IT Operations Executive

About the job

iFAST Global Bank is looking for a motivated, self-starting IT Operations Executive to join our IT team. You’ll work closely with experienced colleagues across the business and get hands-on exposure to the full range of technology that runs a regulated bank. Core banking, middleware, APIs, databases, infrastructure and cloud - with plenty of room to learn, grow and make a visible impact.

This is a role with real autonomy. You’ll work from objectives rather than step-by-step instructions, choose your own approach, and plan and prioritise your own workload across production support, incidents, changes, reporting and ad hoc requests. The problems are varied and often span several layers of the stack, so the work rewards analysis, sound judgement and curiosity.

You’ll thrive in this role if you

• Take ownership of your work from start to finish and care about deadlines, quality and the commitments you make
• Come to escalations with options and a recommendation, so decisions can be made quickly
• Look ahead, spot risks early and like getting to the root cause of a problem
• See beyond the immediate task, ask why things are done the way they are, and take the initiative to improve automation, monitoring, processes and documentation
• Back your decisions with evidence and know the numbers behind your recommendations
• Enjoy learning and sharing what you learn, helping raise the bar for the whole team
• Stay calm and focused under pressure - during incidents, end-of-day processing and change windows - reprioritising as things change and keeping senior management informed with clear, timely updates

What you’ll do

• Manage application problems and incidents, escalating product queries and bug fixes to the application supplier
• Work closely with business application suppliers to build advanced knowledge of the Bank’s applications, mainly Core Banking, middleware and the Bank API
• Carry out routine user and system configuration tasks in response to change requests
• Advise on best practices to achieve business objectives
• Coordinate and run daily operations such as regulatory reports, End of Day processes, data backups, system monitoring, and system-level troubleshooting and remediation
• Lead or coordinate advanced work such as systems integration, new report development, patch deployment and system upgrades
• Manage relationships with systems suppliers

The successful candidate will likely have the following (or equivalent):

• Bachelor’s degree in IT, Computer Science or a related field
• Strong knowledge of programming languages such as Java, C++ or Python
• Strong working knowledge of Oracle and SQL Server, including tables, views, packages, stored procedures, functions and triggers, and the ability to write and debug complex SQL
• Good working knowledge of Linux and Windows, including scripting (e.g. Bash, PowerShell) to automate routine tasks
• Working knowledge of AWS, infrastructure as code with Terraform, Kubernetes, and CI/CD pipelines using GitHub
• Good understanding of virtualisation, application clustering and containerisation
• Good knowledge of integration technologies, including APIs and API gateways, middleware, message queuing (MQ) and SFTP
• Experience developing and maintaining financial reports using SQL and Power BI
• Good understanding of database performance metrics (CPU, memory, IOPS, connections, lock waits, query latency) and execution plans, with the ability to identify and resolve slow queries, locking and contention
• Experience using Amazon CloudWatch (metrics, logs, alarms and dashboards) for proactive monitoring - setting meaningful alert thresholds, spotting trends before they affect service, and driving performance and cost optimisation

• Salary of £30K–£35K depending on experience
• 25 days annual leave plus 8 bank holidays
• Pension scheme with 4% employer contribution
• Private Medical Insurance
• 60/40 hybrid working after successful completion of probation
• Training and development
• Free gym access in the building