Specialist Product Engineer - Cobol at Absa

Job Summary

• Apply critical thinking & problem solving skills to contribute to all phases of the development lifecycle & quickly produce well-organised, optimized, and documented source code to deliver high-performing, scalable, enterprise-grade applications.

Job Description

Accountability: 

DevOps

• Apply critical thinking, design thinking and problem solving skills in an agile team environment to solve technical problems (Front End, Back End OR Middleware) with high quality solutions
• Evaluate analysis, problem definition, business requirements, solution development & provide recommendations to enable the operational feasibility of solutions
• Quickly produce well-organised, optimized, and documented source code to deliver technical solutions
• Ensure designs & solutions support the technical organisation principles of self-service, repeatability, testability, scalability & resilience
• Apply general design patterns and paradigms to deliver technical solutions
• Debug existing source code and polish feature sets.
• Work with integrated teams and other developers to improve and evolve technical products and services
• Align all application development & development process to Group Architecture & Infrastructure guidelines
• Provide input into project & program teams (when required) to plan & manage the development lifecycle e.g. releases, risk management, testing, integration etc.
• Conduct reviews, performance monitoring & ongoing optimization and maintenance on applications
• Stay ahead of the curve on emerging technologies and development practices and continuously evolve existing knowledge & skill in preparation for cross domain and other experiences e.g. Secure Side, Testing, Infrastructure solutions etc.

People 

• Conduct peer reviews, testing, problem solving within and across the broader team
• Support the people change teams in the development of user material (Customer, Employee & 3rd Party Adoption)

Risk & Governance 

• Identify technical risks and mitigate these (pre, during & post release)
• Update / Design all application documentation aligned to the organization technical standards and risk / governance frameworks
• Participate in incident management & DR activity – applying critical thinking, problem solving & technical expertise to get to the bottom of major incidents

Education and experience required

• 3-8 years + Cobol experience - essential
• Relevant B-Degree in Computer Science preferred but not essential if minimum requirements of experience & practical application in the following is evident:
• Automation
• Messaging
• Integration
• Solutioning
• SSL Security
• CI/CD etc.
• Experience working in an agile environment
• Excellent communication, analytical skills and decision making ability in collaborative environments
• Excellent understanding of specific coding / scripting languages e.g. Cobol both batch and on-line processing, IMS, Db2 experience and JCL.  
• Solid understanding of Object Oriented Design and ability to properly apply general design patterns and paradigms
• Experience with test-driven development and domain driven design
• Solid understanding of messaging protocols and web services like SOAP and REST
• Good understanding of frameworks and libraries like JavaScript, jQuery, TypeScript, HTML, CSS
• Experience with CI / CD tools (like Jenkins, Bamboo, TFS, Azure Devops) and Artifact Management (preferably Nexus),
• Topaz and other IDE tools pertaining to the mainframe, abend aid, Icetools, BMP and MPP and Easytrieve advantageous
• Strong understanding of version control and related concepts and techniques, particularly Git
• Experience with appropriate unit testing framework(s)
• Excellent debugging and problem-solving skills.
• Experience with Cloud platforms e.g. Azure, AWS & Google Cloud Platform

Competencies: (Maximum of 8 competencies)

• Team Working
• Accountability
• Interpreting Data
• Meeting Timescales
• Taking Action
• Producing Output
• Thorough, detailed and solution based investigations
• Following Procedures
• Adopting Practical Approaches
• Mental and Environmental demands (RSA specific)

Special work requirements

Standby on weekends and after hours may be required from time to time

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