INTRODUCTION
The Global Platforms Engineer is a thought leader and subject matter expert in engineering, managing, and providing escalation support for platforms hosted on Microsoft Azure and other Microsoft technologies. The Global Engineering teams mandate is to provide technical oversight for all Dentons globally hosted platforms, networks, servers, and services, to ensure systems are kept current and operating in accordance with defined standards. This includes a particular emphasis on the Firms transformation technologies including Risk, Finance and Talent.
The current Dentons Azure environment is global in scale, spanning 19 Azure data centers and includes hundreds of servers and platform service instances. We are looking for an individual with comparable experience and a passion to help shape and mature a large enterprise scaled cloud first environment. This is an exceptional and unique opportunity for the ideal candidate to apply their experience and provide technical leadership working alongside peers who share a common vision.
In addition to the technical deliverables, the engineer should help to ensure all business requirements are considered, performance expectations are met, costs are managed, and platforms are highly resilient and secure.
To achieve success, the Global Platform Engineer will need to establish strong collaborative relationships with key business stakeholders, and other technology and security professionals. This will be accomplished relying on strong communication skills that enable the Engineer to effectively collaborate with peers around the world.
WHY DENTONS
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.
ROLE
Reporting into the Global Platforms Engineering Manager and working within the Global Engineering team, the Global Platform Engineer will assume a technical leadership role across numerous initiatives to help ensure systems and services meet Firm requirements and adhere to industry best practices. The Engineer will collaborate with peers and other technology professionals to achieve these objectives.
The Global Platforms Engineer will also be accountable for delivering hands on support alongside the Global Operations team and other stakeholders when responding to service incidents or critical outages when escalations are necessary.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES & ACCOUNTABILITIES
Technical leadership and hands on support of the Dentons Azure environment
Technical leadership and hands on support of the Dentons global networks
Maintain technical documentation for supported platforms and hosted services
Plan and deliver on platform upgrades and updates to remain current and mitigate risk
Assist with the patching, capacity planning, and administration of services alongside Operations
Assist with managing budgets for supported platforms and hosted services
Working alongside Global Operations, assist with technical monitoring and response
Working alongside Security Operations, assist with security monitoring and response
Coordinate activities to ensure the on time and on budget delivery of services
Effective and timely status reports to technology leadership
Share knowledge across technology and security teams to educate and further establish internal capabilities
Management of service tickets in response to system issues, changes, and new requests
Design, Strategy, and Planning
Maintain knowledge of Dentons’ strategic business objectives to help ensure that services are engineered and supported in alignment with Dentons standards and best practices
Challenge the “status-quo” in support of Dentons platforms to establish innovative approaches to systems and service delivery
Think out of the box, and challenge others (vendors and team members) to do the same to come up with the best solutions and technical approaches
Be proactive while supporting services to ensure potential risks are mitigated in advance through careful planning and monitoring of systems and services
Ensure platforms remain highly resilient to meet availability expectations of Dentons in accordance with defined business requirements. This includes the oversight of disaster recovery testing
Ensure platforms remain cloud optimized, taking advantage of cloud capabilities such as auto-scaling and service automation
Build, Test, Deploy
Provide hands on leadership during the upgrade or updating of supported platforms and services
Develop automation templates, scripts, and processes to enable the optimized and consistent delivery of supported platforms
Manage and coordinate vendors activities to ensure the successful support of platforms
Ensure platforms are maintained according to defined architectures, aligned with budgets, and tested
Operational Support
Participate in the Global Change Control process to help manage change across the environment
Provide operational assistance and oversight in support of globally supported platforms and services
Support the Global Operations team with the monitoring, patching, capacity planning and administration of platforms and services
Monitor, plan and deliver platform upgrades and updates with the support of the Global Operations team
Support the Global Security Operations team with the monitoring and response of security incidents
SKILLS & COMPETENCIES
A Global Platforms Engineer must possess a strong technical aptitude with significant hands-on experience working with enterprise platform and infrastructure technologies. A strong focus on cloud technologies is essential, with a significant foundation with traditional technologies. It is essential that the individual is both hands on and equally capable of articulate ideas and strategies in writing.
Technical Skills
Significant working experience with Microsoft Azure IaaS and PaaS technologies
Virtual servers, Networking, Load Balancers, Storage Accounts, Key Vaults
Web applications, Log Analytics, Automation Accounts, Log Apps, Security Center
At least 5 years working experience with Azure DevOps and other service automation technologies
At least 5 years working experience with Windows based server infrastructures
At least 5 years working experience with network and firewall technologies
Strong understanding and experience with business continuity technologies
At least 5 years working experience with implementation life cycles, methodologies, tools, and practices
A good understanding of standards and frameworks (for instance, ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials)
Demonstrable experience of managing effective relationships with third party suppliers
Personal Skills / Attributes
Excellent written and verbal communication skills (English)
Able to effectively negotiate with and influence colleagues and others to achieve a successful outcome
Strong problem solving and analytical skills; can clearly explain and present problems and issues to others and contribute to their resolution
Able to demonstrate initiative and the ability to be proactive, anticipating needs
Has commercial awareness and understands the business value required from IT investments
Able to make decisions and remain calm while under pressure
Methodical approach to work with a strong focus on accuracy, attention to details, consistency, and quality
Understands the need for documentation and well-defined procedures
Able to work under pressure to tight project deadlines and can adapt to differing demands, prioritizing tasks where appropriate and ensuring complete 'follow through' on operational issues
Able to carry out all responsibilities in a way that supports the practices values and promotes its equal opportunities and diversity principles
EDUCATION, EXPERIENCE & CERTIFICATIONS
Formal IT qualification or accreditations (for instance, ITIL, Prince 2, MCSE) essential
Microsoft certified Azure Solutions Architect Expert’s considered a significant asset
Other related technology certifications are beneficial
Minimum of 8 years proven track record of progressive experience with infrastructure across a broad spectrum of technologies
Understands enterprise architecture and common IT frameworks
Understands enterprise and/or program support principles
Experience working in a culturally diverse environment
LANGUAGE CAPABILITIES/INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE
We are a truly global law firm and as such, always welcome hearing from those with foreign language capabilities. Additionally, we would be delighted to hear from candidates with a global background including professional experience gained across different geographies.
