Principal Solutions Engineer

Wilson Sonsini is the premier legal advisor to technology, life sciences, and other growth enterprises worldwide. We represent companies at every stage of development, from entrepreneurial start-ups to multibillion-dollar global corporations, as well as the venture firms, private equity firms, and investment banks that finance and advise them. The firm has approximately 1,100 attorneys in 17 offices: 13 in the U.S., two in China, and two in Europe. Our broad spectrum of practices and entrepreneurial spirit allow exceptional opportunities for professional achievement and career growth.

The firm is looking for a Principal Solutions Engineer to join and be a key member of the firm's technology team. The Principal Solutions Engineer will serve as a senior technical authority for designing and delivering business solutions that drive firm strategy and improve productivity. The Principal Solutions Engineer will lead the development of complex, integrated business solutions in a law firm, ensuring data governance, security, and compliance, while also mentoring technical professionals and driving technology-driven projects.

The Principal Solutions Engineer will be a critical technical leader, responsible for architecting and implementing comprehensive solutions that address the firm's business needs. This role requires a deep understanding of the firm's operations, as well as the ability to communicate technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in solution design, data management, and technical leadership, with a proven track record of delivering complex projects.

The Principal Solutions Engineer will work closely with cross-functional teams to identify business needs and develop solutions that meet those needs. This will involve collaborating with stakeholders to understand business requirements, designing and implementing solutions, and ensuring that those solutions are properly tested and deployed. The Principal Solutions Engineer will also be responsible for staying up to date with the latest technologies and trends, and for identifying opportunities to leverage those technologies to drive business value.

In this role, the Principal Solutions Engineer will be expected to provide technical guidance and mentorship to junior team members, as well as to contribute to the development of the firm's technical strategy. The ideal candidate will have excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to work effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

This position is available as a hybrid or fully remote work schedule.

Responsibilities:

Solution Design and Architecture

• 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.

Business Development and Marketing

• 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.

Data Management and Integration

• 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.

Technology Leadership and Strategy

• 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.

Project Management and Operations

• 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.

Security and Compliance

• 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.

AI and Innovation

• 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.

Qualifications:

• 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.

Preferred Qualifications

• 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.
• Core Competencies
  • Systems thinking: sees the whole, not just the parts; anticipates downstream impacts.
  • Communication: converts complexity into clear options and trade-offs for non-technical stakeholders.
  • Influence without authority: guides teams that don’t report to you; builds trust with partners and vendors.
  • Bias to value: ships iteratively with measurable business outcomes and adoption.

The primary location for this job posting is in Palo Alto, but other locations may be listed. The actual base pay offered will depend upon a variety of factors, including but not limited to the selected candidate’s qualifications, years of relevant experience, level of education, professional certifications and licenses, and work location. The anticipated pay range for this position is as follows:

Palo Alto, New York, San Francisco: $163,200 - $220,800 per year. Austin, Boston, Boulder, Century City, Delaware, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, San Diego, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and all other locations: $147,050 - $198,950 per year.

The compensation for this position may include a discretionary year-end merit bonus based on performance. We offer a highly competitive salary and benefits package.

Benefits information can be found here. Equal Opportunity Employer (EOE).