Senior Software Engineer

WilmerHale is a leading, full-service international law firm with 1,000 lawyers located throughout 12 offices in the United States and Europe. Our lawyers work at the intersection of government, technology and business, and we remain committed to our guiding principles of providing quality, excellent legal and client services; developing diversity among our lawyers and staff and cultivating an environment that promotes an ambitious spirit, collaboration and collegiality by drawing on the extraordinary talents and dynamic experience of our lawyers. Our goal is to reflect the diversity of our clients and the communities in which we practice.

About the Role

The Senior Software Engineer designs solutions, not just code. This role requires strong technical judgment, a collaborative mindset, and a willingness to take ownership of how systems are built, modernized, and operated. The role also requires a problem solver who takes responsibility for outcomes, not just implementations.

The ability to be self-directed and learn new technologies quickly is paramount as the technology landscape changes rapidly, as is the ability to work comfortably with ambiguity, contribute to technical direction, and partner closely with other engineers and stakeholders. The role is cloud first, solution driven, and focused on building systems that are faster to deliver, easier to operate, and better over time.

Modernizing existing applications is a core responsibility. The ideal candidate approaches legacy systems with pragmatism and momentum - focused on improving, replacing, and simplifying them efficiently rather than avoiding them.

Experience with artificial intelligence (AI) is preferred, particularly the ability to leverage AI as a practical engineering tool, using it thoughtfully to accelerate development, reduce manual toil, and improve outcomes across both new and existing systems.

What You Will Be Doing

• Acts as a reliable, self-directed software developer and technical lead providing technical leadership and sound judgment on projects, day-to-day tasks, and support.
• Takes responsibility for technical approach and implementation with a commitment to deliver projects on time and on budget.
• Designs and implements end to end solutions, including architecture, data flow, scalability, and failure handling.
• Owns technical approaches and makes pragmatic design decisions while remaining open to better ideas.
• Modernizes, refactors, and replaces legacy applications with a focus on speed, simplicity, and long term maintainability.
• Builds, deploys, and operates cloud first applications in Microsoft Azure using managed services and automation.
• Develops backend services using .NET / .NET Core, Web APIs, messaging, and background processing.
• Builds modern client side applications using React and current frontend patterns.
• Designs and implements asynchronous and event driven systems using messaging and background processing frameworks.
• Uses AI as part of solution design and delivery, including accelerating refactors, migrations, and new development.
• Collaborates closely with other engineers, product partners, and stakeholders to deliver effective solutions.
• Influences technical direction through experience, example, and clear communication.
• Mentors other engineers informally by raising standards and sharing context.
• Designs systems with observability, reliability, security, and operational support in mind.
• Diagnoses and resolves production issues using logs, metrics, and traces.
• Assists with the resolution of escalated incidents, participates in problem management activities, and assumes ownership of level 3 support and troubleshooting of assigned applications.
• Continuously evaluates new tools, patterns, and technologies and applies them pragmatically.
• Contributes to the Firm's Service Matters initiative to consistently improve its image internally and externally. Displays professionalism, quality service and a "can do" attitude to internal members/departments of the Firm as well as external clients and vendors via electronic and print correspondence, over the telephone and in-person.
• Participates in special projects and performs other duties as assigned.

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What You Will Bring to This Position

• Strong engineering judgment with the ability to clearly explain technical tradeoffs.
• Demonstrated experience designing, building, deploying, and operating production software systems.
• Curiosity, initiative, and a willingness to learn and discard tools as appropriate.
• Cloud first mindset with hands on experience deploying and supporting applications in Microsoft Azure.
• Understanding of cloud native patterns including stateless services, managed resources, observability, and cost awareness.
• Strong backend development skills using .NET / .NET Core, EF Core, and Web APIs, including data modeling and API design.
• Ability to design and develop across the frontend, backend, messaging, identity, and infrastructure tiers.
• Experience with modern frontend development using React.
• Experience with asynchronous processing, messaging, and background job systems.
• Comfortable designing and implementing authentication and authorization using OAuth/OIDC.
• Strong Git fundamentals and experience with collaborative workflows and CI/CD pipelines.
• Ability to independently diagnose and resolve build, deployment, and pipeline issues.
• Operational awareness, including logging, monitoring, and troubleshooting in production environments.
• Experience adhering to a software development methodology such as Scrum, along with DevOps practices and tools such as GitHub, Azure DevOps, or similar platforms.
• Strong oral and written communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to effectively collaborate with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Ability to work successfully and independently in an atmosphere of multiple projects, shifting priorities, and deadline pressures.

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• 5+ years of professional software development experience building and supporting production systems.
• Demonstrated experience modernizing and improving existing or legacy applications.
• Hands on experience working in cloud environments, preferably Microsoft Azure.
• Experience working in collaborative, multi developer teams with shared ownership of outcomes.

* Education

• Bachelor's degree preferred. Equivalent experience may be considered in lieu of education requirements.

Our Commitment

Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP (WilmerHale) is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to compliance with all applicable laws prohibiting employment discrimination. It is our policy to take all employment actions and make all employment decisions without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, citizenship status, genetic predisposition or carrier status, disability, military status, status as a disabled or other protected veteran, or any other protected status under applicable law. WilmerHale will make reasonable accommodation for qualified individuals with disabilities and otherwise as required by applicable law.

Hire in salary range is $154,000.00 - $192,000.00

For more information about Equal Employment Opportunity, please click here

* For additional information about our benefits, please click here