Lead Technical Applications Engineer - Banking Systems

First Technology Services, Inc.; United States; On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

First Financial in Abilene, Texas is seeking a Senior Principal IT Application Support Manager to lead the technical application team and ensure enterprise banking applications run securely and efficiently. You will coordinate incident response, drive continuous improvement, and collaborate with business units, vendors, and cybersecurity to deliver resilient services.

The role requires 10+ years in production support, ITIL/ITSM familiarity, and strong SQL and database skills across PostgreSQL,

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in IT, CS, IS, or related field (or equivalent).
• Advanced experience supporting applications and production systems, typically 10+ years.
• Proven senior or lead-level experience coordinating support activities and mentoring analysts.
• Preferred ITIL, PMP or CAPM, Security+ or cloud certifications.
• Expert SQL skills with complex data analysis and performance tuning.
• Experience supporting enterprise and banking applications (core banking, loans, etc.).
• Strong knowledge of application architecture, APIs, middleware, and multi‑tier dependencies.
• Hands-on experience with major databases and platforms (PostgreSQL, Oracle, DB2, SQL Server, Java, .NET).
• Experience with messaging/integration (IBM MQ, RabbitMQ).
• Experience with monitoring/observability tools (Splunk, Dynatrace, AppDynamics, Prometheus, Grafana).

Responsibilities

• Lead day-to-day oversight of the technical application team.
• Coordinate production support, ensure stability, security, performance.
• Provide expert-level incident support and root cause analysis.
• Collaborate with vendors, cybersecurity, and project teams to deliver compliant services.
• Oversee upgrades, releases, and business continuity activities.
• Mentor analysts and promote service quality and documentation discipline.
• Coordinate release readiness and post-release validation.
• Support audits, disaster recovery, and control evidence activities.
• Participate in after-hours support and weekend releases as required.

Skills

Senior leadership

Incident response

ITIL practices

SQL skills

Cloud / CI-CD experience

Vendor management

Cross-functional coordination

Mentoring analysts

Education

Bachelor's degree in IT / CS

Tools

PostgreSQL

Oracle

DB2

SQL Server

Java

.NET

IBM MQ

RabbitMQ

Splunk

Dynatrace

AppDynamics

Prometheus

Grafana

Wireshark

Lansweeper

Job description

First Financial in Abilene, Texas is seeking a Senior Principal IT Application Support Manager to lead the technical application team and ensure enterprise banking applications run securely and efficiently. You will coordinate incident response, drive continuous improvement, and collaborate with business units, vendors, and cybersecurity to deliver resilient services.

The role requires 10+ years in production support, ITIL/ITSM familiarity, and strong SQL and database skills across PostgreSQL,