Lead Application Support Engineer at Absa in South Africa

Lead Application Support Engineer Location: Sandton Empowering Africa’s tomorrow, together…one story at a time. With over 100 years of rich history and strongly positioned as a local bank with regional and international expertise, a career with our family offers the opportunity to be part of this exciting growth journey, to reset our future and shape our destiny as a proudly African group. Job Summary Work as part of an integrated (run & build) tribe to provide enterprise wide application support across multiple stakeholder groups (in high complexity environments) by maintaining & optimizing enterprise-grade applications (tech products & services) & building capability in others to do the same. Job Description Devops & Support • Apply critical thinking, design thinking and problem solving skills to solve technical problems on existing applications & to provide recommendations for the continuous improvement of applications • Partner with senior Product Engineers to support problem resolution & critical thinking processes when the complexity level goes beyond support (coordinate resolution) • Lead the implementation of all configuration, optimization (e.g. upgrades) & maintenance activity (e.g. regular maintenance patches) for enterprise wide applications • Schedule and oversee planned maintenance tasks, such as backups and performance tuning, for products & services in production • Manage & oversee all application documentation updates, inventories & improvements as well as their distribution to end users & other business stakeholders • Lead the change & communication planning & implementation processes for all application support processes (Across Tribes & Squads) • Ensure minimal business operations impact due to upgrades and maintenance activities • Oversee end to end application implementation and configuration, patches, upgrades and maintenance, and ensuring that application performance meets agreed SLAs and OLAs • Coordinate and execute unplanned maintenance tasks, such as disaster recovery procedures, tech products & services in production to prevent and to minimize issues • Manage applications throughout their lifecycle and lead the application-related aspects of designing, testing, operating and improving technology products & services • Coordinate with centres of enablement including service engineering, information security, infrastructure & architecture teams to define permissions, guidelines etc. & ensure that the impact of system / platform migrations / changes on applications is minimised • Act as the expert in application functionality, user workflow, and business processes & build the team to do the same • Develop expertise in application infrastructure (server, network, security) & broader organization architecture to coach & mentor teams in application support such as upgrades, maintenance etc. and complex issue resolution • Manage the delivery of SLA’s across application support teams for a particular product & service • Work with business & tribe leads to define & agree SLA’s for various applications • Lead the governance, risk & control processes across application teams for a particular product / service including e.g. backup systems, business operations files etc. • Provide advisory & lead software installation and upgrades, troubleshooting problems and providing resolutions. • Manage application vendors and suppliers and corresponding license and support contracts where applicable • Review user programming requests for new applications or modifications, and determine appropriate priority and response. • Lead RFP processes & make recommendations (feasibilities, business case etc.) for applications being considered for purchase, and provide recommendations based on findings. • Act as a liaison between business stakeholders and customers, external solution providers, and Tech stakeholders for all application support specific requirements • Lead the development & implementation of all project & associated integration planning requirements for application support • Ensure sustainable & consistent efficient and effective application support across application support team including continued development of the application and security, software patches, reliability, disaster recovery and ensure the application meets the business needs • Drive all capability building through a defined and integrated capability building plan for the application across multiple stakeholder groups (end users, 3rd parties etc.) • Supervise and maintain the organization's repository of applications • Lead & manage best practice development practices across the application Application Monitoring & Performance Management • Conduct ongoing reviews & performance monitoring (proactive & reactive diagnostics) for applications • Leverage performance insights to advise, coach & guide application users on optimal application usage & management • Leverage performance monitoring insights to identify risks & opportunities for continuous improvement • Drive the consistent and sustainable delivery of SLA’s across the application & enhance SLA’s for the benefit of the business based on the monitoring conducted • Stay ahead of the curve on emerging technologies and development practices to continuously improve applications & their associated performance • Provide performance & trend reporting to improve advisory services across Tech & for improved customer impact Governance, Risk & Control • Hold the one stop shop ‘accountability’ for all governance, risk & controls for identified applications • Contribute to the enhancement of governance, risk & control procedures across the application • Enhance & author (or contribute to new) IT processes & standards for application support e.g. post configuration transitions to production, user guidelines, support standards, capacity management, event management etc. • Ensure application resilience and minimal business disruption related to the application • Identify technical risks and mitigate these (pre, during & post config, optimization / maintenance) • Update / Design all application documentation aligned to the organization technical standards and risk / governance frameworks • Create business cases & solution specifications for various governance processes (e.g. CTO approvals) • Participate in & in some cases lead the incident management & DR activity for the application – applying critical thinking, problem solving & technical expertise to get to the bottom of major incidents • Deliver on time & on budget (always) People • Coach & mentor the support engineering team • Conduct peer & individual reviews, testing, problem solving within and across the broader team • Provide technical subject matter expertise and support in the attraction and recruitment of Product Engineers for the organization • Participate as a subject matter expert in the attraction, retention, resourcing development & development planning of the broader support engineering team • Support the people change teams in the design of adoption processes (Customer, Employee & 3rd Party Adoption) Education Bachelor's Degree: Information Technology Absa Bank Limited is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer. In compliance with the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998, preference will be given to suitable candidates from designated groups whose appointments will contribute towards achievement of equitable demographic representation of our workforce profile and add to the diversity of the Bank. Absa Bank Limited reserves the right not to make an appointment to the post as advertised