Senior Systems Engineer - Rosebank Verfied

Salary Negotiable Rosebank, Gauteng Rosebank, Gauteng more than 14 days ago 20-02-2017 10:41:45 AM
20-03-2017 10:41:45 AM
Job Title Senior Systems Engineer
Location Rosebank, Johannesburg
Reporting to IT Manager
Key Purpose The purpose of this role is to manage applications throughout their lifecycle – implementation, remediation patches, support, upgrades, and maintenance. Manage the application-related aspects of designing, testing, operating and improving IT services. Develop and maintain expertise in application functionality and related business processes and workflows, and provide support to application users. Ensure that the organization has access to the right type and level of human resources to manage applications, to meet business objectives, Service Level and Operational Level Agreements (SLAs and OLAs), and to guide IT teams (development, testing, operations) in managing and supporting applications.
Qualifications & Experience required • Bachelor’s degree in Information Systems or related field, compulsory.
• Certification in IT Service Management / IT Governance (ITIL / CoBIT), (Foundation level), compulsory.
• Project management qualification (PMP / PRINCE2), compulsory.
• Minimum 5 years’ IT/ IT Consulting Experience.
• Minimum 3 year Application Diagnostics Experience.
• Minimum 3-year experience in Finance sector.
• Experience in Application Knowledge for Support.
• Experience and Knowledge of Banking and Financial Services Business.
• Experience in Quality Assurance.
• Experience in Stakeholder Management.
• Experience in Testing.
Industry

• Banking, Financial Services, and Investment Banking

Fully literate on:
• Microsoft Server Operating Systems (2003 – 2012)
• Microsoft Server Applications
o SQL Server (Administer / Query / Troubleshoot / Monitor)
o Exchange (Administer / Troubleshoot / Monitor)
o SharePoint (Administer / Troubleshoot / Monitor)
o Component Services
• Microsoft Desktop Operating Systems (XP – 10)
• Microsoft Office Professional (Advanced + VBA)
• Linux Operating Systems (RHEL / CentOS / CentOS)
• IBM Websphere Application Server
• IBM Websphere MQ
• Cisco Technologies (Switching / Routing / Voice / Security)
• Oracle PLSQL (Query / Troubleshoot / Monitor)
• Advanced Scripting (Batch Files / PowerShell / KSH / Bash / Perl / Python)
• Virtualisation (VMWare / Veeam)
Key Duties & Responsibilities The successful applicant will be responsible for but not limited to the following broad job functions (from most important to least):
• Providing application support to business users and other stakeholders in the organisation.
• Maintaining correct and current application documentation and making it available to application users.
• Ensuring that impact to business operations because of upgrades and maintenance activities is minimised.
• Overseeing application implementation and configuration, patches, upgrades and maintenance, and ensuring that application performance meets agreed SLAs and OLAs. Delivery & Support.
• Manage installation, patches, upgrades, and regular maintenance of software applications.
• Schedule and oversee planned maintenance tasks, such as backups and performance tuning, for production IT services to prevent and to minimize issues.
• 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 IT services.
• Coordinate with other IT teams to complete application upgrades.
• Coordinate with infrastructure teams to ensure that the impact of system / platform migrations on applications is minimised.
• Develop and maintain knowledge in application functionality, user workflow, and business processes.
• Develop sufficient knowledge of application infrastructure (server, network, security) to assist with application upgrades and troubleshoot issues.
• Compile and maintain inventory of applications and related details.
• Manage and provide support for software and applications as per the service level agreement.
• Develop the skills required to operate and maintain the IT organization's applications.
• Ensure that a backup system for applications and files associated with business operations is in place.
• Oversee and advise in software installation and upgrades, troubleshooting problems and providing resolutions.
• Work with Information Security Management, define and implement access permissions for applications.
• Manage application vendors, suppliers, and corresponding license and support contracts.
• 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.
• Develop and communicate training and documentation for end users.
• Coordinate feasibility studies for software applications being considered for purchase, and provide recommendations based on findings.
• Act as a liaison between business stakeholders and customers, external solution providers, and IT stakeholders.
• Develop and / or assist with the development and / or execution of project plans for application upgrades.
• Evaluate and recommend changes to current and future application requirements to meet the organization's needs.
• 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.
• Prepare assessments for proposed applications, projects, and define appropriate integration and access requirements.
• Maintain awareness of application risks and opportunities for improvement.
• Identify and recommend application improvement to enhance capability and performance, and minimize costs.
• 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.
• Participate in development of Requests for Proposals (RFP) and vendor evaluation and contract management for IT applications services.
• Supervise and maintain the organization's repository of applications.
• Help diagnose problems and resolve incidents / issues related to applications.
• Validate the known error database for application-related entries.
• Ensure that the application documentation is correct, complete and accurate.
• Work with IT operations management in defining the operational activities related to the applications.
• 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.
• Assist in definition of Event Management standards. Also, design the applications for the generation of meaningful events.
• Define and implement application support processes including monitoring, and incident, problem and change 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.

Competencies required • High attention to detail and accuracy
• Able to work well under pressure
• Strong customer focus and service delivery
• Self-motivated, dedicated
• Team player
• Proactive
• Analysing (Proficient in).
• Delivering Results and meeting customer expectations (Familiar with).
• Presenting & Communicating Information (Proficient in).
• Learning & Researching (Proficient in).
• Deciding and Initiating Action (Familiar with).
• Working with people (Proficient in)
• Technical Writing (English)
• Afrikaans / English (Proficient in)