Senior Technical Support Specialist 1

City of Toronto; Toronto; On-site; CAD 60,000 - 95,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a Senior Technical Support Specialist to lead innovative projects in application system support. This role involves overseeing hardware and software projects, ensuring seamless integration across enterprise systems, and providing expert guidance on technical solutions. With a focus on collaboration and continuous improvement, you will work with diverse teams to enhance operational efficiency and implement best practices in system administration. If you are passionate about technology and thrive in a dynamic environment, this opportunity is perfect for you to make a significant impact and drive positive change within the organization.

Qualifications

• Experience in solution design for application platforms with modern technologies.
• Strong background in system development lifecycle and capacity planning.

Responsibilities

• Lead hardware/software projects and provide application system support.
• Supervise project staff and manage project operations.

Skills

Solution Design

Data Analysis

Problem Solving

Project Management

Communication Skills

Customer Service

Education

Post Secondary Education in Computer Science

Equivalent Combination of Education/Experience

Tools

JIRA

ServiceNow

Oracle Database

MS SQLServer

Active Directory

Apache

Job description

Job Type & Duration: Permanent, Full-Time

Shift Information: Monday to Friday, 35 hours per week

Affiliation: Non-Union

Number of Positions Open: 1

Posting Period: 27-Jan-2025 to 10-Feb-2025

Reporting to the Business Applications Services Manager, you will lead Weigh Scale solution-related hardware and software projects, upgrades and daily application system support residing on MS Windows/ LINUX/ SQLServer/ Oracle platforms in various pre-production and production environments. Support includes integrating application systems to other enterprise systems in the City and various divisional data sources. You will lead the core support team and project teams comprised of other divisions and Technology Service Delivery units, providing application system technical administration, consulting and related business solution implementation and sustainment support. The core support team also contributes to standards, procedures and guidelines (best practices) related to application system administration, system operation and change management within the corporate framework.

Major Responsibilities:

• Designs, architects, analyzes and implements detailed plans and recommends policies/procedures regarding program specific requirements.
• Supervises, motivates and trains assigned cross divisional project staff, ensuring effective teamwork, high standards of work quality and organizational performance, continuous learning and encourages innovation in others.
• Supervises the day to day project operation of all assigned staff including the scheduling, assigning and reviewing of work. Authorizes and co-ordinates vacation and overtime requests. Monitors and evaluates staff performance, salary increments, hears grievances and recommends disciplinary action when necessary.
• Provides input into and administers assigned budget, ensuring that expenditures are controlled and maintained within approved budget limitations.
• Provides advice and consultation to business users and other technical staff to determine requirements, research on solutions, evaluate alternatives, and to recommend policies, data integration, data security, network infrastructure, common software required, and the final product acquisition.
• Leads technical project teams comprised of members from other department and/or sections of the division, to determine requirements, research, evaluate, develop and/or acquire, implement and provide technical support for enterprise software products to support business requirements.
• Provides senior level support of the enterprise software and hardware installation, upgrades, configuration, account management, security administration, capacity planning and performance tuning.
• Performs hardware, software, appliance and related tools installation, configuration, maintenance and upgrades. Also, performs account management, system monitoring and security services on the systems. This includes the creation of City wide policies and standards, and enforcement of the standards relating to users account creation and the access permissions for the users.
• Provide enterprise wide backup and disaster recovery services to meet the business recovery requirements. Responsible for the capacity planning, security measurement, and performance tuning of the overall infrastructure, including Internet, Intranet and Extranet environments.
• Develops, manages and reports on detailed project plans. Ensures effective corporate standard system security and internal processing controls (audit controls) are maintained.
• Impacts change management for both hardware and software, and manages vendor relations in the case of external hardware, systems software, network and/or service acquisitions. Provides risk assessment and its potential impact on enterprise systems and users.
• Ensures timeliness and completion of corporate projects by providing project management and project planning. Influences project scope, monitors critical success factors, co-ordinates projects resources and reports on project milestones/deliverables.
• Leads in the preparation of Request for Proposal (RFP), Request for Quotation (RFQ), and Request for Information (RFI) and participates in the evaluation and selection of technical solutions.
• Establishes City wide standards related to the operability and high availability of corporate data center software/hardware products through the identification and resolution of service or performance problems and initiates changes to enhance problem avoidance.
• Reviews, evaluates, recommends and comments on emerging technologies and business innovation for improving service, reducing costs and enhancing efficiency on internal service improvement, cost efficiencies to the public.
• Works with highly confidential information; available 7x 24 while on-call to respond to critical page alerts.
• Develops technical criteria of the overall mass storage and storage area networks (SAN) to meet the open systems storage requirements of the corporate consolidated data centre.

Key Qualifications:

Your application for the role of Senior Technical Support Specialist 1 must describe your qualifications as they relate to:

• Post secondary education in Computer Science or a related discipline, or an approved equivalent combination of education and/or experience.
• Considerable experience in solution design for various application platforms, including Compugen Weight Scale System(Paradigm), with a strong focus on using modern technologies, such as Web-services, REST, and JSON, as well as managing release cycles.
• Experience in the installation, configuration, administration, support, maintenance and monitoring of application systems and related peripherals (e.g., printers, readers, cameras, barcode, RFID, kiosk, etc.).
• Extensive experience in all stages of the system development lifecycle, utilizing an enterprise architecture approach and system development methodologies.
• Experience in capacity planning, system monitoring, performance tuning and problem determination for a complex IT landscape in a large, diverse computing and telecommunication environment.
• Experience in data analysis, database design, SQL programming, reporting, performance tuning and administration with SQLServer and/or Oracle.
• Extensive experience and knowledge in Desktop-related hardware and software, including client endpoint computing devices, Operating systems, Productivity software and related configurations.
• Experience using some of the following or equivalent tools and methodologies: Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL), Bates Project Management Methodology (PMBOK compliant), JIRA, ServiceNow, Java Enterprise Edition, Oracle Database, Active Directory, Crystal Report, Novell eDirectory, MS Server, MS .Net, MS SQLServer, MS IIS, MS SharePoint, MS Mobile Device Management, Apache, Citrix and HP Testing Suite.
• Experience with and working knowledge of high-availability and clustering products, including LINUX/Windows/UNIX server products and Oracle/SQLServer database products, is an asset.
• Demonstrated business acumen and a high level of expertise using communication, problem-solving, negotiation and conflict resolution and facilitation skills with a variety of audiences to achieve the desired results within critical timeframes.
• Strong written and oral communication skills, including presenting and composing written documents appropriate for clients.
• Strong customer service orientation along with a demonstrated ability to establish and maintain effective stakeholder relationships.
• Excellent problem-solving, leadership, facilitation and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to work effectively as a team member, collaboratively in a multidisciplinary team environment and independently, as required.
• Must possess and maintain a valid Province of Ontario, Class “G” Driver’s License and must have daily access to a fully insured and licensed vehicle for on-the-job use.
• Advanced time management and estimation capabilities and ability to perform several tasks and projects concurrently.
• Ability to develop, maintain and execute both test plans and disaster recovery plans.
• Ability to work flexible hours, including days, afternoons, nights and weekends, as required.
• Ability to be on-call for support of production systems, as required.
• Familiarity with government legislation in the area of Occupational Health and Safety, AODA.

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

The City is an equal opportunity employer, dedicated to creating a workplace culture of inclusiveness that reflects the diverse residents that we serve. Learn more about the City’s commitment to employment equity.