Senior Financial Systems Architect

Summary

The Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP is looking for a Senior Financial Systems Architect to support our Information Technology Department. Willkie is an elite international law firm of approximately 1,300 lawyers located in 16 offices in six countries. The Senior Financial Systems Architect will responsible for guiding the integration of AI and large language model (LLM) capabilities into financial workflows to drive automation, insight, and operational excellence.

This role will also deliver financial systems that are stable, high-performing, and well-integrated, as well as ensuring that infrastructure and applications are secure, monitored, and optimized for performance, AI tools and automations enhance efficiency across billing, accounting, and reporting workflows, and the firm’s financial systems roadmap aligns with scalable, intelligent architecture principles.

The Senior Financial Systems Architect will combine deep hands-on technical expertise with strategic architectural oversight, ensuring that financial applications operate securely, efficiently, and in alignment with the firm’s digital transformation goals.

At Willkie, we believe great people are the key to our success. We are offering a highly competitive compensation package with exceptional benefits. If you are looking to work in a friendly, collaborative environment that affords unique opportunities to expand your professional development, this role is for you.

Responsibilities

• Define, document, and evolve the technical architecture for the firm’s financial systems—covering application, data, and infrastructure layers—to ensure performance, scalability, and maintainability.
• Oversee and support backend operations for Elite 3E and financial applications including configuration, database management, and system monitoring.
• Collaborate with IT teams to maintain the servers, databases, and middleware that host financial applications; ensure availability, redundancy, and recovery plans are in place.
• Serve as escalation point for complex technical issues within financial systems, identifying root causes and implementing long-term performance improvements.
• Design and manage APIs, ETL pipelines, and middleware integrations connecting financial systems with other enterprise platforms, including data warehouses and reporting tools.
• Partner with AI and AppDev teams to design and implement AI-driven workflows, predictive analytics, and LLM-based automation within financial systems such as Elite 3E and future matter intake tools.
• Establish and enforce standards for access control, data security, change management, and compliance.
• Provide architectural guidance to engineers and analysts, ensuring alignment with best practices and long-term platform strategy. Act as the firm’s subject matter expert for financial system architecture.
• 10+ years in enterprise application architecture, systems engineering, or financial systems support, ideally in a law firm or professional services environment.
• Deep technical knowledge of Elite 3E, including schema, configurations, extensions, and integrations.
• Proven experience architecting or supporting Rocket Proforma, e-Billing Hub, and Transform.
• Strong background in system integration, API development, and data pipeline design.
• Exposure to AI/LLM frameworks and experience integrating intelligent automation into enterprise systems preferred.
• Advanced SQL, Python, and scripting for system automation and diagnostics.
• Experience with Microsoft SQL Server, IIS, Windows Server, and Azure or AWS environments.
• Understanding of network connectivity, middleware, and security architecture for enterprise applications.
• Familiarity with ETL/ELT frameworks, API orchestration, and application performance monitoring tools.
• Strong troubleshooting and debugging skills across application, data, and infrastructure layers.
• Strategic thinker with hands-on technical delivery skills.
• Excellent communication across technical and business teams.
• Proven ability to lead technical design reviews and coordinate multi-system initiatives.

ADA Requirements

• Ability to sit at a desk most of the working day and walk short distances
• Needs manual dexterity, speed and accuracy in handling office equipment
• Ability to work efficiently and accurately in an atmosphere of frequent interruption
• Ability to work in close proximity to other individuals
• Ability to carry light objects, e.g., files, small objects and supplies a short distance

Employment Status

Exempt

Pay Range

USD $165,000.00 - USD $185,000.00 /Yr.

Pay Range Statement

The salary range for this role represents the Firm’s good faith and reasonable estimate of the range of possible compensation at the time of posting. Actual compensation will be dependent upon a number of factors, including but not limited to, the candidate’s relevant experience, qualifications and location. Willkie offers a comprehensive suite of benefit programs to all eligible employees. A summary of available benefits can be found here in the Career section of the Firm’s website.

EEO Statement

Willkie Farr & Gallagher is an Equal Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based upon actual or perceived: race (including hair texture, protective hairstyles and other traits associated with race), color, age, religious creed, citizenship, citizenship status and alienage, nationality, national origin or ancestry, ethnicity or creed, disability, genetic information or medical condition, reproductive health decision making, pregnancy or maternity, paternity, marital or civil partnership status, caregiver status, gender (including gender identity, expression, nonconformity, gender reassignment or status as a transgender individual), sex, sexual orientation or preference, veteran or military status, height, weight, any other characteristic protected by law or any combination thereof.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities in our recruiting process. If you need any assistance or accommodations due to a disability, please let the hiring manager know.

California Applicants

Pursuant to the City of Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance (FCIHO) and the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider qualified applicant with arrest and conviction records.