Dentons is designed to be different. We are driven to always be the firm of the future, to challenge the status quo, and to provide holistic business solutions to our clients in new and innovative ways. We are the lightbulb moments. The bold ideas. We are the world's largest global law firm, with 12,000+ people across 80+ countries. Driven by the diverse perspectives of our people, our clients, and our communities, we combine local knowledge with global insight
Introduction
The Global Business Technology (GBT) department is essential to meet the Firm's strategic vision. We help to align firmwide technology services with the Firm's objectives. This is essential for providing excellent service and value to the firm and its stakeholders. The Firmwide technology function mirrors the firm's Verein structure, balancing the delivery of standardized global services enabled by GBT with tailored local solutions offered by local technology teams. This approach reflects the firm’s strategy of building an integrated global law firm, while also recognizing the unique needs of individual local firms. Since its establishment in 2016, GBT has become an integral component of the firm’s support infrastructure, relied upon by Verein Members and Affiliates (VMAs). The team, now spanning over 50 members across 12 countries, has seen significant development with its adoption of best practices across various disciplines such as project management, IT service management, and technology operations. More recently, the team was expanded with the introduction of Central Technology Support for Firmwide talent and risk systems – a dedicated team of professionals supporting these business-critical services.
GBT's role and mission have adapted to support the firm's strategic decisions, such as enabling an integrated firm ethos, maintaining a single brand promise, and supporting growth. These strategic choices required a technology team with a global focus to; enable and support a unified domain, embrace early cloud adoption, implement shared systems, and develop a common digital platform for global integration and collaboration. This has led to the creation of systems that aggregate data for client and people management and support cross-border incentive programs.
Global Business Technology is shaped by industry best practices and is designed to optimize technology delivery within the firm's Federated IT model. The team is structured around four core groups: Global Technology Programs, Global Data & Application Services, Global Technology Services, and Global Commercial Services. Each group is responsible for specific areas of technology and business, ensuring effective collaboration and clear accountability. This structure enables GBT to focus on delivering on its promise of Service Excellence.
Finance Systems Engineering
The enablement and support of Firmwide services and technologies is central to Global Business Technology’s mandate. These robust capabilities have uniquely positioned the team to deliver support for any common technologies adopted by two or more individual Verein Members and Affiliates. The GBT team can leverage these existing firmwide capabilities, augmenting where capacity or skillset gaps exist to expand support.
Global Business Technology has been mandated to establish a team to support production and development finance environments that have been deployed for VMAs considered in-scope of the service. This strategic expansion of GBT’s Central Technology Support services (CTS Add On), will establish the Finance Systems Engineering team who will be accountable for the operational support of these finance environments (Elite 3E), deployment support for new features and updates, management of global integrations, and keeping the environments current including patches and updates.
Role
The Global Senior Manager, Finance Systems Engineering leads the Finance Systems Engineering team within the Global Technology Services group. Reporting to the Global Director of Technology Services, this role is accountable for managing a team of technologists responsible for supporting production and development finance environments for the designated VMAs ("in scope" of the service). The manager ensures that service levels consistently meet or exceed expectations.
A critical responsibility of this role is overseeing the flow of changes developed by VMAs to ensure they are effectively managed and deployed within the supported environments by the team. While these changes are developed independently by the VMAs, the Senior Manager ensures seamless coordination, alignment with standards, and successful implementation.
In addition, the Global Senior Manager, Finance Systems Engineering builds and maintains strong relationships with VMAs (technology and finance systems teams) and collaborates closely with Elite and Microsoft to deliver both reactive and proactive support for these environments. This role requires a balance of technical oversight, team leadership, and strategic planning to deliver on GBT’s commitment to Service Excellence.
Accountabilities and ResponsibilitiesKey Accountabilities
- Define team goals and individual objectives, providing clear performance expectations and ongoing feedback to support team development.
- Foster a collaborative team culture by aligning goals and promoting teamwork, innovation, and shared accountability.
- Deliver outstanding service and support, upholding GBT’s commitment to Service Excellence and exceeding VMA expectations.
- Provide technical oversight of supported environments, ensuring they remain aligned to established standards and best practices.
- Coordinate the deployment of changes developed by VMAs, ensuring alignment with GBT standards, effective resource allocation, and successful implementation within supported environments.
- Maintain supported environments to ensure high availability, security, and optimization, with regular updates, including patches and application upgrades.
- Monitor and manage operating expenses, including Azure and other platforms, ensuring compliance with approved budgets while proactively identifying and implementing strategies to improve efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
- Prioritize tasks to align with VMA expectations, negotiating effectively to balance workloads and manage competing priorities.
- Develop and implement processes and procedures to ensure seamless integration with VMA workflows, enhancing operational efficiency.
- Collaborate with other GBT teams to ensure the effective maintenance and support of all environments.
- Work with local teams to identify gaps in support and develop strategies to address areas requiring improvement.
- Promote knowledge sharing across teams by developing training materials, hosting knowledge-sharing sessions, and fostering a culture of continuous learning.
Plan
- Develop and maintain comprehensive roadmaps for finance environments and related technologies to guide strategic direction and future development.
- Collaborate with GBT teams to ensure expectations are clearly defined, resources are effectively managed and prioritized to meet goals, and VMA developed changes are prepared for deployment within supported environments.
