Job Description
An international law firm spanning across the US/Europe/Asia is looking for an IP Application Engineer to join their IP Enterprise Systems team. The firm is in the Top 50 largest law firms in the world; they focus on corporate, litigation, intellectual property, fund formation, public markets, employment, life sciences (#1 law firm for tech and life sciences IPOs), clean technology, real estate, financial services, retail, regulatory and energy practices. Within the IP space, the firm as handled 480+ patent infringement cases in the last 5 years, in 2021 handled over 1,100+ trademark, copyright and advertising disputes, 1,000+ investor-side & company-side patent due diligence reviews in high-value deals and transactions, 4,550+ trademark applications filed and over 6000 patent applications. The firm received the following awards form Fortune Magazine: Best Companies to Work For, Best Workplaces for Women, Best Workplaces for Flexibility, Best Workplaces for Giving Back, and Best Workplaces for Parents.
The Application Engineer will be responsible for designing, implementing, support, systems analysis, configuration management, performance checks, and operating reliable, secure and well-performing 3rd party IP applications for the firm; specifically, Inprotech; and also determining if anything can be automated within Inprotech. They will provide troubleshooting, managing, and maintaining Application servers, IIS servers, vendor appliances, and relational databases including associated applications where appropriate. The candidate must be able to write their own SQL and be hands-on in configuring the SQL database to support for these applications. This role is a mix of being a IP application SME, Technical support, as well as leading projects in the space. This person must also show interest in mentoring the team and helping bring knowledge around Inprotech and other IP applications to the greater team.
Position responsibilities:
Provide subject matter operational and workflow support to assigned applications, with a focus on our Intellectual Property department applications (Inprotech, Inprodoc and IPDAS).
Work closely with the vendors, Enterprise Systems Management team, and IP Department Management team to monitor IP database needs
Create and/or update workflows with new or existing events within the IP Management System
Provide 3rd level support for various Application servers and database components
Responsible for escalations in day-to-day support and partners with software vendors' technical support staff to resolve complex problems on various application and database systems
Responsible for designing and implementing highly available robust business applications to improve functionality and the overall end-user experience
Lead project teams in making technical decisions and prepare all documentation for the Architecture Committee reviews
Coordinate and perform installation of application server upgrades and fixes firm-wide
Perform regular maintenance activities to ensure that all enterprise applications are running optimally
Analyze performance for all 3rd party applications and applies tuning methods to optimize application efficiency
Responsible for ensuring that applications adhere to standard operational procedures. This will include leveraging existing monitoring tools to provide end-to-end operational monitoring as well as working with the infrastructure team to determine appropriate backup, storage, CPU, and memory requirements
Act as designer and planner for major application projects, working closely with other technical colleagues and subject matter experts
Train, write/provide documentation and troubleshoot applications as necessary for project teams, 1st, and 2nd level support teams
Duties include:
Ensuring 24/7 access that applications are continually protected and on-line
Constant tracking bugs, fixes and testing of mission-critical applications
Research anomalies and workarounds
Review application log files for errors and irregularities and proactive issue resolution
Management and proper utilization of disk or other storage space for application servers
Design backup and recovery procedures, document of same, including functioning rollback plans
Responsible for change control and coordination of the release management process for applications
Evaluate and report on the health of Firm's IP applications
Work closely with IP or other departments to speed problem resolution
Coordinate software installations with vendors, internal teams, and other parties
Collaborate with IP team to define integration requirements to create new processes and efficiencies
Formulate methods to stress and performance test assigned applications
Recreate steps taken by users to determine source of problem and if database or server related, escalate to IP for correction
Coordinate with the IP Leadership Team to schedule downtime to run law updates on production database
Collaborate with IP and other departments on various projects relating to system version upgrades. Help create project timelines and run various tests on system upgrades, (searches, reporting, document generation, and case/event updates)
Monitor and resolve all internal support emails/requirements and address issues related to Inprotech and/or IPDAS
Required Skills & Experience
- 8+ years supporting Application server, troubleshooting with front and back-end applications experience
- background in Intellectual Property space (Patents, Trademarks, etc)
- 2+ years' supporting CPA Inprotech
- exposure with IP enterprise applications: Inprodoc, IPDAS, Chemdraw, USPTO, EPO, and various other legal applications
- hands on SQL
- Windows 2016, Windows 2019, and Linux Servers
Nice to Have Skills & Experience
- Bachelor's Degree in computer science or technical discipline or equivalent
- Azure
- Advanced degree in related disciplines
- Strong technical writing and documentation experience
-Document Management System experience
- Aderant Compulaw Vision; ITSM systems; Inprotech, and various other legal application
- Prior law firm experience
- certifications
Benefit packages for this role will start on the 31st day of employment and include medical, dental, and vision insurance, as well as HSA, FSA, and DCFSA account options, and 401k retirement account access with employer matching. Employees in this role are also entitled to paid sick leave and/or other paid time off as provided by applicable law.