Application Support Analyst

Job Requisition ID: R-15972388

Remote Type: Hybrid

Time Type: Full time

Location: Absa House - ABT, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Empowering Africa’s tomorrow, together…one story at a time.

With over 100 years of rich history and strongly positioned as a local bank with regional and international expertise, a career with our family offers the opportunity to be part of this exciting growth journey, to reset our future and shape our destiny as a proudly African group.

My Career Development Portal: Wherever you are in your career, we are here for you. Design your future. Discover leading-edge guidance, tools and support to unlock your potential. You are Absa. You are possibility.

Job Summary

To manage the implementation, maintenance, and enhancement of all Applications systems to enable the use of appropriate platform technology, as an integral and reliable component of business process within the country. Drive convergence of technologies, ensure delivery of technology projects associated with Applications and liaise and negotiate with internal customers and technology vendors.

Job Description

Key Responsibilities and Approximate Time Split:

Accountability: Service (Applications) Availability

The prime responsibility is for maintaining the availability and reliability of applications to ensure that IT can effectively meet service targets in accordance with planned business objectives.

• Provide a range of application availability reporting to ensure that agreed levels of availability, reliability and maintainability are measured and monitored on an ongoing basis
• Successfully facilitate delivery of changes to reports needed by the business and ensure that reports and their dependencies are made available for the business.
• Provide holistic support of application availability to Business Users
• Take actions to achieve reductions in frequency and duration of incidents that impact application availability
• Ensure shortfalls in application availability are recognized and appropriate corrective actions are identified and progressed
• Act on agreed appropriate actions with Line Management to maintain or improve application availability levels
• Initiate and coordinate actions required to maintain or improve availability of applications
• Act as a coordination point for changes to applications when needed
• Maintain an awareness of technology advancements and best practices that support application availability
• Understand all the Backup policies and standards for Absa Bank Tanzania and Absa Group
• Ensure there are adequate backup plans, process and procedures which are documented are align with the Absas Backup policies and standards
• Ensure Backup is done for bank’s data across all system according to the Absa policies
• Coordinate regulate backup restoration testing and document the results of the testing
• Perform Backup off all applications and software for the bank and ensure certificates are kept in a secure and accessible place
• Frequently assess the backup process and make improvement plan
• Ensure all changes of Hardware and software are in line with the Backup technology in place
• Ensure Absa disaster recovery plan for IT is kept in a secure and easily accessible areas
• Generate backup report for all systems in daily bases
• Ensuring incident ownership from beginning to closure.

Accountability: Test Management

Responsibility is to ensure that proper testing occurs for all Application changes released into the production environments as assigned to you by Line Management

• Work closely with Release Analysts
• Review releases and assign appropriate release testing tasks
• Compile and review the Testing Deliverables
• Conduct installation procedure tests
• Participate in functional, performance, and integration testing results
• Coordinate user acceptance testing
• Coordinate back out testing
• Conduct supporting documentation review
• Compile test results
• Conduct release test review
• Coordinate post release testing
• Validate and communicate results of testing activities

Accountability: Risk Management

Build relationship with country IT Risk and Governance team and provide support wherever required. Contribute and deliver to the improvement of the risk profile by delivering improved governance, risk management, controls, and compliance requirements.

Accountability: People Management

Responsible for driving own Performance Development, collating relevant documentation, preparing for and arranging reviews. By utilizing skills matrix, identify training and development requirements, formulating own plan to be agreed with team leader. Responsible for ensuring own plan is completed within agreed timescales. Undertake all necessary training to perform the role to the required standards, including gaining accreditation where appropriate.

Accountability: IT hardware Asset Management.

• Manage IT asset life cycle, procurements, maintenances, and disposals.
• Perform asset quarterly reviews for both branches, sales points, and the headquarters.
• Ensure Hardware Asset procedures are reviewed, attested, and signed off by Tech executive leaders.
• Manage all asset warehouses and ensure entrance and asset movement permissions are in place.
• Ensure asset inventory is regularly updated whenever there are changes in ownership.

Risk and Control

Manage risk and control effectively by applying applicable risk frameworks and embedding a positive risk culture

• Understanding of own role in the end-to-end processes in which you play a part, including applicable risks and controls.
• Adhere to Absa’s policies and procedures applicable to own role, demonstrating sound judgement and responsible risk management.
• Report all risk events / incidents / issues using the defined process for your business area and help to understand why these happened and how to prevent them in future.
• Proactively look for ways to improve the control environment by considering what could go wrong in the processes you operate and how errors could be prevented.
• Continuous and proactive engagement with regulatory bodies, unions where applicable
• All mandatory training completed to deadline

Technical Skills / Competencies

Education and Experience Required

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Information Technology, Software Engineering, or a related field.
• Minimum 3 years of experience in application analysis, support, or a related technology field.
• Familiar with programming or scripting Languages e.g. SQL, Oracle, Postgres
• Strong background in troubleshooting, identifying root causes, and implement preventive measures.
• Basic experience in networking and cybersecurity including fundamental concepts, tools, and best practices

Certification in ITILV3/V4 is an added advantage.

Knowledge & Skills: (Maximum of 6)

• Translate Business Requirements to Tech Solutions (Solid)
• Negotiation Skills (Solid)
• Strategic Thinking (Solid)
• ITILv3 - Governance Framework (Solid)
• Communication Skills (Written and Verbal) (Solid)
• Understand the IT service delivery within a corporate environment (Advanced)
• Ability to work in fast paced environments, manage priorities, and meet deadlines (Solid)
• Conceptual thinking skills (Solid)
• Ability to analyse, make decision and initiate act (Solid)

Competencies: (Maximum of 6 competencies)

• Deciding and initiating action
• Learning and researching
• Entrepreneurial and commercial thinking
• Relating and networking
• Adapting and responding to change
• Persuading and influencing
• Creating and innovating

Our Attributes

Absa’s Values and Behaviors represent the set of standards which governs the actions of all of us who work for the bank and against which the performance of every one of us in Absa are being assessed and rewarded:

• Trust
• Resourceful
• Inclusion
• Courage
• Stewardship

Education

Further Education and Training Certificate (FETC): Physical, Mathematical, Computer and Life Sciences (Required)