Senior Systems Manager

Richards, Layton & Finger, Delaware's largest law firm, seeks a Senior Systems Manager in Wilmington, Delaware. The standard hours are 9 : 00am - 5 : 30pm, on a hybrid schedule (in office 4-days and remote on Fridays). This role plans, implements, oversees, and maintains the firm’s enterprise applications, servers, networks, and system. They lead deployment and oversight of critical firm technology infrastructure across hybrid, cloud, and on-premises environments. This role also directs the firm’s key technology platforms while managing and mentoring system administrators to ensure seamless application ownership and upkeep.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Design, install, configure, and maintain servers, storage, virtualization, and networks including routine updates and ongoing performance monitoring.

2. Supervise deployment of critical firm technology infrastructure across all platforms to align business and departmental goals.

3. Maintain and upgrade enterprise technology systems prioritizing resilience, business continuity, and team collaboration to ensure system architecture components function as expected.

4. Support overall health, performance, lifecycle planning, and budgeting needs for servers, storage, virtualization, cloud, and network infrastructure, ensuring availability, resilience, and business continuity.

5. Collaborate on and lead the design, configuration, maintenance, and enhancement of core firm applications (such as document management, time and billing, conflicts, and integrations) with the application owners.

6. Coordinate with and supervise others in the System Administration group to identify improvements, guide projects, and delegate system ownership including updates, continuity, and documentation.

7. Maintain Active Directory, Group Policy, and identity services in partnership with application owners keeping systems supported and secure.

8. Ensure robust backup, restore, disaster recovery procedures, and business impact analysis tasks across both infrastructure and critical applications. Organize recurring tests with team members, MIS staff, and relevant external departments where appropriate.

9. Enforce and refine existing standards, procedures, and documentation for infrastructure and applications, including change management, monitoring, best practice deployments, and incident response.

10. Serve as an escalation point for complex infrastructure or application issues, working directly when required, while also coordinating vendors and internal resources.

11. Partner with the firm’s iSMS, security, and outside counsel guideline teams to support initiatives and ensure systems and applications comply with requirements.

12. Manage relationships with external vendors and service providers for hosted platforms, maintenance, support, and projects focusing on systems and applications.

13. Provide leadership, coaching, and structured professional development for System Administration staff, including formal cross training in advanced technical functions.

14. Contribute to refining MIS policies, procedures, and standards driving the continual improvement of MIS operations and service delivery.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES REQUIRED

1. Strong understanding of complex information system environments, including core infrastructure such as servers, networks, virtualization, and cloud as well as enterprise applications such as Exchange and SQL.

2. Proven leadership of blended systems, infrastructure, and application teams, including coaching and skills development.

3. Excellent analytical, problem solving, and decision-making skills to balance stability, security requirements, and user needs.

4. Effective communication skills for explaining complex concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences, including attorneys and firm leadership.

5. Ability to prioritize, plan and oversee multiple concurrent projects alongside daily operational responsibilities in a professional environment.

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE

1. Bachelor’s degree in information technology or computer science, or equivalent professional experience.

2. Minimum five years’ direct systems administration experience plus substantial experience overseeing enterprise environments in a law firm or similar professional services setting.

3. Experience administering servers, virtualization platforms, networking technologies, and enterprise applications including Exchange, Office365, SQL databases, document management systems, and comparable tools.

4. Familiarity with Time and Billing systems and IntApp environments is preferred.

5. Prior experience with leadership, supervision, or as a technical lead is required.

6. Relevant technical certifications and a strong commitment to ongoing professional development and continued education are desirable.

EOE