Specialist Support Engineer at Absa South Africa

Job Description

Skills and experience required:

• Relevant B-Degree in Computer Science preferred but not essential if minimum requirements of experience and practical application that enables application support is evident
• 5+ years Information Technology and Application Support experience in a Technology environment
• Application Diagnostics and Management experience
• Strong functional knowledge of the custody business and its related functions
• Familiarity working on BaNCS' custody module is desired
• Strong knowledge of the SWIFT messaging framework, and an ability to troubleshoot any related issues
• Experience in Quality Assurance and Testing
• Experience and understanding of Disaster Recovery, and business continuity management
• Excellent communication, analytical skills and decision making ability in collaborative environments
• Excellent understanding of specific coding / scripting languages e.g. Java, C#, Python, Perl, JavaScript
• Knowledge of Object Oriented Design and ability to properly apply general design patterns and paradigms
• Experience with test-driven development and domain driven design
• Knowledge of open-source relational databases
• Knowledge of version control and related concepts and techniques, particularly Git
• Appropriate unit testing framework(s)
• Cloud platforms e.g. Azure, AWS & Google Cloud Platform

Key Accountabilities:

Devops & Support

• Apply critical thinking, design thinking and problem-solving skills to solve technical problems on existing applications
• Implement all configuration, optimization (e.g. upgrades) & maintenance activity (e.g. regular maintenance patches) for enterprise-wide applications
• Provide efficient and effective support of applications including continued development of the application and security, software patches, reliability, disaster recovery and ensure the application meets the business needs
• Managing deployments through CI/CD pipeline
• Identify and recommend application improvement to enhance capability, performance and also minimize costs.
• Coordinate and execute unplanned maintenance tasks, such as disaster recovery procedures, for production IT services to prevent and to minimize issues
• Manage applications throughout their lifecycle and assist in the application-related aspects of designing, testing, operating and improving technology products & services
• Develop sufficient knowledge of cloud infrastructure & broader organization architecture to assist with application upgrades and troubleshoot issues, with a strong emphasis on AWS

Maintenance and Knowledge

• Maintain correct and current application documentation and making it available to application users
• Oversee application implementation and configuration, patches, upgrades and maintenance, and ensure that application performance meets agreed SLAs and OLAs
• Ensure minimal business operations impact due to upgrades and maintenance activities
• Ability to document and share knowledge with peers and mentor junior support personnel
• Develop and maintain knowledge in application functionality, user workflow, and business processes
• Compile and maintain inventory of applications and related details
• Manage and provide support aligned to all SLA’s
• Develop the skills required to operate and maintain the technical products & services (applications)
• Develop and maintain expertise in application functionality, user workflow, and business processes.
• Receive and screen user programming requests for new applications or modifications, and determine appropriate priority and response.
• Act as a liaison between business stakeholders and customers, external solution providers, and IT stakeholders for application support specific requirements
• Provide input to current and future application requirements to meet the organization's needs
• Prepare assessments for proposed applications, projects, and define appropriate integration and access requirements
• Maintain awareness of application risks and opportunities for improvement
• Ensure that application users are aware of the application capabilities for enabling their effective use
• Assess vendor proposals for appropriateness and compliance with organization and industry standards.
• Supervise and maintain the organization's repository of applications
• Help diagnose problems and resolve incidents / issues related to applications.
• Work with Enablement teams to define the operational activities related to the applications

Application Monitoring & Performance Management

• Monitor application modification requests and ensure best practices are being utilised
• Conduct diagnostic investigations of program errors and implement or recommend solutions or methodologies for resolution.
• Maintain metrics of operational performance and evaluate trends
• Analyse business systems to determine effectiveness, identify inadequacies, inefficiencies and problems and recommend solutions
• Ability to analyse performance issues on applications and how best to improve

Governance, Risk & Control

• Enhance methods and procedures for collecting, analysing, and documenting application issues, and completing user change requests.
• Enhance IT processes for transitioning completed configurations from development to production.
• Plan and coordinate the processes for the provision of user applications and systems necessary for business operations.
• Define and maintain application assessment, development, and support standards, and work with other IT and business stakeholders to establish configuration and use guidelines.
• Provide inputs to availability and capacity management process for effective planning.

Education

• Bachelor's Degree: Information Technology

End Date:

• May 31, 2025 (1 day left to apply)