Senior Specialist: Solutions Support Engineer (Third Party Data DevOps) at The South African Revenue Service (SARS)

About the Position

SARS is looking for a highly technical, innovative and result driven Senior Specialist Support Engineer to join the Third-Party Data support team. The incumbent should have a strong technical background in systems software engineering & support, specialising in the support of the IBM Connect Direct & Sterling product suite. The incumbent should have experience working in agile Software development, maintenance, and end user support services. S/he will be responsible for working with a team of engineers, providing specialist, high level technical advice and support for the Third-Party Data channel as part of the Technical Support team.

The role will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Third-party Data channel and managing service level agreements with customers and external service providers. S/he will execute on the resolution of any task assigned to him by the team leader and ensuring customer satisfaction and engagements are maintained at a high level. S/he should be willing to contribute to the SARS vision and strategic intent, to provide a world-class taxpayer service and delivery operation.

Job Purpose

To manage and improve a significant portion of the existing integrated bespoke SARS Third-party Data applications throughout their lifecycle by performing complex integrated technical support, takes new requirements through the systems development life cycle, and work with application development to design new services to release into the production environment.  Assist with the testing, operating, and improving of IT services, as well as plays an important role in developing the required skills for operating the organisation's bespoke solutions.

Education and Experience

Minimum Qualification & Experience Required

• Bachelor's Degree / Advanced Diploma (NQF 7) Computer Science or Information Science 8-10 years' experience in an IBM Sterling Product Suite & Connect Direct environment, of which 3-4 years ideally at operational specialist level.

OR

• Senior Certificate (NQF 4) AND IT Qualification (s) / Certification (s), Computer Science or Information Science AND 8-10 years’ experience in an IBM Sterling Product Suite and Connect Direct environment, AND additional requirements specified in Min Functional requirements, where applicable.

ALTERNATIVE #

• Senior Certificate (NQF 4) AND 15 years IBM Sterling Product Suite & Connect Direct experience.

Minimum Functional Requirements

• ITIL Certification
• Project Management certification will be an added advantage.
• Togaf Certification
• Cobit Certification
• Demonstrate Systems Development and Support experience in a corporate environment.
• Demonstrate Business/Systems analysis experience in a corporate environment.
• Broad understanding of all facets of Information Technology including SDLC.
• Understanding of diverse set of technologies (including SQL Server, DB2, C#, Java,   Connect Direct, Microsoft OS, Scanning Applications, and the integration through MQ middleware).

Job Outputs:

Process

• Analyse and make recommendations about improvements to specialist systems, procedures, and associated area's practice.
• Contribute to the optimum utilisation of org. resources, advising on effective planning and development of area of specialisation resource plans.
• Develop a single practice area in alignment with operational activity and procedural frameworks and ensure tactical implementation.
• Draw on own technical or professional expertise, knowledge & experience to identify & recommend tactical solutions to defined problems in practices.
• Integrate business information, compare, analyse & produce reports to identify trends, discrepancies & inconsistencies for decision-making purposes.
• Optimise goal achievement through tactical strategy implementation and optimisation of practises, processes & systems across an internal value chain.
• Plan for value-added, continuous practice & system improvements to deliver on objectives to enhance tactical implementation and excellence.
• Proactively identify interconnected problems, determine its impact and use to develop best fit alternatives; best practice implementation solutions.
• Translate top-down policy in relation to own practice area and communicate impact to relevant stakeholders.
• Recommend changes to optimise processes, systems, practice area and associated procedures and execute the implementation of change and innovation.
• To manage and improve a significant portion of the existing integrated SARS applications throughout their lifecycle by performing complex integrated technical support, helps in testing, operating, and improving IT services, as well as plays an important role in developing the required skills for operating the organization1s bespoke solutions.
• To take new business requirements through the systems development life cycle namely, define requirements, design solution, code, testing, perform Integration, performance & load testing and release the newly built solution into the production environment.
• To work with the application development teams to take new software releases through a service design process, to create and/or update monitoring documentation (see attachment A), handover documentation, training materials, RACI charts and new/modified alerting on an integrated level. Monitoring documentation consists of a diagram explaining the logical Integration design of the bespoke integrated application, the Cl's (IP numbers) being monitored, the of conditions being monitored for on then application, the ESB, the database and other integration points.
• To design & monitor services, capacity & throughput for deviations from acceptable service levels or unplanned interruptions for a significant portion of the existing & new Integrated SARS applications.
• To identify, track and resolve recurring incidents permanently to prevent incidents from re- occurring and ultimately aims for no incidents for a significant portion of existing and new SARS bespoke Integrated solutions, including standard problem management outputs, management of problem management processes, attendance at major problem review board.
• To maintain information about software & hardware configuration items required to deliver the bespoke solutions services, including their relationships with other Cl's to track individual configuration items and the internal configuration of bespoke applications, for a significant portion of the existing and new SARS bespoke integrated applications.
• To regularly test the organization's capability to provide the necessary level of service following an interruption of service for a significant portion of the existing and new SARS bespoke integrated applications in line with organisational strategy.
• To gather, analyse, store, and share knowledge and Information to improve efficiency by reducing the need to rediscover knowledge for a significant portion of the existing and new Integrated SARS bespoke applications.
• To maintain and improve the quality of service provided to the organization in line with agreed upon processes, operational level agreements and service level targets for a significant portion of existing and new Integrated SARS bespoke applications.
• To define, analyse, plan, measure and improve all aspects of the availability of IT services for a significant portion of existing and new bespoke SARS applications, which is responsible for ensuring that all IT infrastructure, processes, tools, roles are appropriate for the agreed availability targets.
• To translate business needs and plans into capacity and performance requirements for services and IT infrastructure, and to ensure that future capacity and performance needs can be fulfilled for a significant portion of existing and new bespoke Integrated SARS applications. Service Capacity - To control, predict and report on the performance and capacity of operational services for a significant portion of existing and new bespoke SARS applications.
• To control, predict the performance, utilization and capacity and report on capacity of individual IT components for a significant portion of existing and new bespoke SARS applications.
• Ensure that all contracts with suppliers support the needs of the business, making sure that all suppliers meet their contractual commitments for a significant portion of existing and new bespoke Integrated SARS applications.
• To be able to decide on the tactics to serve bespoke solution customers for a significant portion of the existing and new bespoke integrated SARS applications, starting from an assessment of customer needs, determines which services to offer and what capabilities need to be developed. Its ultimate goal is to make the Technical Support think and act in a strategic manner in line with the SARS Annual Performance Plan.

Governance

• Implement and provide input into the development of governance, compliance, integrity, and ethics processes within area of specialisation.

People

• Develop and maintain productive working relationships with peers and team members to achieve predefined objectives.
• Search for, integrate and share new knowledge attained through formal and informal learning opportunities in the execution of your job.

Finance

• Adhere to organisational policies and procedures to ensure cost effectiveness and reduction of financial costs.

Client

• Contribute to a culture of service excellence, which builds positive relationships and provides opportunity for feedback and exceptional service.
• Provide authoritative, specialist services, expertise, and advice to internal and external stakeholders.

Behavioural competencies

• Accountability
• Attention to Detail
• Building Sustainability
• Commitment to Continuous Learning
• Conceptual Ability
• Fairness and Transparency
• Honesty and Integrity
• Problem Solving and Analysis
• Respect
• Trust