Application Lead, Office of Technology Management

Summary of Job

This role, reporting to the Senior Manager in the Office of Technology Management, is a change agent responsible for aligning strategic demands, negotiating priorities, and converting them into viable projects. He/She manages a team of application members and oversees the design, development, support, and enhancement of techno-functional solutions, managing application roadmaps and fostering cross-functional process support. Acting as a liaison between business stakeholders and IT/vendors, He/She ensures IT applications align with organisational strategies, address business needs, manage vendors and team members, optimise existing applications, and streamline new releases efficiently.

Major Job Responsibilities

1. Work as a critical part of the IT team to ensure that IT applications are deployed efficiently within the business and in line with the organisation’s IT and Business Strategy.
2. Develop and maintain strong working relationships with key internal customers at all levels to understand their business drivers. Work with internal customers to understand requirements and deliver/promote technical solutions as appropriate.
3. Apply risk management methodologies, appropriately assess risk, apply sound judgement and drive compliance to policy and applicable laws and regulations.
4. Provide expertise in the development of new and existing applications.
5. Assess the business requirements and work with the internal customers to determine critical requirements and good-to-have requirements to scope the project.
6. Liaise with vendors on issues about routine and ad-hoc maintenance, technical support and development.
7. Seek, understand, and translate business operational process needs into ‘improvement specifications’ for applications.
8. Work with other members of the IT Team to ensure that interfaces with other applications and third-party products work.
9. Work with vendors and customers to optimise existing applications to meet business needs.
10. Work with vendors and customers to implement new applications or new modules within existing applications.
11. Plan and manage the safe introduction of new releases/patches to meet service requirements.
12. Work with internal customers to develop testing and validation scripts and identify opportunities for improvement.
13. Manage delivery and SLAs by guiding incident resolution, problem management, maintenance, and enhancement tickets raised by the end users for assigned application.
14. Effectively manage the Applications team and help grow and develop their capabilities. Set and measure performance objectives and provide regular one-on-one feedback to all team members.
15. Evaluate the performance of direct reports and provide ongoing coaching and staff development.
16. Keep abreast of new developments and forecast future trends in the area of application integration in the education industry Project Management and Business Process Re-engineering.
17. Elicit, prescribe, and document functional/technical requirements that meet the business needs for processes covered by SMS, EBMS, SAP, eProcurement, HRIS and other assigned application platforms (new build or upgrade).
18. Plan and implement application projects according to business requirements within time and budget. Ensure the applications and the associated databases follow the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC)/Agile Methodology.
19. Participate in blueprinting and requirement prescribing phases.
20. Serve as subject matter expert (SME) for SMS and EBMS enhancements and functional/technical solutions related to all business functions.
21. Provide functional and technical support.
22. Develop and manage inbound/outbound interfaces to synchronise data between SAP and other third-party systems.
23. Manage system upgrade requests and releases with standard processes.
24. Responsible for logging and following the helpdesk tickets till closure.
25. Work with other IT members in areas such as infrastructure and cyber security.

Others

1. Support school-wide events and key activities.
2. Adhere to SOTA’s prevailing policies and procedures.
3. Accept any other duties as assigned by the Reporting Officer or Management of the School.

Job Requirements (Education, Experience and Knowledge/Skills)

Education
Degree in Computer Science/Information Technology/Engineering
Student Management Systems (SMS), EBMS SAP – FICO, MM, SD will be an advantage.

Experience
3 to 5 years experience in functional, technical solution design, development documentation and implementation cycle.
Experience in Application Management, Project Management & Business Process Re-engineering.
Good experience in development technologies.
Familiar with API and Web services.
Capable of managing multiple priorities and meeting closely spaced, ambitious timelines.
Ability to manage vendors.

Knowledge/Skills
Knowledge of ERP, SMS.
Project Management, Problem Solving skills.
Strong troubleshooting skills.
Good Writing skills.
Good interpersonal and communication skills.
High levels of drive and initiative and keen eyes in detail.
Team player, customer service oriented.
Strong domain/functional knowledge in Student Management will be an advantage.