Specialist Support Engineer

Empowering Africa’s tomorrow, together…one story at a time.

With over 100 years of rich history and strongly positioned as a local bank with regional and international expertise, a career with our family offers the opportunity to be part of this exciting growth journey, to reset our future and shape our destiny as a proudly African group.

Job Summary

Work as part of an integrated (run & build) tribe in lower complexity environments to provide enterprise wide application support across multiple stakeholder groups by maintaining & optimizing enterprise-grade applications (tech products & services).

Job Description

Work as part of an integrated (run & build) tribe in lower complexity environments to provide enterprise wide application support across multiple stakeholder groups by maintaining & optimizing enterprise-grade applications (tech products & services). 

Accountability:  

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 

• Schedule and oversee planned maintenance tasks, such as backups and performance tuning, for production IT services to prevent and to minimize issues 

• 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 

• 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 

• Coordinate & communicate across Tribes & Squads (all businesses) to successfully complete application upgrades 

• Coordinate with infrastructure & architecture 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) & broader organization architecture to assist with application upgrades and troubleshoot issues 

• 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) 

• Ensure that a backup system for applications and files associated with business operations is in place 

• Advise on software installation and upgrades, troubleshoot problems and provide resolutions. 

• Work with Information Security teams to define and implement access permissions for 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. 

• Develop and communicate training and documentation for end users. 

• Act as a liaison between business stakeholders and customers, external solution providers, and IT stakeholders for application support specific requirements  

• Develop and / or assist with the development and / or execution of project plans for application upgrades 

• 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 

• 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 

• Work with Tech Centres of Enablement 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 

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 and experience required 

  • Relevant B-Degree in Computer Science preferred but not essential if minimum requirements of experience & practical application that enables application support in the following is evident: 

  • Automation 

  • Messaging 

  • Integration 

  • Solutioning  

  • SSL Security 

  • Virtualisation 

  • Cloud computing 

  • Containerisation 

  • CI/CD etc. 

  • Certification in IT Service Management / IT Governance (ITIL / CoBIT), (Foundation level), compulsory. 

  • Agile / Project management qualification (PMP / PRINCE2), compulsory. 

  • Minimum 3-5 years’ IT/ IT Consulting Experience. 

  • Minimum 3-5 years’ Application Management Experience. 

  • Minimum 3-5 years Application Diagnostics Experience. 

  • Minimum 2-3 year experience in Finance sector. 

  • Experience in Application for Support. 

  • Experience and Knowledge of Banking and Financial Services Business. 

  • Experience in Quality Assurance. 

  • Experience in Stakeholder Management. 

  • Experience in Testing 

  • Experience in 3rd party API integrations (using Rest and Orchestrations),  and other monitoring tools.  

  • Transaction Tracing and Deep Diagnostics 

  • Experience & understanding of Disaster Recovery, & 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 

  • Some Experience with test-driven development and domain driven design 

  • Knowledge of messaging protocols and web services like SOAP and REST 

  • Knowledge of open-source relational databases  

  • Knowledge of application server containers: Tomcat, Jetty, JBoss, NodeJS, IIS, .Net Core etc. 

  • Understanding of libraries like JavaScript, jQuery, TypeScript, HTML, CSS, Powershell 

  • Knowledge of CI / CD tools (like Jenkins, Bamboo, TFS, Azure Devops) and Artifact Management (preferably Nexus),  

  • Knowledge of version control and related concepts and techniques, particularly Git 

  • Experience with appropriate unit testing framework(s) 

  • Excellent debugging and problem-solving skills. 

  • Data Aggregation and analytics  

  • ML and Predictive Analytics 

  • Experience with Hybrid Cloud Infrastructures and modern IT Operations environments 

  • Knowledge of stubbing tools like wiremock and/or hoverfly 

  • Knowledge of scripting languages like Bash and/or Python 

  • Understanding of Cloud platforms e.g. Azure, AWS & Google Cloud Platform 

  • Some knowledge of OAuth, Open Connect ID and SAML, preferably with an understanding of AD / LDAP / Kerberos  

  • Familiar with Containerisation technologies like Docker & or orchestrators like Kubernetes 

  Knowledge & Skills: (Maximum of 6) 

  • Results oriented 

  • Strong analytical and problem solving skills 

  • Excellent written and oral communication skills 

  • Team player – approachable, ability to share and consult others 

  • Understanding of the business context 

  Competencies: (Maximum of 8 competencies) 

  • Analysing (Proficient in) 

  • Delivering Results and meeting customer expectations (Familiar with ) 

  • Presenting & Communicating Information (Proficient in) 

  • Learning & Researching (Proficient in) 

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