Dechert, LLP is a global specialist law firm focused on high end legal work. The Full Stack Solutions Engineer designs, develops, integrates, and deploys secure, business-facing applications that improve the delivery of legal services and firm operations. As a core member of the IT Applications rapid application development (RAD) team, this role converts validated business needs into scalable, maintainable digital solutions.
The engineer works across the full technology stack—from user experience and web interfaces through application services, APIs, integrations, databases, security, and deployment pipelines. The role partners with the AI Engineer, business analysts, enterprise solutions architects, platform teams, and internal clients to take rapid prototypes and high-value ideas into production-ready applications.
This position is focused on change delivery rather than ongoing application support. Once a solution is stable, documented, and operationally ready, the Full Stack Solutions Engineer supports a structured transition to the appropriate enterprise application support and operations team for long-term ownership.
Job Description
ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS:
- Design, develop, test, deploy, and maintain full-stack web applications, portals, workflow tools, dashboards, and internal business solutions.
- Build responsive, accessible, intuitive user interfaces that meet the needs of attorneys, legal professionals, and business-services teams.
- Develop back-end services, APIs, data models, integrations, and application logic using approved development frameworks and enterprise standards.
- Integrate custom solutions with firm platforms and systems, including document management, knowledge management, financial, matter-management, identity, collaboration, reporting, and data platforms.
- Partner with the AI Engineer to productionize AI-enabled solutions, including user interfaces, workflow orchestration, API services, secure data retrieval, human-review workflows, audit logging, and application monitoring.
- Participate in discovery and solution-design sessions with attorneys, practice groups, legal project management, knowledge management, finance, risk, client development, and business-services teams.
- Translate functional requirements, user stories, process maps, and solution designs into technical designs, development estimates, and working software.
- Build reusable application components, integration patterns, design-system elements, APIs, and development standards that accelerate future RAD delivery.
- Apply secure software-development practices, including authentication, authorization, role-based access control, encryption, input validation, secrets management, audit logging, vulnerability remediation, and secure API design.
- Collaborate with enterprise solutions architecture, information security, privacy, records management, data governance, and infrastructure teams to ensure solutions comply with firm standards.
- Develop and maintain automated unit, integration, regression, and end-to-end tests; participate in code reviews and quality-assurance activities.
- Establish and maintain CI/CD pipelines, source control practices, environment-management processes, and deployment documentation.
- Support user acceptance testing, release planning, defect resolution, and post-deployment stabilization.
- Create and maintain technical documentation, including architecture diagrams, interface specifications, support runbooks, data flows, deployment procedures, and knowledge-transfer materials.
- Assist with solution intake, feasibility assessments, effort estimation, technical prioritization, vendor evaluations, and technology roadmapping.
- Monitor deployed applications for availability, performance, errors, security issues, adoption, and opportunities for improvement during the RAD team’s ownership period.
- Prepare and transition mature solutions for transition to enterprise applications support and operations teams, including clear support ownership, documentation, monitoring, training, and lifecycle plans.
- Stay current on AI engineering practices, legal-industry AI use cases, emerging tools, AI governance requirements, and applicable technology trends.
- Other responsibilities as needed.
KNOWLEDGE:
- Modern full-stack application development, including front-end development, back-end services, APIs, databases, integration patterns, cloud deployment, and application security.
- Web technologies such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript/TypeScript, responsive design, accessibility standards, and modern front-end frameworks.
- Back-end development frameworks, RESTful and event-driven APIs, microservices, relational and non-relational databases, caching, messaging, and asynchronous processing.
- Enterprise integration concepts, including API gateways, middleware, webhooks, ETL/data exchange, authentication, authorization, and identity-management patterns.
- DevOps and application lifecycle management, including source control, CI/CD, environment promotion, automated testing, observability, logging, monitoring, and release management.
- Secure development practices and privacy-by-design principles, particularly in environments involving confidential client, matter, financial, and personnel information.
- Agile and Kanban delivery practices, rapid prototyping, iterative development, backlog management, and product-oriented delivery.
- Legal-industry systems and workflows is preferred, including document management, knowledge management, time and billing, matter management, client intake, reporting, financial systems, and collaboration tools.
SKILLS:
- Strong proficiency in one or more modern programming languages, such as C#, ASP.NET Core, SQL, Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, or similar languages.
- Experience with modern front-end frameworks such as React, Angular, Vue, or equivalent technologies.
- Experience building back-end services, APIs, integrations to cloud services, and data-access layers using modern frameworks and patterns.
- Familiarity with CI/CD, Git, Azure DevOps, and automated testing.
- Ability to design clean, scalable, maintainable, and well-documented software solutions.
- Ability to interpret business requirements and translate them into technical specifications, user stories, estimates, and implementation plans.
- Strong problem-solving and troubleshooting skills across the full application stack.
- Ability to work collaboratively with attorneys, business professionals, product owners, analysts, AI engineers, architects, security teams, and vendors.
- Ability to communicate technical concepts, tradeoffs, dependencies, and risks clearly to both technical and nontechnical audiences.
- Strong attention to quality, usability, reliability, security, performance, and maintainability.
- Ability to manage multiple initiatives, shift priorities appropriately, and deliver incremental value in a rapid-development environment.
INTERESTS:
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Genuine curiosity about applying AI to meaningful legal, client-service, and business-operations challenges.
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Interest in working directly with end users and seeing solutions through from discovery to measurable adoption.
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Interest in responsible AI, data protection, human-centered design, and practical technology governance.
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Enthusiasm for experimentation, continuous learning, emerging technologies, and building reusable enterprise capabilities.
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Interest in improving how attorneys and professional-services teams access knowledge, complete work, collaborate, and serve clients.
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Interest in building practical digital products that make complex legal and business work easier, faster, and more reliable.
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Commitment to secure, ethical, user-centered technology delivery in a professional-services environment.
EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE:
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, or a related technical discipline required; equivalent combination of education, training, and relevant experience may be considered.
- Minimum of 5 years of experience in software engineering, application development, automation, systems integration, data engineering, or related technical roles.
- Minimum of 2 years of experience designing, developing, or deploying AI-enabled, machine-learning, generative AI, automation, or intelligent workflow solutions preferred.
- Experience building applications using large language model APIs, RAG architectures, AI orchestration frameworks, vector search technologies, Model Context Protocol (MCP) or agentic workflow patterns strongly preferred.
- Experience with cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure preferred.
- Experience with enterprise integrations, APIs, identity and access management, secure development practices, and application lifecycle management required.
- Experience in a law firm, legal technology provider, consulting firm, financial-services organization, or other regulated professional-services environment strongly preferred.
- Experience working with cross-functional stakeholders and delivering technology solutions from discovery through production deployment required.
- Relevant certifications in cloud engineering, AI, software development, security, automation, Agile delivery, or legal technology are preferred but not required.
Additional Job Description
Location(s)
Philadelphia
Time Type
Full time
Dechert LLP is committed to ensuring equal employment opportunity and non-discrimination. The Firm prohibits unlawful discrimination in any term or condition of employment against any employee or applicant for employment because of the individual’s race, color, creed, religion, sex, age, marital status, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, disability, membership or service in the armed forces, or any other characteristic protected by law.