Slaughter and May
Solution and Data Architect
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Role overview
We are seeking a highly skilled and experienced Solution and Data Architect to join the Strategy and Architecture team within Technology. The ideal candidate will be responsible for designing, reviewing, and implementing robust data and solution architectures, ensuring the integrity and security of our data systems, and aligning technology solutions with business outcomes. A central focus of the role is the firm's core legal platform estate (document and email management, practice and financial management, and risk, intake and time capture) and the integration and data flows that connect these platforms to each other and to the wider Microsoft and Azure ecosystem. This role requires a deep understanding of data management, solution architecture, security protocols, and enterprise architecture to support the firm's strategic objectives.
Key responsibilities
The key responsibilities of this role are set out below and there may be others which are not listed. You may be required on occasion to work outside our normal working hours of 9:30am to 5:30pm.
Solution Architecture:
- Design and develop scalable and efficient data and technology solutions to support business operations and legal services.
- Collaborate with stakeholders to understand business requirements and translate them into technical specifications.
- Evaluate and select appropriate technologies and tools to meet the firm's needs.
- Design and architect cloud-native and hybrid IaaS and PaaS cloud solutions across public cloud platforms (Azure), ensuring alignment with the firm’s infrastructure strategy, cost optimisation principles, and risk and compliance policies.
- Identify potential friction points across devices, applications, hardware, and the combined services delivered jointly with business services as part of solution design to provide a smooth, frictionless daily experience for users.
Data Architecture:
- Own the target-state integration architecture across the firm's core legal platforms, including iManage Cloud (document and email management), Elite 3E Cloud (practice and financial management) and Intapp Cloud (intake, conflicts, risk and time), together with their supporting Microsoft 365 and Azure services.
- Develop and maintain the firm's data architecture, ensuring data consistency, integrity, and accessibility.
- Implement data governance policies and procedures to manage data lifecycle and quality.
- Optimize data storage, retrieval, and processing to enhance performance and reliability.
Security Architecture:
- Integrate security measures into data and solution architecture to protect sensitive legal information.
- Work collaboratively with the Legal, Risk and Compliance team to conduct regular design security assessments and audits to identify vulnerabilities and implement corrective actions.
- Stay updated on the latest security trends and technologies to ensure compliance with industry standards.
Enterprise Architecture:
- Understand and apply business outcome-driven enterprise architecture principles to align technology solutions with organizational goals.
- Develop and maintain enterprise architecture frameworks and models to guide technology decisions.
- Ensure that all architectural solutions support business objectives and deliver measurable outcomes.
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Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Objectives:
- Incorporate ESG considerations into architectural designs and technology solutions.
- Ensure that data and solution architectures support the firm's sustainability and social responsibility goals.
- Stay informed about ESG trends and best practices to drive continuous improvement.
Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery:
- Develop and implement business continuity and disaster recovery plans to ensure the firm's resilience.
- Advise & review regular testing and updates of continuity and recovery plans to address emerging threats.
- Collaborate with stakeholders to ensure critical business functions can be maintained during disruptions.
Collaboration and Leadership:
- Champion designs which encompass the firms core goals relating to environmental, social and governance.
- Provide technical guidance and mentorship.
- Lead cross-functional projects and initiatives to drive innovation and efficiency.
- Collaborate with the Innovation team on the evaluation and adoption of AI and legal technology solutions, providing architectural guidance to ensure that proposed solutions meet the firm’s security, operability, integration, and data governance standards before onboarding.
Documentation and Reporting:
- Create comprehensive documentation for data models, architecture high level designs, and security protocols.
- Prepare reports and presentations for senior management to communicate progress and outcomes.
- Ensure all architectural decisions are well-documented and accessible for future reference.
Candidate profile
Candidates for this position must have:
- Proven experience across multiple architecture domains, including infrastructure, data and security architecture, with the ability to operate at both strategic and detailed design levels. Demonstrable understanding of architecture principles and how they drive business outcomes is essential.
- Demonstrable, hands-on experience architecting and delivering data integrations across the core legal platform estate in a law firm or professional services environment. Specifically, iManage Cloud, Elite 3E Cloud and Intapp Cloud. Candidates should be able to speak in detail about integrations they have personally designed or governed: the interfaces and APIs used, how client and matter master data was synchronised, and how failures and reconciliation were handled.
- Practical familiarity with the data domains these platforms hold (client and matter records, workspace and document metadata, conflicts and intake, time capture, billing and WIP) and how they relate to each other across the estate.
- Strong hands-on technical knowledge of cloud platforms and modern infrastructure. In particular Microsoft Azure IaaS and PaaS services, hybrid cloud patterns, and cloud-native design principles, with an appreciation of cost optimisation and risk/compliance considerations. Experience with Azure integration and data services (for example API Management, Logic Apps, Functions, Service Bus, Event Grid and Data Factory) applied to SaaS-to-SaaS and SaaS-to-on-premises integration is expected.
- Awareness of, and ideally hands-on experience with, modern integration and interoperability protocols that are shaping how AI assistants, agents and copilots connect to enterprise systems. In particular the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and comparable open standards for tool-use and context retrieval.
- A pragmatic, adaptable mindset with a genuine willingness to turn their hand to whatever is needed, whether that is producing a high-level enterprise architecture roadmap, reviewing a detailed data model, scoping a security design assessment, or evaluating an emerging AI solution. The team needs someone who does not rigidly silo themselves into a single discipline.
- Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to translate complex technical concepts into clear, compelling narratives for senior management, partners, and non-technical stakeholders. Experience preparing board-level or executive reports and leading design discussions is highly desirable.
- A collaborative and consultative approach, with the ability to work across functions, including with lawyers, business services teams, innovation, and risk/compliance, to understand requirements, challenge constructively, and drive consensus on architectural decisions. Experience mentoring or providing technical leadership to others is a plus.
- Comfortable and confident using AI-enabled tools to support day-to-day work, including leveraging AI assistants for research, design validation, documentation drafting, and data analysis, with the judgement and critical thinking to interrogate AI-generated outputs rather than accept them at face value.
- Experience with data governance, data lifecycle management, and information security in a regulated or professional services environment is highly desirable.
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We are committed to ensuring that our recruitment processes are barrier-free and as inclusive as possible for everyone. This includes making adjustments for people who have a disability or long-term condition. If you have any questions or require any adjustments to be made to one or both of the application or interview processes, please contact the Recruitment Team.
We are a Disability Confident Committed employer and will offer an interview to applicants with a disability or long-term condition who best meet the minimum or essential criteria for our Business Services roles. If you would like to apply through the Disability Confident 'Offer An Interview' commitment, please apply via our online application form and not via LinkedIn. You are disabled under the Equality Act 2010 if you have a physical or mental impairment that has a ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ negative effect on your ability to do normal daily activities. For more information about the Disability Confident scheme, please see the government website here.
We welcome applications irrespective of race, colour, ethnic or national origin, disability, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, religion, belief or marital status.
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