage product lifecycles, help develop and maintain strategic and tactical roadmap for all database, web and supporting systems and services, making sure that they are future-proofed and that the organisation derives maximum value from investment in these technologies and services.
• Maintaining understanding of technology, trends in industry, and keeping up with manufacturer roadmaps in alignment to firm and service needs.

**Person Specification**:

**Qualifications and Training**: Experience and proven ability in undertaking effective resource and workload management to achieve team goals and priorities, using project management techniques and ensuring timely reporting.