Applications Engineer

Baker McKenzie; Metro Manila; On-site; PHP 600,000 - 1,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Baker McKenzie in Manila seeks an Applications Engineer, People Solutions, to support, maintain and enhance our HR, talent, learning, payroll and related people technology solutions.

You will collaborate with Product, Portfolio and Technology teams to deliver reliable, secure, and well-governed applications, resolve incidents, support upgrades, and contribute to continuous improvement across the People Solutions portfolio.

Qualifications

• Degree or equivalent experience in Information Technology or related fields.
• Experience supporting business applications in an enterprise environment, ideally HR/people systems.
• Strong understanding of ITSM processes (incident, problem, change) and service management.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical and functional support for People Solutions apps across HR, payroll, learning, and talent systems.
• Own incidents and problems, driving resolution through ITSM workflows.
• Monitor performance, trends and incidents to improve reliability and reduce repeats.
• Assist upgrades, releases, configuration changes, and assess operational impact.
• Contribute to rationalization, lifecycle management and continuous improvement.
• Support projects with technical input, testing and post-go-live stabilization.
• Submit and manage Demands via ServiceNow; build business cases.
• Develop and maintain runbooks, knowledge articles and training materials.
• Share knowledge with Help Desk and on-site teams to improve resolution capability.
• Collaborate with vendors and MSPs on issues, roadmaps, deployments and security.
• Coordinate with Platform, Security and Change teams on deployments and governance.
• Report on service status, risks and opportunities for improvement.
• Support governance, information security and data protection procedures.
• Initiate security reviews and remediate findings.
• Keep knowledge current on HR tech, SaaS, integrations, AI and app support practices.

Skills

Incident management

Problem management

Change management

ServiceNow

SaaS applications

Vendor management

APIs integration

Analytical skills

Communication skills

Education

Degree in IT/CS/Business Systems/HR tech

Tools

ServiceNow

Job description

The Applications Engineer, People Solutions, will support, maintain and enhance the Firm’s People Solutions portfolio, ensuring applications are reliable, secure, well-governed and aligned to business needs. The role provides technical and functional expertise across HR, talent, learning, recruitment, payroll and related people technology solutions, resolving incidents and problems, supporting upgrades and enhancements, maintaining documentation, and working closely with product, business, vendor and Technology teams to continuously improve service quality and application performance.

Main responsibilities:

• Provide technical and functional support for People Solutions applications, acting as an escalation point for urgent, complex or high-impact issues across the portfolio.
• Take ownership of assigned incidents and problems, manage them through the Firm’s IT service management processes and tools, and see them through to timely resolution.
• Monitor application performance, service trends and incident patterns to identify root causes, improve reliability and reduce repeat issues.
• Support application upgrades, releases, configuration changes and enhancements, assessing operational impact and coordinating with Product Managers, Portfolio Managers and other Technology teams.
• Contribute to system rationalization, lifecycle management and continuous improvement plans so that applications remain fit for purpose, supportable and aligned to Firm priorities.
• Support projects and change activity by providing application knowledge, technical analysis, testing input, implementation support and post-go-live stabilization.
• Submit and manage Demands via the Firm’s established process within ServiceNow. Develop business cases and liaise with ITLT throughout the process.
• Develop and maintain support documentation, knowledge articles, operational runbooks, support plans, training materials and best-practice guidance for managed applications.
• Provide knowledge transfer and guidance to Technology Help Desk, on-site teams and other support groups to improve first-line and second-line resolution capability.
• Work with vendors and managed service providers to investigate issues, manage escalations, track service performance and support roadmap, upgrade and maintenance activity.
• Collaborate with Platform, Security, Technical Change, Software Engineering and other Technology teams on deployments, security assessments, RFC submissions, access management and operational readiness.
• Understand how business teams use applications across the portfolio, monitor licensing and usage, and provide clear reporting on service status, risks, issues and opportunities for improvement.
• Support system governance, compliance, information security and business continuity procedures in line with Firm policies, including access review, audit, data protection and vendor risk requirements.
• Initiate vendor and application security reviews within the Firm’s established procedures. Follow security reviews to completion including the remediation of risk findings.
• Keep knowledge current across relevant HR technology, SaaS platforms, integrations, automation, service management, Artificial Intelligence, and application support practices.

Skills and experience:

• Degree, diploma or equivalent experience in Information Technology, Computer Science, Business Systems, HR technology or a related discipline.
• Experience su pporting business applications in an enterprise environment, ideally including HR, payroll, recruitment, learning, talent or people systems.
• Strong understanding of application support, incident management, problem management, change management and service management processes, preferably using ServiceNow or a similar ITSM tool.
• Experience with SaaS applications, vendor-managed platforms and cloud-based application support models.
• Awareness of application integrations, APIs, SFTP, middleware, SSO, identity and access management, and data flows between enterprise systems.
• Ability to troubleshoot client-server, web-based and cloud application issues, working with internal Technology teams and external vendors to identify and resolve root causes.
• Good analytical skills, including the ability to gather facts, assess evidence, identify options and make practical recommendations.
• Ability to translate functional issues, service requests and business questions into clear application support actions or solution options.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain technical information clearly to business stakeholders, vendors and Technology colleagues.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities, work independently and collaborate effectively as part of a global, matrixed team.
• Knowledge of People systems, SuccessFactors, Avature, payroll platforms, learning systems, ServiceNow, security assessment processes or application governance would be advantageous.

Reports to: Portfolio Manager, People Solutions