Head of Centralized Application Support

Software Guidance & Assistance, Inc., (SGA), is searching for Head of Centralized Application Support for a Full-Time assignment with one of our premier Financial Industry clients in mid-town NYC. Hybrid: required 2-3 days/week in the office. Free lunch in the office Mon - Thu.

Overview
We are seeking a seasoned and visionary Head of Centralized Application Support to lead our efforts in streamlining and enhancing the efficiency, reliability, and customer satisfaction of our investment financial services application landscape. This strategic role involves working closely with developers, product owners, IT operations teams, and business stakeholders to develop a robust support framework and implement cutting-edge support automation tools from the ground up. The ideal candidate will play a pivotal role in defining support processes, establishing best practices, and building a strong team of internal and external engineers to maintain high application availability and performance, with expertise in AWS, Python, SQL, Jira Service Desk, and cloud observability tools like Dynatrace.

This role is critical in aligning the centralized application support functions with the company's overall business objectives, focusing on reducing application maintenance costs, increasing availability, and enhancing user satisfaction through innovative support practices and technologies.
Responsibilities

• Develop and Implement Support Framework: Design and enforce a centralized application support policy that standardizes support procedures across the company. Specifically, implement automated resolution processes vs. manual intervention. Define the support process and best practices and build out the internal team (potentially leveraging external vendors). Get the firm 'trued up' with runbooks, various forms of documentation, etc.
• Leadership and Team Development: Assemble and train a specialized support team, ensuring they are well-versed in the latest technologies and methodologies required for effective application support. Leverage partners to scale support requirements as needed and manage the on-call support rotation and escalation management.
• Advance Support Automation: Utilize modern observability and automation platforms such as Dynatrace to enhance Tier 1 and Tier 2 support processes, including automated runbooks, real-time root cause analysis, and streamlined alert systems.
• Ownership of Service Desk: Manage and optimize the use of Jira Service Desk as the primary tool for handling support tickets and workflows, ensuring its full capabilities are leveraged to improve response times and service quality.
• Change Management: Work cross teams to embed change management into the CI/CD processes, focusing on automation, testing, and deployment strategies to minimize risks associated with software changes. Run the organizations Change Management Board and define the standards, policies, and processes for quality releases.
• Metrics and Reporting Oversight: Create and maintain detailed KPIs and SLAs through dashboards that track application health, support response times, and the impact of environmental changes on service quality and business operations.

• Quality Assurance and Process Enhancement: Continuously refine support strategies to improve process capabilities, reduce maintenance costs, and increase system uptime. Run root cause analysis post-mortems and coordination resolution with AppDev teams.
• Collaborate with Leadership: Work closely with team leaders and architects to discuss, design, and implement quality processes and practices.

Required Skills and Experience

• Extensive Industry Experience: Over 10 years in IT and support management, preferably in financial services, with a strong focus on application support and team leadership.
• Expertise in Support Automation and Tools: Solid knowledge in support frameworks and observability platforms such as Dynatrace, as well as extensive experience with Jira Service Desk. Any other service desk is fine but Jira is most relevant.
• Knowledgeable in systems and program design around application support in the Cloud. Cloud observability knowledge and shift-left in terms of response time.
• Profound Knowledge in Development: Experienced in using Python for automation within the application support context and SQL.
• CI/CD and DevOps Practices: Experienced with continuous integration and continuous deployment practices, including risk analysis and mitigation strategies in a support context. Proficient in modern cloud design (CI/CD).
• Strong Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Ability to work effectively with various teams across the organization to ensure alignment with business needs and technological capabilities.
• A mindset that an issue should only happen once and foster a culture of engineering excellence.

Preferred Skills:

• Financial Services
• A robust background in implementing and managing support systems within complex IT environments, particularly in financial services.
• Experience in leveraging AWS cloud solutions and advanced support automation technologies
• A mindset that an issue should only happen once and foster a culture of engineering excellence.

SGA is a technology and resource solutions provider driven to stand out. We are a women-owned business. Our mission: to solve big IT problems with a more personal, boutique approach. Each year, we match consultants like you to more than 1,000 engagements. When we say let's work better together, we mean it. You'll join a diverse team built on these core values: customer service, employee development, and quality and integrity in everything we do. Be yourself, love what you do and find your passion at work. Please find us at .

SGA is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of Race, Color, Sex, Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, Religion, National Origin, Disability, Veteran Status, Age, Marital Status, Pregnancy, Genetic Information, or Other Legally Protected Status. We are committed to providing access, equal opportunity, and reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities in employment, and our services, programs, and activities. Please visit our company to request an accommodation or assistance regarding our policy.