Application Support Specialist II at Shoprite Group of Companies

Job Objectives

Plan and execute application support activities within assigned business areas

• Provide specialist application support and resolution of multiple software applications / products of varying complexity.
• Work with Analysts, Developers, Programmers and business to identify and resolve medium to high complexity software issues and effectively support end users.
• Review and give specialist technical input to technical design specifications.
• Provide technical support to end users, including support with requests, issues and queries on system functionalities of medium to high complexity.
• Investigate and analyse problems of medium to high complexity in order to establish the root cause.
• Execute development, configuration and upgrading of medium to high complexity system activities, effectively planning and handling all assigned changes within the specified environment.
• Execute multiple software releases and deployments.
• Plan and co-ordinate activities across multiple functional lines, ensuring all assigned tasks are executed on time and within agreed frameworks and standards.
• Provide back-up to team members and senior specialists as required.
• Conduct end user training on more complex applications.
• Participate in functional, regression and performance testing of medium to high complexity applications.
• Assign and co-ordinate tasks for team as required.

Coordinate and ensure timely and effective communication with team, stakeholders and users

• Work closely with team members and team managers to enable quick prioritisation and timely resolution of issues.
• Maintain regular communication with users across business areas, answering questions, updating on system changes, troubleshooting problems, and providing specialist assistance.
• Maintain regular communication with internal and external stakeholders, branch teams and IT operations.
• Coordinate and deliver effective day to day IT operations within the specified area

Handle all relevant support issues

• Keep track of and identify support call trends and communicate these and make recommendations on suitable resolutions to Lead Specialist and relevant stakeholders where applicable.
• Monitor and follow-up all assigned service desk calls according to service level agreements.
• Support and execute client-specific application configurations of medium to high complexity.
• Train and support 1st and 2nd level Service Desk support teams.
• Effectively deliver on own priorities and support with coordination of team priorities as required.

Qualifications

• SDA - Service Desk Analyst Certification - (essential)
• MS SQL fundamentals (Introduction to SQL) Certification - (desired)
• MS SQL - Querying data with Transact Certification - (essential)
•  ITIL 4 Bridge Certification - (desired)
• DevOps principles - (desired)

Experience

• +4 years’ experience in a Senior Applications Support specialist or similar role within an IT support team working with multiple applications software and solutions – (essential).
• Demonstrated experience in cloud solutions – (essential).
• Experience of working on projects in both Agile and DevOps – (essential/preferred)
• Change management experience – (essential/preferred)
• Experience in a Retail / Wholesale / Financial Services industry - (desirable)
• Experience in software development and testing - (desirable).