Application Support Lead

• Application Support Lead

  The Team

  We are building several high-performing engineering teams, who will have full Product ownership from design to deployment.  We will be adopting a quality-first approach to building solutions which will directly improve our customer experience and ensure that we can provide first-rate support to internal partners and external customers.  Our Agile teams will take responsibility for supporting high-quality products and will provide a reactive and responsive support model for incidents including an on-call function. This support model we plan to adopt are core hours covering UK 9am to 5pm, with a rotational on-call requirement.

  The team will also adopt a “Prevention is better than the Cure” approach driving a proactive, investigative strategy to put in place measures that will improve the Production environment and prevent future issues across applications.

  The intention is for our teams to continually adapt and reinvent their skills and capabilities over time as technologies change and evolve. We will provide the right challenges and opportunities to enable your success, however we need you to bring your enthusiasm, the ability to learn quickly, and to take minimum-viable-product technology and help build industrialised solutions for the enterprise. Once our teams have successfully delivered robust and scalable solutions for Aflac, there will be a new technology waiting to be explored and built to scale within our organisation. We’ll be keeping things pretty fresh.

  The Role

  As the Application Support Manager, you will lead a talented team of Application Support Engineers, driving the delivery of exceptional application support across various platforms and technologies. Your role will involve guiding the team in providing high-quality outcomes for end users, fostering strong communication and collaboration, and maintaining a product-driven focus. You will be responsible for managing high-severity incidents, solving critical production issues, and ensuring the team works seamlessly across product lines. Building effective relationships with key stakeholders in Northern Ireland and the US will be essential.

  What you'll be doing:

  • Lead and mentor a team of Application Support Engineers, ensuring high levels of engagement and performance.
  • Provide oversight and direction in Level 2 & Level 3 support activities, including triage, investigation, and resolution of complex issues.
  • Oversee adherence to core-hour support and the on-call support model for out-of-hours and weekend support.
  • Manage incident and problem management processes, driving timely resolution and minimizing impact on users.
  • Foster a collaborative environment across internal and external teams to troubleshoot and resolve critical issues.
  • Drive continuous improvement efforts within the application support function, identifying areas for service enhancement.
  • Contribute to release planning and change management in collaboration with development teams and stakeholders.
  • Lead the design and reporting of performance metrics and key performance indicators to ensure transparency and accountability.
  • Stay current with industry trends and emerging technologies, guiding the team’s adoption of best practices in cloud, Agile, and DevOps methodologies.

  What you need to have 

  Below is an overview of the skills and experience we are looking for, but remember, don’t rule yourself out if you don’t have everything on the list – it’s your intellect and your attitude that we’re really after! 

  Essential

  • Strong leadership and interpersonal skills, with the ability to motivate and guide engineers towards achieving business goals.
  • Excellent problem-solving and debugging skills, with the ability to navigate complex multi-tier infrastructures and applications.
  • Strong communication skills, capable of translating technical issues into understandable language for non-technical stakeholders.
  • Experience in Incident, Problem Management and Monitoring, with a track record of managing high-severity incidents.
  • Customer-focused mindset, understanding the critical role support plays in achieving high-quality outcomes for users.
  • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a STEM field (or equivalent commercial experience).

  Desirable

  • Familiarity with cloud platforms and experience managing teams in omni-cloud environments.
  • Knowledge of AWS tools and experience with CI/CD pipelines for production upgrades.
  • Experience in mobile applications, web technologies, and database-driven applications.
  • Understanding of DevOps practices in Agile environments and the ability to drive continuous integration and delivery practices.

  So that’s us. Thanks for taking the time to read this far (pretty impressive in the era of the 280-character tweet). We look forward to hearing from you if you fancy joining a tech innovation company with the agility of a start-up and the stability of a Fortune 500 U.S. company.