- Collaborate to ensure “in scope” integrations are maintained, and development is aligned with roadmaps.
Build
- Implement best practices for the maintenance and support of finance environments, including provisioning, upgrades, updates, and decommissioning.
- Manage and coordinate vendor activities to ensure the successful deployment of new environments and related technologies.
- Ensure all environments adhere to defined architectural standards, remain within budget, are well-documented, and undergo thorough testing.
Run
- Participate in the Global Change Management process to oversee the deployment of VMA-developed changes, ensuring they meet GBT standards and are successfully implemented by the team.
- Support the Global Operations team by enabling effective monitoring, patching, capacity planning, and administration of supported environments.
- Support the Global Data Services team by ensuring the support and integration with other firmwide services including risk (Open), talent (MyDentons), and the Enterprise Database (EDB).
- Oversee and coordinate upgrades and updates to supported environments, collaborating with other GBT teams as necessary to ensure seamless delivery.
- Partner with the Global Security Operations team to facilitate robust monitoring and an effective response to security incidents
- Manage the integration and deployment of VMA-developed changes into supported environments, ensuring consistency with established practices, minimal disruption, and alignment with organizational goals.
The Global Senior Manager, Finance Systems Engineering must demonstrate strong technical expertise, extensive leadership experience, and the ability to align IT strategies with business goals. This individual should possess hands-on technical skills combined with the ability to articulate ideas, strategies, and plans effectively in writing and presentations. A strong focus on cloud technologies, complemented by expertise in traditional enterprise infrastructure, is essential.
Technical Skills
- The Global Senior Manager, Finance Systems Engineering should have a strong foundational understanding of the following technologies and principles to effectively oversee and guide the team, without requiring deep hands-on expertise:
- Elite 3E Technologies: Experience supporting Elite 3E in a legal environment is essential.
- Microsoft Azure Technologies: Familiarity with Azure IaaS and PaaS components, including Virtual Servers, Networking, Load Balancers, Azure SQL, Storage Accounts, Key Vaults, Web Applications, Log Analytics, Automation Accounts, Logic Apps, and Azure Monitor.
- Windows Server Infrastructure: A general understanding of Windows-based server environments and their role in enterprise infrastructure.
- Networking and Security: Awareness of enterprise networking concepts, firewall technologies, and network security best practices.
- Business Continuity: Understanding of business continuity and disaster recovery technologies and strategies.
- Service Automation: Basic familiarity with tools like PowerShell and other automation technologies used in IT operations.
- Database Management: Knowledge of SQL Server and Azure SQL environments, including key principles of implementation and optimization.
- IT Standards and Frameworks: Understanding of industry standards such as ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials.
- Implementation Practices: Awareness of lifecycle methodologies, tools, and best practices for system implementation and management.
- Certifications: Knowledge of relevant certifications (e.g., ITIL, Azure Solutions Architect Expert, MCSE) is beneficial for guiding and supporting the team.
Personal Skills / Attributes
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to effectively articulate ideas and strategies.
- Strong negotiation and influencing skills, capable of achieving successful outcomes with colleagues and stakeholders.
- Proven ability to build and maintain effective relationships with internal teams and external vendors.
- Exceptional problem-solving and analytical skills, with a methodical approach to resolving issues.
- Demonstrates initiative and proactivity, anticipating needs and driving solutions.
- Strong commercial awareness, with an understanding of the business value derived from IT investments.
- Decisive and calm under pressure, able to make informed decisions in high-stress situations.
- Detail-oriented, with a focus on accuracy, consistency, and quality in all deliverables.
- Organized and methodical, with a clear understanding of the importance of documentation and defined procedures.
- Flexible and adaptable, able to prioritize tasks effectively and meet tight deadlines.
- Committed to promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in all aspects of the role.
Education, Experience and Certifications
- Minimum of 6 years of progressive experience in IT across a diverse range of technologies.
- Proven experience in leading and managing a technical team supporting an operational environment.
- Demonstrated commercial awareness with a strong understanding of the business value through investment.
- Familiarity with enterprise architecture and common IT frameworks.
- Understanding of enterprise and program support principles.
- Experience working in culturally diverse environments.
- Microsoft certifications, particularly Azure-related certifications, are highly desirable.
- ITIL certification and experience are significant assets.
- Additional relevant technology certifications (e.g., MCSE, PMP, PRINCE2) are beneficial.
Language Capabilities / International Experience
We are a truly global law firm and as such, always welcome individuals with foreign language capabilities. Additionally, we welcome individuals with a global background including professional experience gained across different geographies.
Language Capabilities
We are a truly global law firm and as such, always welcome hearing from those with foreign language capabilities.
Equal Opportunities
Dentons is committed to providing equal opportunities for all. We welcome applications from candidates with disabilities and support those in the workplace who have a disability.
Inclusion, Diversity & Equity
Essential to our success as a global law firm is our ability to attract and retain the best talent from a diverse range of backgrounds. We want a work environment where everyone can reach their potential and we have an inclusive culture which respects individual differences.
We undertake and support a number of internal and external initiatives aimed at increasing diversity within the profession and we encourage all our partners and staff to get involved. We welcome you to learn more about inclusion, diversity and equity at Dentons.
