Technical Support Specialist (IBM MQ) at Discovery Limited

Job Purpose

• The IBM MQ Technical Support Specialist is responsible for the administration, support, maintenance, and optimisation of the IBM MQ messaging platform. The role ensures the availability, reliability, performance, and security of the IBM MQ environment by monitoring platform health, resolving incidents and problems, implementing changes, and providing technical expertise to support the secure and reliable exchange of messages between business applications and systems.
• The incumbent forms part of a team that provides 24/7 support for the application and system products with a focus on high availability and rapid resolution of incidents. Interfaces with various IT stakeholders and business stakeholders in ensuring comprehensive operational support for the scope of business applications and systems. Builds and maintains a knowledge base of technical support information for the support and maintenance of the environment.

Areas of responsibility may include but are not limited to

Operational Support

• Be part of a team providing 24/7 application support capability for 3rd party and internally developed non-SAP applications e.g., Card Management Systems, Calypso, Actimise AML and Fraud, OpenText, SAS etc. that are used in the execution of the Discovery Bank’s mandate and business. 
• Monitor the application systems’ availability and uptime and report any downtime and feedback to the relevant role players.
• Monitor capacity usage in the applications in scope and provide input to ongoing capacity plans.
• Ensure that application system software is maintained according to OEM specifications.
• Ensure that upgrades to any application system together with the underlying infrastructure are tested and performed in a structured manner in line with the Bank’s change and release processes.
• Interface with IT stakeholders and ensure that the underlying environment is maintained according to the application specifications and requirements through-out their lifecycle.
• Create and maintain documentation related to in scope applications and their supporting systems e.g. installation procedures, operational support documents etc.
• Support and manage any 3rd party interfaces and services.
• Perform root cause analysis, performance tuning and optimisation and other service improvement activities to ensure that the applications operate optimally.
• Log, respond and action incidents in accordance with incident and problem management procedures.
• Communicate critical alerts, statuses and issues to management and perform actions to resolve.

Education and Experience

• A 3-year National Diploma or Bachelor's Degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or a related field.
• A minimum of 6 years' experience in IBM MQ platform administration, technical support, or a related middleware support role.
• Proven experience supporting IBM MQ messaging infrastructure, including installation, configuration, administration, monitoring, troubleshooting, and performance tuning.
• Experience supporting integration technologies and enterprise messaging solutions in a complex corporate environment.
• Experience in technical support, incident management, problem management, and change implementation within enterprise IT environments.
• Previous experience in the banking or financial services industry will be an advantage.

Technical Skills or Knowledge

• Strong knowledge of IBM MQ administration, configuration, monitoring, troubleshooting, performance tuning, and security.
• Experience supporting enterprise IBM MQ messaging platforms in high-availability and mission-critical environments.
• Sound understanding of message queuing concepts, publish/subscribe messaging, channels, listeners, queue managers, clusters, and client connectivity.
• Knowledge of IBM MQ security, including SSL/TLS, channel authentication (CHLAUTH), object authorities, and user authentication.
• Experience with IBM MQ installation, upgrades, patching, backup, recovery, and disaster recovery processes.
• Knowledge of ITIL processes and service management best practices.
• Working knowledge of application server technologies such as JBoss, Apache Tomcat, and Open Liberty.