{"id":3503281,"url":"https://alion.io/job/simpson-thacher-bartlett-professional-development-specialist","title":"Professional Development Specialist","company":{"id":1842699,"name":"Simpson Thacher & Bartlett","domain":"stblaw.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/stblaw","size_band":"201-500","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Workday","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":85,"open_postings":13,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.615,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":39,"computed_at":"2026-11-08T05:47:12Z"}},"role":"Legal","role_family":"Legal","seniority":"senior","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["New York, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":110000,"max":130000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":130000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":5,"visa_sponsorship":true,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Outlook","optional":false},{"name":"Zoom","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-29T00:00:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-29","last_verified_at":"2026-11-08T19:54:32Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":11,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":11},"description":"Job Summary & Objectives\nThe Professional Development Specialist supports the professional staffing and development of associates and counsel within the Energy & Infrastructure practice, including, but not limited to, staffing, talent engagement initiatives, and mentoring. The Professional Development Specialist serves as a key resource in advancing attorney staffing coordination and assignments, development initiatives, mentoring programs, talent engagement efforts, performance management processes and helping ensure a positive and consistent attorney experience across the practice.\nThe Professional Development Specialist will report primarily to the Manager, Legal Talent, and have a secondary reporting line to the Firm’s Director, Legal Training and Development. The role acts as a trusted point of contact for attorneys while escalating complex talent-related matters to Legal Talent management as appropriate.\nEssential Job Duties & Responsibilities\nStaffing\nPartner closely with staffing partners and Professional Development Managers to monitor, assess and help maintain an equitable level of attorney utilization across the group.\nEvaluate staffing requests and make recommendations regarding resource allocation, matching staffing needs with the appropriate attorney resources based on availability, experience, skills, utilization, and desired exposure to various matters/teams.\nBuild rapport with mid-senior associates by means of in-person meetings, telephone calls and Zoom meetings.\nProvide associates with the opportunity to work on a variety of matters while balancing growth opportunities with client needs.\nStrive to maintain consistency of experiences and equitable distribution of assignments across the practice area.\nMaintain and analyze staffing databases, utilization reports, charts, and related metrics.\nMonitor associate availability and utilization trends and prepare reports and recommendations to support staffing decisions and resource planning.\nCoordinate with staffing partners and Legal Talent colleagues regarding cross-office staffing, secondments, and other staffing initiatives, as appropriate.\nOnboarding\nCoordinate and facilitate staffing introductions, welcome meetings, lunches, internal communications, integration and onboarding activities for new associates, counsel, and lateral hires.\nUpdate applicable group lists and onboarding resources.\nManaging Absence Time\nMonitor and track absence time and maintain vacation calendars.\nCoordinate necessary matter team coverage during attorney absences.\nTrack vacation carryover.\nFacilitating Associate Life/Engagement\nDevelop trusted professional relationships with staff attorneys, associates, and counsel through regular check-in meetings; gain an understanding of professional experiences, development objectives, availability, engagement, and overall well-being.\nIdentify engagement, retention, staffing, or professional development opportunities or concerns and recommend appropriate actions, escalating matters to Legal Talent management when necessary.\nMentoring/Advisor Program\nWork closely with the Legal Talent team to pair associates/counsel with mentors and partner advisors.\nEnsure associates/counsel are connecting with their respective mentors and advisors and engaged in dialogue about ongoing professional development goals.\nProvide an active feedback loop between associates/counsel, Legal Talent, and the partners in the group.\nCollaborate with the Director of Practice Management to plan and facilitate a variety of team-building events to foster connectivity.\nAssist in monitoring and maintaining associate compliance with firm and professional policies (e.g., CLE, bar exam, etc.)\nLegal Talent Support\nPerformance Reviews\nEnsure that each associate/counsel has thorough evaluations and developmental objectives.\nAssist with verbal intake of feedback from partners.\nUpdate VI feedback tracking system.\nParticipate in talent review discussions and assist in preparing materials, reports, and analyses related to attorney performance and development.\nCoordinate regularly with other professional service team members (e.g., Director of Practice Management, Knowledge Management Lawyer, Training and Development Manager, etc.) to further practice group initiatives.\nAnalyze and maintain accurate data and reporting within staffing and talent management systems.\nWork on ad hoc projects as needed.\nEducation\nRequired\nBachelor's degree preferred; will consider advanced experience in lieu of a degree.\nSkills and Experience\n5+ years of relevant experience, including prior experience in a law firm and/or staffing experience.\nStrong oral and written communication skills.\nMust have superior judgment and the ability to deal discreetly with confidential information.\nAbility to interact well and build professional relationships with a collaborative approach to working with all levels and departments.\nAbility to self-direct, manage multiple priorities, analyze needs and implement solutions.\nStrong organizational skills and attention to detail for both long and short-term projects and responsibilities.\nExperience with Word, Outlook, Excel and PowerPoint and other legal personnel and recruiting applications (legal AI familiarity preferred).\nMust be flexible to adjust hours to meet departmental needs.\nMust display professionalism, quality service to internal members/departments of the firm as well as external clients and vendors.\nSalary Information\nNY Only: The estimated base salary range for this position is $110,000 to $130,000 at the time of posting.\nThe actual salary offered will depend on a variety of factors, including without limitation, the qualifications of the individual applicant for the position, years of relevant experience, level of education attained, certifications or other professional licenses held, and if applicable, the location in which the applicant lives and/or from which they will be performing the job. This role is exempt meaning it is not overtime pay eligible.\nSimpson Thacher will not sponsor applicants for work visas for this position.\nPrivacy Notice\nFor information about how Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP collects and processes your personal information, please refer to our Privacy Notice available at https://www.stblaw.com/other/privacy-notice.\nSimpson Thacher & Bartlett is committed to a collegial work environment in which all individuals are treated with respect and dignity. The Firm prohibits discrimination or harassment based upon race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, age, national origin, citizenship status, disability, marital or partnership status, sexual orientation, veteran’s status or any other legally protected status. This Policy pertains to every aspect of an individual’s relationship with the Firm, including but not limited to recruitment, hiring, compensation, benefits, training and development, promotion, transfer, discipline, termination, and all other privileges, terms and conditions of employment.\n#LI-Hybrid","description_format":"text","description_chars":7032,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":5,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Growth opportunities","Mentoring programs","Professional development"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Legal Services"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-30T04:39:42Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"adverts_offering_sponsorship_24m":0,"sanctioned_now":false,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 82 · green card filings: 5","filings_12m":82,"filings_prev_12m":71,"green_card_filings_12m":5,"median_offered_wage_usd":268822,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-11-08T10:45:15+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)","US Department of Labor: PERM disclosure data (green cards)"],"filings_for_role_12m":0}],"liveness":{"score":60,"band":"ok","label":"Likely open","p_open":1,"p_active":0.602,"p_room":1,"age_days":10,"expected_fill_days":39,"reasons":["conf:8","stale_co","win:early"],"computed_at":"2026-11-08T05:47:12Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":130000,"is_top_pay":false},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/simpson-thacher-bartlett-professional-development-specialist","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/simpson-thacher-bartlett-professional-development-specialist.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-09T03:08:25Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":961,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-10T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":1842699},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=1842699"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fsimpson-thacher-bartlett-professional-development-specialist"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":2,"usd":0.2},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fsimpson-thacher-bartlett-professional-development-specialist"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fsimpson-thacher-bartlett-professional-development-specialist"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/simpson-thacher-bartlett-professional-development-specialist\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fsimpson-thacher-bartlett-professional-development-specialist"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":3503281}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"stblaw.com","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":3503281},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. 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