Applications Specialist III or IV

Description

Application Specialist III
Application Specialist IV

The essential functions of the job are not limited to those listed in the job description. The City retains the discretion to add to or change the duties of the position at any time.

• Provides advanced upper level lead technical support for software systems by analyzing and resolving problems; analyzing business processes for systems; performing interface design, testing, and deployment; communicating with customers to resolve issues; identifying faults and issues; providing recommendations for discovery and known issues; performing customer support for all applications; and using available resources gathered from team members and vendor applications to make recommendations or system changes.
• Performs general administrative functions by overseeing trend and problem identification; performing tasks to support problem resolution; maintaining system security; creating or modifying system workflow as required by rules and regulations; assisting with equipment pricing and acquisition; providing security information when needed; and writing customized reports to meet various needs.
• Performs software upgrades and installations by performing installation, testing, and deployment of application systems; assisting with design, testing, and deployment of systems; ensuring users acquire training with available systems; coordinating departmental testing for software; providing documentation for software features and experiences; and performing analysis of systems to fit business needs.
• Provides assistance with administration by managing the IT Help Desk as assigned; attending departmental and Application Support meetings; providing budget figures for system equipment; serving as lead customer liaison for application support; providing suggestions for enhancements in operational processes; and providing communication to application support team members
• Provides advanced technical support to SQL servers by performing SQL clustering installation and administration, assessing performance measures on physical and virtual machines; administering fail over procedures for disaster recovery planning and administering replication procedures.

WHEN ASSIGNED TO UTILITY SYSTEM

• Provide application support and administration for the City’s utility systems, including the Customer Information System (CIS), customer web portal, Meter Data Management (MDM), Sensus/AMI solutions, and related applications.
• Support critical utility business processes including customer accounts, billing, payments, service orders, meter reads, collections, consumption data, and billing cycles, troubleshooting complex application, processing, and data issues.
• Monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot system integrations and interfaces among CIS, MDM, Sensus/AMI, customer portals, payment systems, GIS, financial systems, and other applications, including APIs, batch processes, file transfers, and automated jobs.
• Perform application administration, configuration, security, testing, upgrades, and change management, including user access, roles, workflows, business rules, system settings, patches, enhancements, and coordination of user acceptance testing.
• Partner with Utility and IT staff to analyze business requirements and improve processes through automation, reporting, analytics, smart-metering technologies, and digital customer-service enhancements while maintaining system, integration, operational, and troubleshooting documentation.

ADDITIONAL DUTIES

• Writes customized reports.
• Installs and upgrades systems.
• Provides training as needed to system users and co-workers.
• Works with users to determine their needs.
• Attends meetings and training sessions.
• Performs additional duties to support operational requirements as assigned.

APPLICATION SOLUTIONS PROFICIENCY

• SQL Server: Adds an instance to a SQL cluster; sets up integration and reporting services; reads execution plan and demonstrates knowledge in how the different parts of a query affect it; profiles and uses traces for identifying and understanding statistics of executions.
• Report Writing: Demonstrates mastery of creating complex reports consisting of multiple tables.
• IIS: Add SSL certificate to sites.
• Web Development: None
• Integration/Interfaces: Demonstrates proficient use of tools such as Postman to test the functionality of APIs.
• REST/SOAP APIs and web services.
• JSON, XML, CSV, and other common data-exchange formats.
• SFTP and automated file-transfer technologies.
• Microsoft PowerShell or similar scripting technologies.
• Microsoft Power BI or related reporting/analytics platforms.
• Microsoft Azure and cloud-hosted applications.
• Microsoft 365 technologies.
• IT service-management platforms.
• Application monitoring and logging technologies.

Education and Experience
Bachelor's Degree, with equivalent knowledge of a specific vocational, administrative, or technical nature from college, vocational, business, or technical school, and over seven years and up to and including nine years of experience.
An equivalent combination of education and experience may be considered in lieu of the specific requirements listed above.
Certifications/Licenses

• Valid driver’s license and acceptable driving record according to City criteria.
• Microsoft Certified: Azure Database Administrator Associate, Exam DP-300, or equivalent

Job Knowledge
Complete mastery and understanding of the subject. This level is normally reserved for unusually exacting or responsible positions required to originate hypotheses, concepts, or approaches.
Reading
Advanced: Ability to read literature, books, reviews, scientific or technical journals, abstracts, financial reports, and/or legal documents.
Writing
Intermediate: Ability to write reports, prepare business letters, expositions, and summaries with proper format, punctuation, spelling, and grammar, using all parts of speech.

Math
Intermediate: Ability to deal with system of real numbers; practical application of fractions, percentages, ratios/proportions and measurement.

Communication Skills
Requires providing basic information to others outside direct reporting relationships on procedures or general policies. Contacts may require the consideration of different points of view to reach understanding and to gain cooperation and acceptance of ideas.
Independence and Decision-Making
Normally performs the duty assignment according to his or her own judgment, requesting supervisory assistance only when necessary. Special projects are managed with little oversight and assignments may be reviewed upon completion. Performance reviewed periodically.
Technical Skills
Work requires advanced skills and knowledge in approaches and systems, which affect the design and implementation of major programs and/or processes organization-wide. Independent judgment and decision-making abilities are necessary to apply technical skills effectively.

Fiscal Responsibilities
Prepares accounting, budget, employment actions, and purchasing documents; and does research to justify language used in documents for a unit or division of a department.
Supervisory Responsibilities
May occasionally direct helpers, assistants, seasonal employees, interns, or temporary employees.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS

• Sedentary physical effort, exerting up to 10 lbs. occasionally or negligible weights frequently; sitting most of the time.
• Constant sitting, fine dexterity; adequate vision, hearing, talking to use computer, telephone and communicate effectively with others.
• Rare standing, walking, lifting, carrying, pushing/pulling, reaching, handling, bending, twisting, balancing.

NON-PHYSICAL DEMANDS

• Responsible for appropriate use and maintenance of City equipment, tools and other resources, including work time.
• Regular and predictable attendance is expected.
• Frequently experiences time pressure, frequent change of tasks, performing multiple tasks simultaneously, working closely with others as part of a team.
• May occasionally tedious or exacting work.
• Rarely experiences emergency situations, irregular work schedule/overtime, noisy/distracting environment.

MACHINES, TOOLS, EQUIPMENT, SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE
Typically requires use of standard office equipment and telephone, and related software and hardware; and any other equipment as appropriate or as assigned, including PC, Servers, Printers, Scanners, Microsoft Office Suite, Outlook(email), Adobe Acrobat, IT Supported Software and Tools, Internet Browsers, SQL Server Management Studio, Report Writer Software, Help Desk Software, Tape Drives, Remote Desktop Tool.
WORK ENVIRONMENT
This work is performed in an office environment where there are no environmental or health and safety factors. The employee must wear appropriate protective equipment as apparent or assigned, if any.