Role: Operations Delivery Leader – L2 Support (Applications)
Location: St. Louis, MO
Long term Contract
Context & Background:
The organization operates a multi-tier application support model for a large financial services client spanning 10+ portfolios and 50+ applications/products across Mainframe and Open Systems environments.
● L1 / L1.5 (Offshore): SOP-based ticket resolution and service requests covering batch job operations (CA7, Autosys), server monitoring, queue monitoring, and ad-hoc infrastructure activities. Unresolved items are escalated to L2.
● L2 (Newly Formed – Mostly Offshore): Technology-focused team (Mainframe, Java, etc.) carved out from the existing AppDev team. Currently in ramp-up mode — building processes, documentation, and collaboration frameworks with L1/L1.5 and L3 teams.
● L3 (Onsite Lead + Offshore): Progressively left-shifting BAU work to L2 to refocus on tech currency, maintenance, and minor enhancements.
This role is being created to lead the L2 team''s operational establishment, serve as the single point of contact for the customer, and drive execution excellence during this critical transformation phase.
Role Purpose:
The Operations Leader will be the onshore catalyst responsible for standing up and maturing the L2 support function. This individual will:
● Own the end-to-end operational rhythm — from knowledge transition and process definition to automation strategy and performance governance.
● Serve as the trusted interface between the customer leadership and the offshore delivery team.
● Bring a unique blend of technical depth, operational rigor, and stakeholder management to drive incremental progress across a complex, multi-portfolio landscape.
Key Responsibilities
A. L2 Team Stand-up & Operational Excellence
● Transition Leadership: Drive knowledge transfer from L3 teams across 10+ portfolios and 50+ applications; ensure structured learning, documentation, and readiness assessments.
● Process Engineering: Define and implement L2 operational processes — ticket triage, escalation workflows, SOP creation, and runbook development.
● Left-Shift Execution: Strategize and execute the progressive left-shift of BAU work from L3 to L2, ensuring minimal disruption and measurable progress.
● Prioritization Framework: Work closely with customer leaders to define prioritization criteria for knowledge transfer, application onboarding, and workload balancing.
B. Customer & Stakeholder Management
● Single Point of Contact (SPOC): Act as the primary interface for the customer for all L2 operational matters — status updates, escalations, and strategic discussions.
● Governance & Reporting: Define and present periodic measurement reports, dashboards, and SLA compliance reviews to customer leadership and internal stakeholders.
● Relationship Management: Build trusted relationships with L3 portfolio leads (across 10+ portfolios) to ensure seamless coordination, follow-ups, and incremental progress on knowledge transfer.
● Executive Communication: Prepare and present operational health summaries, risk assessments, and progress reports to senior leadership on both customer and company sides.
C. Performance Management & Continuous Improvement
● SLA & KPI Framework: Define, implement, and monitor performance measurement frameworks including SLAs, KPIs, and operational metrics for the L2 team.
● Automation Strategy: Identify and drive automation opportunities to improve efficiency — do more with the same team through scripting, tooling, and intelligent workflows.
● Capacity & Productivity: Analyze team utilization, identify bottlenecks, and optimize resource allocation to maximize throughput and quality.
● Continuous Improvement: Establish a culture of continuous improvement through retrospectives, root cause analysis, and process refinement cycles.
● Technology Breadth: Maintain hands-on familiarity with Mainframe (CA7, batch operations) and Open Systems (Java, middleware, distributed platforms) to effectively guide the team and engage with L3 technical leads.
● Incident Oversight: Provide technical guidance during critical incidents and major escalations; ensure timely resolution and thorough post-incident reviews.
● Knowledge Management: Own the knowledge management strategy — ensure all runbooks, SOPs, troubleshooting guides, and application documentation are current, accessible, and continuously enriched.
● Tool & Platform Awareness: Stay current with monitoring tools, ITSM platforms (e.g., ServiceNow), automation frameworks, and batch scheduling tools (CA7, Autosys).
E. Engagement Health & Accountability
● Overall Ownership: Own the engagement health for the L2 function — delivery quality, customer satisfaction, team morale, and financial performance.
● Conduit Role: Act as the bridge between the customer and the offshore team, translating business priorities into actionable delivery plans.
● Company POC: Serve as the point of contact for company leadership on engagement execution, risks, and opportunities; provide transparent and timely updates.
● Talent Development: Mentor and develop offshore team members; identify skill gaps, drive upskilling initiatives, and build a high-performing L2 team.
● 10+ years of progressive experience in IT application support / production operations in a managed services or outsourcing environment.
● Minimum 5 years in a leadership or managerial role overseeing multi-tier support teams (L1/L2/L3).
● Proven experience in standing up new teams, building processes from the ground up, and driving operational maturity.
● Hands-on experience with both Mainframe (CA7, Autosys, JCL, COBOL ecosystem) and Open Systems (Java, middleware, distributed platforms).
● Strong track record of managing customer relationships at a senior level in financial services or similarly regulated industries.
● Experience driving left-shift / knowledge transfer programs across large application portfolios.
● Batch Scheduling & Monitoring: CA7, Autosys, Control-M (familiarity with at least two).
● Mainframe Environment: JCL, COBOL, DB2, CICS — working knowledge sufficient to guide the L2 team.
● Open Systems: Java/J2EE, middleware (MQ, Kafka), Linux/Unix, SQL databases.
● ITSM Platforms: ServiceNow (Incident, Change, Problem Management modules).
● Monitoring & Observability: Splunk, Dynatrace, AppDynamics, Nagios, or similar tools.
● Automation & Scripting: Python, Shell scripting, or PowerShell; exposure to RPA or intelligent automation is a plus.
● Exceptional stakeholder management and executive communication — ability to influence without authority.
● Strong organizational and coordination skills to manage dependencies across 10+ portfolios and 50+ applications.
● Data-driven mindset — ability to define metrics, build dashboards, and present insights to drive decisions.
● Proactive, self-starter attitude — comfortable operating with ambiguity during the team''s ramp-up phase.
● Experience managing onshore-offshore delivery models with cultural sensitivity and time-zone awareness.
● Strong problem-solving and conflict resolution capabilities.
Preferred Qualifications:
● ITIL v4 Foundation or higher certification.
● Experience in financial services / wealth management / brokerage industry.
● Familiarity with DevOps practices, CI/CD pipelines, and shift-left methodologies.
● Exposure to AI/ML-based automation for IT operations (AIOps).
● PMP, CSM, or SAFe certifications are a plus.
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