Job Summary
The purpose of the Application Specialist role is to provide specialized technical support, and maintenance of the enterprise business applications across the organization by ensuring the availability, performance, security, and continuous improvement of insurance systems.
The role is responsible for the end-to-end application lifecycle, including solution implementation, testing, deployment, operational support, vendor management, and continuous service improvement while applying ITIL best practices to deliver reliable and business-aligned technology services.
Key Responsibilities
Ensure that all service level agreements (SLAs) for applications support services across the organization are delivered according to specifications
Provide first line and second line support and maintenance services to all enterprise systems
Ensure business-critical systems operate at agreed service levels and availability targets
Ensure adequate monitoring systems that provide timely, accurate, real-time, and historical data on performance and other critical parameters
Maintenance and administration of the enterprise system
Ensure that enterprise systems are adequately sized to meet SLAs with the business
Define and monitor data and application availability for the enterprise system
Document and update processes and procedures in use for the enterprise system
Support month-end, year-end, claims-processing, policy-renewal, and financial reporting activities
Manage the deployment of application upgrades, fixes, and code releases across SIT, QA, staging, and production environments, ensuring compliance with approved change management and deployment processes
Coordinate and oversee User Acceptance Testing (UAT), integration testing, performance testing, and deployment readiness activities
Drive process optimization through data analytics, technology adoption, and continuous improvement methodologies
Apply ITIL best practices across Incident Management, Problem Management, Change
Enablement, Service Request Management, Knowledge Management, Availability
Management, and Continual Service Improvement to enhance service delivery effectiveness
Promote adoption of DevOps, Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD), automation, and modern application lifecycle management practices to improve deployment efficiency, system reliability, and operational agility
Key Performance Measures
Customer satisfaction
Reduction in recurring incidents through problem management
Vendor SLA compliance and Issue Resolution Turnaround Time
Number of process improvement initiatives delivered
System availability
Qualifications
Education, including specialised training
Bachelor's Degree in Information Technology, Computer Science or Telecommunication Engineering or equivalent degree from a recognized university
Relevant Certification in software technologies
Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate
Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert
Professional Scrum Developer (PSD)
Microsoft Applied Skills: Querying Data with Transact-SQL
Experience in the following will be an added advantage:
Containerization and cloud technologies (Azure/AWS, Docker, Kubernetes)
Solutions architecture and systems integration
Data platforms, including SQL/NoSQL databases, analytics, and data migration
Experience
At least four years' experience in a busy business systems environment
Competencies
Technical Competencies
Experience with web servers and application servers e.g. Apache, IIS, Apache Tomcat,
JBoss, WebSphere, WebLogic
Experience in data warehousing, business analytics, knowledge in Business Systems
Modelling and data retrieval
Proficiency in designing, developing, deploying, and supporting cloud-based applications
ITIL Governance Standards
Strong knowledge of SQL and NoSQL databases, data modelling, data migration, and data quality management
Experience in designing, implementing, and supporting web services, REST APIs, middleware, microservices, and enterprise integrations
Experience with CI/CD pipelines, release management, infrastructure automation, containerization technologies (e.g., Docker and Kubernetes)
IT Security and Security appliances
Core competencies
Delivering results and meeting customer expectations
Relating and networking
Working with people
Adapting and responding to change
Planning and organising
Presenting and communicating information
Persuading and influencing
Leading and supervising
Working with people
Adhering to principles and values
Achieving personal work goals and objectives