Application Production Support Manager

Position: Application Production Support Manager

Location: Los Angeles, CA (Onsite - Local candidates preferred)
Duration: Long term contract

Job Responsibilities:

• Ensure SLA compliance and maintain high availability of business-critical applications/systems
• Take ownership of application downtime incidents and act as the primary escalation point during outages
• Leverage a strong development background to understand application behavior, logs, and issue diagnosis
• Possess thorough understanding of Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) to align support with build, release, and production cycles
• Manage major incidents with clear, timely stakeholder communication
• Oversee end-to-end application support lifecycle (incident, problem, change coordination)
• Use tools like ServiceNow for ticket tracking, prioritization, and SLA monitoring
• Perform issue triage with leads/technical teams to identify root causes and drive resolution
• Lead cross-functional teams (L2/L3, infra, vendors) for efficient incident management
• Plan and execute preventive & corrective maintenance
• Track and improve incident trends, recurring issues, and service performance
• Develop MIS/operational reports and dashboards (Excel)
• Drive service reviews and continuous improvement initiatives
• Maintain documentation, SOPs, and service logs
• Demonstrate strong stakeholder management across business and IT teams
• Mentor team on incident handling, RCA quality, and support best practices

Required Skills & Qualifications:

• 10+ years of experience in Application/Production Support or IT Operations
• Strong experience in incident management, problem management, and change management
• Hands-on experience with ServiceNow (or similar ITSM tools) for ticketing and SLA tracking
• Solid understanding of L2/L3 support models and escalation handling
• Experience with log analysis, debugging, and root cause analysis (RCA)
• Background in software development (Java, .NET, Python, or similar) is highly preferred
• Good understanding of databases (SQL/NoSQL) and ability to write/debug queries
• Familiarity with monitoring tools (Splunk, Dynatrace, AppDynamics, etc.)
• Experience working in high-availability / 24x7 production environments
• Knowledge of cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud Platform) is a plus
• Strong understanding of SDLC, release management, and deployment cycles
• Experience coordinating with cross-functional teams (infra, Dev, QA, vendors)
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills
• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities
• Experience in creating reports, dashboards, and service metrics (Excel or BI tools)
• ITIL certification (preferred)