Technical Support Specialist - Monitoring at MSD

Job Description

This position is to provide critical technical and after-sales support to Beef and Dairy farmers that use our technology.

NATURE AND SCOPE

• The Technical Support Specialist - Technology, Livestock Monitoring, South Africa, will assist with all technical functions to support the Company's Animal Health and Animal Health Intelligence range of products within the Technology category, including but not limited to monitoring, all software-based products and support applications, as well as future milking intelligence products.

PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTABILITIES

• Provide customer support, whether they be internal or external stakeholders.
• Develop and co-ordinate prioritisation processes to manage technical support in a timely and efficient manner, consistently maintaining a customer-centric approach.
• Develop processes and protocols to deliver consistent and standardised technical support, ensuring a high customer experience consistently.
• Oversee engagement with external third parties to integrate with software systems as opportunities are identified.
• Act as the key contact for technical points and the liaison with regional and global technical teams.
• Keep abreast of trends, development, and competitors with regards to technology advancements in livestock industries, related animal monitoring, traceability, and software solutions to gain data-driven insights for livestock producers.
• Effect and maintain a high standard of communication and co-operation with all internal and external parties, working closely with sales, marketing, other technical and operational divisions.
• Assisting farmers with data entry problems or data extraction.
• Integration of Dairy Herd Management software and SenseHub.
• Assisting farmers with:
• remote installations,
• internet troubleshooting and problem-solving,
• system troubleshooting and problem-solving
• Handling and escalation of service calls.
• Technical training and upskilling other team members to assist in certain advanced issues.

KNOWLEDGE AND ATTRIBUTES REQUIRED

• 2+ years in a Technical Support/QA/Dev related role.
• IT related qualification or proof of further learning in IT related field.
• Passion for troubleshooting, ability to come up with efficient solutions and workarounds for uncommon issues.
• Experienced in TeamViewer use and remotely supporting clients.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, as well as fundamental working knowledge of client and server-side scripting, web technologies and communication protocols.
• Significant technical experience with Local Area Networking (LAN) in Windows operating systems.
• Competency in extending, administering and fault finding in wired, Wireless and VPN network topologies.
• Competent with Wireless Point to multi point communications, both 2.4GHz and 5GHz.
• Deep understanding of Windows and Linux OS (debugging and internals).
• Knowledge and proven experience with writing SQL queries.
• Customer-oriented with excellent communication (English & Afrikaans - written and verbal) and interpersonal skills.
• Valid Driver’s License.
• Willingness to travel 20-30% of the time.
• Basic Agricultural knowledge.

Advantageous

• In-Field experience of Installation and fault resolution, in Ethernet interconnected hardware comprising SOHO and commercial quality equipment. 
• Experience with in-field diagnosis and troubleshooting of networked proprietary systems.
• Experience with Embedded firmware update/testing and management.
• Ability to work methodically, independently and remotely.
• Coding skills in one or more OOP languages such as C# / Java.
• Knowledge and proven experience with writing SQL queries.
• Deep understanding of Windows and Linux OS (debugging and internals).
• Knowledge of scripting languages such as Bash / Python.
• Experience with embedded firmware update/testing and management.
• Knowledge of AFI and Delaval Parlour Management Systems.
• Technically adaptive, ability to learn new solutions, features/functionality and communicate those in a value-added way to internal teams.
• Continuous learning mindset and detail-oriented approach.
• Ability to prioritize and switch between a variety of time-sensitive issues.
• Creativity and ability to think outside the box.
• Multi-tasking, self-learning, highly motivated and a team player.
• After-hours and weekend support assistance to internal team members and customers when required.
• Livestock / Agricultural industry experience.