Director Operational Technology Engineer Jobs in Illinois

Cooley is seeking a Collaboration Technology and Workflow Engineer to join the Technology Platforms and Applications team.

About Cooley: Cooley is a global law firm with an expansive practice and more than 3,000 employees and partners worldwide. We value and celebrate diverse perspectives and strive to create a workplace where every individual can thrive. At the core of Cooley's success is the exceptional talent and unwavering spirit of our people. We embrace individuality while fostering a 'one-firm' culture where collaboration and creativity thrive. Our people are the foundation of our success and the driving force behind everything we do.

Hybrid Schedule Philosophy: As part of the Cooley culture, we recognize and appreciate the value of being together, in person, to build comradery with others in the office and to be a contributing member of the Cooley office. However, we also appreciate the benefits and flexibility that come from remote working. As such, the default assumption for employees and partners is a hybrid schedule: some in-office presence and some work from home days absent certain essential in-office roles that require five (5) days/week in-office.

Position summary: Cooley Technology embraces a culture of customer service excellence and all members of the department are expected to move this agenda forward. The Collaboration Technology and Workflow Engineer is responsible for architecting, building, and evolving the firm's enterprise intranet and workflow solutions using Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Power Platform, the broader Microsoft 365 ecosystem, and related technologies. This role designs scalable, secure, and persona-based digital experiences that integrate content, search, and automate manual workflows and processes. This is a hands-on technical role that combines deep Exchange, SharePoint and Power Platform expertise, with strong platform judgment across Microsoft 365, Power Platform, and extensibility patterns. Specific duties and responsibilities include, but are not limited to, the following:

Position responsibilities:

Exchange Online:

• Develop automation, templates, and repeatable processes to streamline mailbox, group, permission, and mail flow management.
• Architect, administer, and modernize Exchange Online services to support secure, scalable, and reliable messaging capabilities across the firm
• Monitor service health, usage, and performance trends to identify risks, improve reliability, and support continuous improvement

Workflow Automation:

• Design and build workflow solutions using Power Platform and related technologies to automate manual processes, improve user experience, and drive business value
• Develop roadmap for solutions and perform hands-on scripting, automation and development
• Establish and maintain governance, standards, and reusable patterns for workflow automation solutions to ensure scalability, security, maintainability, and alignment with firm technology practices

Drive Business & User Value:

• Understand business goals and user requirements
• Generate technical and functional requirements through structured meetings and workshops
• Translate requirements into an appropriate technical solution
• Identify and pursue additional opportunities to bring value to our clients by going beyond defined requirements to deliver optimal, scalable solutions

Documentation:

• Contribute to the establishment and refinement of documentation, including creation/maintenance of templates and deployment runbooks, documenting best practices and enhancing delivery methodology

Usage and Analytics:

• Leverage Power BI and Microsoft 365 reporting for continuous improvement based on usage data

Roadmap:

• Stay on top of Microsoft 365 SharePoint, Exchange, Power Platform, and related roadmap announcements and new services

User Enablement:

• Design strategies that empower employees to work productively using the tools you've built and enable user self-service where applicable
• Partner with change management initiatives and contribute to user adoption strategies

Collaboration:

• Share best practices with internal team members and clients
• Work as a member of a project team, lead technical design reviews and mentor junior developers and architects
• All other duties as assigned or required

Skills and experience:

Required:

• After orientation at Cooley LLP, exhibit proficiency in the Microsoft Office suite, iManage and other firm applications
• Ability to work extended and/or weekend hours, as required
• Ability to travel, as required
• 4+ years directly applicable experience (e.g., designing and implementing intranet and workflow solutions); Eligible for consideration of Senior designation with 5+ years' direct applicable experience.
• Deep technical expertise of Sharepoint Online and Power Platform (Power Automate, Power Apps, Dataverse) architecture and governance
• Modern web development experience (SPFx, React, TypeScript) and modern engineering practices (Git, CI/CD)
• Experience with REST API design, consumption, and JSON/XML data handling
• Ability to balance customization with maintainability and minimize technical debt
• Experience uncovering business challenges and developing tailored solutions to address and/or mitigate those needs

Preferred:

• Bachelor's degree
• Experience in law firms, professional services, or regulated environments
• Microsoft 365 Certifications in Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Power Platform Solution Architect Expert, and related
• Stakeholder management and cross-functional collaboration abilities
• Solid understanding of Microsoft 365 E5 services and the Microsoft Graph API
• Strong documentation skills and experience with solution architecture frameworks
• Experience with Azure Services and cloud integration patterns, Logic Apps, Azure Functions, or Azure API Management
• Working knowledge of JSON, Python, JavaScript, CSS and KQL (Keyword Query language)
• DevOps practices experience (CI/CD, version control, ALM)
• Experience with Power BI for analytics and reporting solutions

Competencies:

• Workflow and process optimization mindset, with ability to analyze business processes and implement automation that drives measurable value
• Ability to see things from the user perspective
• Technical judgment and trade-off analysis, balancing customization, scalability, and long-term maintainability
• Entrepreneurial by nature
• Excellent attention to detail
• Exceptional interpersonal and communication skills with ability to facilitate and solve problems
• Ability to organize, prioritize and coordinate multiple activities often under tight timelines
• Ability to drive projects to completion and achieve goals
• Strong judgment
• Team-player with collaborative spirit
• Unwavering ability to handle and maintain confidentiality regarding firm information, projects,
• client data (if applicable)
• High level of professionalism at all times
• Demonstrated ability to lead through influence and develop talent [if applicable]
• Proactive, analytical mindset
• Effective presentation skills

Cooley offers a competitive compensation and excellent benefits package and is committed to fair and equitable employment practices. EOE.

The expected annual pay range for this position with a full-time schedule is $115,000 - $160,000. Senior level candidates may be considered for this position and would be eligible for a higher salary range based on experience. Please note that final offer amount will be dependent on geographic location, applicable experience and skillset of the candidate.

We offer a full range of elective benefits including medical, health savings account (with applicable medical plan), dental, vision, health and/or dependent care flexible spending accounts, pre-tax commuter benefits, life insurance, AD&D, long-term care coverage, backup care for children and/or adults and other parental support benefits. In addition to elective benefit options, benefited employees receive firm-paid life insurance, AD&D, LTD, short term medical benefits as well as 21 days of Paid Time Off ("PTO") and 10 paid holidays each year. We provide generous parental leave and fertility benefits. New employees will attend a detailed benefit orientation to learn more about our many benefits and resources.