Application Support Analyst

Stagecoach Group; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading UK transport company is seeking an Application Support Analyst to ensure the smooth operation and support of business-critical applications. You will collaborate with third-party vendors and internal teams to maintain high-quality service delivery. The successful candidate should have strong experience in support-related roles, a good understanding of ITIL practices, and excellent communication skills. This role involves a hybrid working policy, requiring attendance in Stockport three days a week.

Benefits

Competitive Salary

Defined contribution pension scheme

Death in Service cover

25 days holiday plus bank holidays

Travel benefits for family

Access to retail and leisure discounts

Qualifications

• Strong experience in a customer, user, or IT support role is required.
• Strong understanding of Incident, Problem, Change, and Service Level Management.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.

Responsibilities

• Monitor and manage the performance of key supported applications.
• Lead incident, service request, problem, and change management processes.
• Act as the primary point of contact for third-party vendors.

Skills

Experience in support-related role

Understanding of ITIL practices

Vendor management

Excellent communication skills

Analytical mindset

Tools

Service management tools

Job description

Salary

• Competitive Salary
• Defined contribution pension scheme with employer contribution of 6%
• Death in Service cover
• 25 days holiday plus bank holidays
• Stagecoach Bus Travel for you and the family
• Access to the Benefits for You platform with retail and leisure discounts

Who we are

Stagecoach is part of a portfolio of transport and infrastructure assets managed by DWS Infrastructure. Founded in 1980, Stagecoach is the UK’s biggest bus operator with services connecting more than 100 major towns and cities in England, Scotland and Wales. Our team of 23,000 employees are proud to serve our customers and be an integral part of their local communities.

What you’ll be doing

We are seeking a proactive and detail-oriented Application Support Analyst to join our team. This role is pivotal in ensuring the smooth operation, support, and continuous improvement of business-critical applications managed by third-party vendors. You will act as the day-to-day key liaison between internal stakeholders and external partners, ensuring high-quality service delivery, effective incident resolution, and adherence to service level agreements (SLAs).

• Monitor and manage the performance of key third-party supported applications against agreed SLAs and KPIs.
• Lead incident, service request, problem, and change management processes for those key supported systems to Stagecoach standards.
• Maintain service documentation, including support models, escalation paths, and service catalogues.
• Act as the primary point of contact for third-party vendors regarding application support and development.
• Take part in regular service review meetings with vendors to assess performance, discuss improvements, and manage risks.
• Ensure third-party compliance with contractual obligations and security standards.
• Facilitate 2nd/3rd line support for business applications, logging support tickets with vendors and escalating where appropriate.
• End User Administration and support
• Collaborate with internal teams to troubleshoot and resolve application issues.
• Support testing and deployment of application updates, patches, and enhancements.
• Action IT Audit requests
• Represent changes at the Change Approval Board
• Identify opportunities to improve service delivery and application performance, and opportunities for automation.
• Contribute to the development of support processes and knowledge base articles.
• Participate in projects involving application upgrades, migrations, or new implementations.

Skills & Experience

Essential:

• Strong experience in a support-related role – this can be a customer, user or IT support role
• Strong understanding of ITIL practices (Incident, Problem, Change, and Service Level Management).
• Experience working with third-party vendors and managing outsourced services.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Analytical mindset with strong problem-solving abilities.

Desirable:

• Proven experience in an application support or service management role.
• ITIL Foundation certification.
• Experience with service management tools.
• Familiarity with the supported systems (AVL, Tracs/Cast, Ticket Machines, Siri Feeds, Horizon, eo5/eo6, EPM) and vendors (Vix, EP Morris)

We are operating a hybrid working policy. The successful candidate will be required to attend 3 days per week at our offices in Stockport.

Stagecoach is proudly an inclusive employer, striving for a culture where everyone can be themselves and where all the differences people bring are truly appreciated. We welcome applications from all, irrespective of gender, ethnicity, race, religion, beliefs, disability, neurodiversity, sexual orientation, or age.

Location:

Stagecoach Shared Service Centre One Exchange, 20 Railway Road Stockport SK1 3SW