Senior System Engineer at The South African Revenue Service (SARS)

Job Purpose

• To perform Systems Engineering activities for all IT projects; include maintaining the hardware / firmware / operating system / software / application server software and meet service levels agreements. The Senior Systems Engineer work in both production and non-production environments.

Education and Experience

Minimum Qualification & Experience Required 

• National Diploma / Advanced Certificate (NQF 6) in Technology / Computer Science / Engineering with 3 - 4 years’ experience in operating systems, application software, and infrastructure platforms in both production and non-production environments in IT structures and high-stakes projects, of which 1 - 2 years at a knowledge worker level

 Alternative

• Senior Certificate (NQF 4) or matric with 6 years experience in operating systems, application software, and infrastructure platforms in both production and non-production environments IT structures and high-stakes projects, of which 1 - 2 years at a knowledge worker level

Job Outputs:

Process

• Accumulate information and provide reports with recommendations applicable to area of specialisation.
• Apply practical and applied knowledge and act authoritatively on methods, systems and procedures to identify trends and potential risks.
• Communication of situational interpretation and judgement of work outputs and queries in area of specialisation.
• Effectively plan and schedule own activities to continuously improve quality and service delivery in area of specialisation.
• Execute process and procedural change, implement the change and provide guidelines and support related to new requirements as a result of the change.
• Correctly apply applicable legislation, including amongst others policies, procedures, and SOP's in the delivery of work outputs.
• To be responsible for troubleshooting of hardware / firmware / operating system / software / application server software problems.
• To diagnose and solve level 3 type Hardware / firmware / operating system / software / application server software problems.
• To engage with third party vendors and other support teams.
• Be involved in effective planning and scheduling of Infrastructure / software activities
• To provide specialist input on investigations, opportunities and risks. Conduct research on relevant technologies, or changes to multiple system hardware and software architectures and the range of products and productivity tools
• Be responsible for building and implementing system architecture and for the identification and resolution of high level hardware and software technical problems and malfunctions related to the systems architecture.
• To make decisions that are critical in the areas of performance analysis, problem solving, and infrastructure planning, with the potential to affect the successful execution of business transactions.
• To perform capacity planning, workload modelling, and prediction.
• Plans and implements major system hardware and software upgrades, ensuring change management procedures and methodologies are implemented and followed.
• Maintenance and support of developed applications. Installing, configuring, testing and maintaining operating systems, application software and system management tools
• To participate in various IT projects intended to continually improve/upgrade the system infrastructure, ensuring change management procedures and methodologies are implemented and followed.
• To be responsible for maintaining, testing, support and upgrades of in-house developed applications and 3rd Party Applications.
• Interact and communication with customers as required, keeping them informed of incident progress, notifying them of impending changes or agreed outages
• To manage the Regional Data Centres, respond to alerts, monitor dashboard, and periodic system review
• To configure, debug and support multiple infrastructure platforms and software
• To design and deploy new applications and enhancements to existing applications, software, and operating systems. Prod / non-Prod
• Developing, maintaining and supporting technical infrastructure, hardware and system software components and developed applications.
• To do installations, configuration, testing and maintenance of SARS’ operating systems, application software and system management tools
• To conduct in-depth root-cause analysis for service interruption recovery and creating preventive measures
• Performing installation, maintenance and support of system software/hardware and user support.

Governance

• Comply to set governance and compliance procedures and processes related to an area of specialisation and continuously identify and escalate risks.

People

• Develop and maintain productive working relationships with peers and team members to achieve predefined objectives.

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.
• Ensure own understanding and adherence to customer service delivery and provide specialist support to meet or exceed customer expectations.

Behavioural competencies

• Fairness and Transparency
• Accountability
• Responsibility
• Attention to Details
• Adaptability
• Analytical Thinking
• Commitment to continuous learning
• Conceptual Ability
• Honesty and Integrity
• Customer Service
• Organisational Awareness
• Trust
• Respect
• Honesty and Integrity

Technical competencies

• Business Knowledge
• Computer Literacy
•  Policies and Procedures
• IT Knowledge - Proficient IT Knowledge - Proficient
• Customer Relationship Management
• System Thinking
• Technical Expertise
• IT Project Management
• IT Governance and Business
• Problem Analysis and Judgement
• Verbal Communication

Deadline:7th July,2025