Sr Tech Ops Engineer

Purpose of Job

One of our goals is to fail small and learn fast. The Sr Tech Ops Engineer will focus on minimizing the impacts of production incidents while ensuring the organization learns quickly to become more resilient.

The Sr. Tech Ops Engineer is accountable for tracking and managing the restoration and communication of incidents with pace. The role is responsible for managing the processes, guidelines and tools related to Major and other high priority Incidents, performing Root Cause Analysis, and proactively enhancing related tools and processes for monitoring and alerting. The role is also responsible for managing the lifecycle of Problems, with the aim of preventing incidents from happening or reoccurring. The Sr Tech Ops Engineer will establish service level objectives, indicators and agreements (SLOs, SLIs and SLAs) for critical systems and channels, including championing automated monitoring and data aggregating to streamline reporting of metrics.

Success in this role will be demonstrated by ensuring that incidents with business or customer impact are dealt with effectively and with minimum disruption to live service and SLAs. This role will record and manage problems through to resolution by performing root cause analysis, coordinating third party analysis, and communicating with stakeholders to ensure workaround and solution suitability. This role will be supporting EQ Bank, Equitable Bank, the direct-to-consumer digital bank channels and core banking applications, as well as any other Information Technology incidents and problems with a high and critical impact on business.

Main Activities:

• Determine the severity of an incident that has been raised by the business (per risk definition)
• Ensure successful and timely restoration services of major incidents
• Identity application related issues and determine the trends to avoid replication
• Develop and drive SWOT opportunities for reoccurring incidents
• Establish a proper issue detecting mechanism and build useful dashboards
• Work in partnership with senior IT Subject matter experts and business counterparts to identify opportunities that drive business value and improve effectiveness
• Establish and maintain timely communications with all stakeholders to ensure they are informed of service status
• Manage stakeholder expectations and update people on progress or slippages
• Host both technical and managerial conference calls, and facilitate effective incident management throughout the incident lifecycle
• Spin-up command centres (virtual/physical) as needed based on priority of incidents, including call-tree escalations to Level 3 experts as needed
• Own the creation and distribution of succinct communications on command centre progress and activities, for both front-line technical staff and executive leaders
• Co-ordinate / facilitate escalations through internal and supplier teams as needed to heighten visibility and engagement
• Accountable for gathering required information from business and technology to enable effective Root Cause Analysis
• Produce and maintain Executive level reporting of incidents, including number of customers impacted and restoration timing
• Minimize and mitigate business-impacting incidents through controlled problem identification and responsive / proactive service improvement plans
• Identify the underlying root cause and the triggers of a Problem and initiate the most appropriate and economical Problem solution or temporary workaround
• Ensure that - after a successful Problem solution - the Problem Record contains a full historical description, and that related Known Error Records are updated
• Undertake a review of the resolution of a Problem to prevent reoccurrence and learn any lessons for the future
• Verify if the Problems marked as closed have been fully resolved
• Provide extended and off-hour support as needed to manage command centres and communications
• Manage processes to ensure on-call team schedules, systematic call-trees, and distribution lists are accurate and up to date

Knowledge/Skill Requirements:

• University degree in technology-related field required, or equivalent work experience
• Knowledge in Java software delivery or software development including multiple frameworks such as Hibernate, Spring MVC, Spring Security, SAML, OAuth, OIC
• Experience in API management tools, e.g., MuleSoft API Manager (preferably)
• Experience in industry standard APM tools
• Incident and Problem management, Major Incident Response experience preferable
• 6+ years of experience in a corporate SDLC function (developer, support, architect, etc.) in technology
• 4 years of experience with technical incident resolution or product defect resolution
• Strong written and verbal communication, with an ability to articulate issues simply, concisely, accurately and clearly for both technical working level teams and executives
• An ability to work efficiently, effectively and collaboratively
• Knowledge of ITIL 4 practices is a must
• Analytical mind capable of managing numerous information sources and providing meaningful data analysis reports to senior management
• Organized, structured, logical thinking and detail oriented analytic skills
• Multi-tasking – can manage several concurrent initiatives with pace and prioritise demands whilst maintaining composure
• Experience with tracking incidents and providing dashboard views of issues/tickets across time
• Respectable knowledge of Jira Service Desk, Confluence and Jira is required
• Strong attention to detail, keen problem-solving skills, with experience performing impact and root cause analyses, recommending solutions, and supporting resolution efforts
• Ability to approach problems logically and with good judgment to ensure the appropriate outcome
• Capacity to adapt to and manage change in a fast-paced, dynamic environment
• Personal maturity, personable, credible, professional presence, Coordinative authority, Calm under pressure
• Ability to work professionally with other teams and individuals to get things done quickly