Senior Programmer (Financial Systems)

Los Angeles, CA, New York, NY, Washington, DC, Denver. CO, Dallas, TX, San Francisco, CA or Orange County, CA

Job Summary

The Senior Programmer will be a member of a team of application development and support staff, including FinIS team, client/server developers, web developers and DBA.

The candidate must have a complete understanding of CMS Aderant as well as n-tier application development including client/server and web.  Candidate should demonstrate excellent project management /business skills to go along with technical (development) skills. A successful candidate will also exhibit a strong desire to learn and understand all aspects of the Firm’s operations and be able to interact directly with Finance and other departments. Prefer candidates with CMS expertise, DBA skills, .Net framework and development experience in VB.NET, ASP.NET and C# with a strong background in SQL Server.  Areas of specific responsibility include:

Requirements Gathering & Analysis

• Works closely with Finance and others who may include partners of the Firm as well as other support business units to analyze, define, and document requirements for data, workflow, logical processes, hardware and operating system environment, interfaces with other systems, internal and external checks and controls, and outputs.
• Analyzes existing Financial systems and programs and develops or recommends new systems or modifications to existing systems.

Development & Test

• Reviews and analyzes Financial system specifications to determine whether all required elements have been included. Consults with clients to gather information about program needs, objectives, functions, features, and input and output requirements.
• Designs, develops, tests, integrates and documents internally developed software.
  Develops integrations and customizations with vendor-supplied applications.
  Modifies existing programs to conform to system changes or to make improvements in the existing program.
• Assists in design of special forms and reports as needed and develop and maintain periodic and ad-hoc internal reports.
• Coordinates and facilitates end-user testing prior to implementation of a new application or an upgrade to an existing application.

Maintenance & Support

• Advises and works with user departments to resolve specific problems or make changes in programs, provide alternative programming approaches, etc.
• Provides technical guidance to internal business teams on aspects of application security, performance, and scalability.
• Maintains legacy systems that are written in proprietary languages.
• Monitors performance of programs after implementation.
• Trains personnel in user departments and conducts train the trainer sessions for IS trainers in any specific procedures. 

Project Coordination and/or Management

• Provides project management of software upgrades of vendor-supplied applications as well as internally developed applications.

Change Management

• Ensures that migration from development and test environments into production are done per the Firm’s Change Acceptance Board (CAB) process.

Qualifications

• The candidate must have strong technical understanding of CMS platform, as well as project management and organizational skills.   Ability to globally manage expectations from multiple stakeholders across the firm and communicate schedules, tasks and deadline is a must.  Ability to delegate responsibilities, track and manage tasks is key to success.  Must exhibit grace under pressure.
• Outstanding verbal and written communications skills, including the ability to communicate with all levels of lawyers, management, staff and vendors.
• Excellent critical thinking and problem solving ability is required.  Must grasp business process, priorities and goals and be able to translate into development initiatives.  Must understand basic business relationship and confidentiality principles and adhere to those principles.

Essential current technology skills desired include:

CMS Aderant, VB.NET, C#, ASP.NET, Web Services, VB6, SQL Server, SQL Server Reporting Services.

Experience

• At least 10 years’ experience as a developer or programmer/analyst.  Financial systems (Aderant, Elite) experience is a must.  Must have strong multitasking, problem solving and organizational skills.  Strong business analysis skills and strong oral and written communication skills required.  Proven ability to work independently and within a collaborative team environment.  Prior work with a legal or other professional services firm is preferred.
• MS degree or BS degree in a computer related field or equivalent experience.