Production Support and QA Specialist

Agile Resources, Inc.; United States; Remote; USD 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading consulting firm is seeking a Production Support & QA Specialist for a remote role focused on ensuring mission-critical system stability and release quality. The ideal candidate will have over 5 years of experience in DevOps or IT Operations, with strong skills in incident response and quality assurance. Responsibilities include Tier 2 support, incident management, and leading deployments. This is a contract role with opportunities for permanent employment.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in Production Support, DevOps, or IT Operations.
• Strong hands-on experience supporting live, mission-critical systems.
• Demonstrated experience with incident response, RCA, and change management.

Responsibilities

• Provide Tier 2 / Tier 3 production support for critical applications.
• Lead incident response efforts and perform root cause analysis.
• Serve as a QA gatekeeper prior to production releases.

Skills

Production Support

DevOps

Incident Response

Quality Assurance

Troubleshooting

ITIL Practices

Job description

Overview

Production Support & QA Specialist role with Agile Resources, Inc. on a 1+ year contract with potential for FTE conversion. 100% Remote anywhere in the United States.

This role is a DevOps-focused position supporting mission-critical production systems. It serves as an operational gatekeeper, ensuring system stability, release quality, and reliable production operations across applications and platforms. You will play a hands-on role in incident management, quality validation, deployments, and change control while partnering closely with engineering, DevOps, infrastructure, and vendor teams.

What You’ll Do

Production Support & Operations

• Provide Tier 2 / Tier 3 production support for critical applications and integrations, ensuring high availability and rapid issue resolution
• Act as an escalation point for complex incidents, performing advanced troubleshooting across application, infrastructure, and vendor layers
• Lead incident response efforts, including triage, severity assessment, coordination, and resolution
• Perform root cause analysis (RCA) and document corrective and preventive actions
• Manage ticket and case workflows to ensure proper prioritization, escalation, and SLA adherence
• Support production environments during releases, planned maintenance, and emergency fixes
• Perform user access provisioning and deprovisioning in alignment with security and audit requirements

Quality Assurance, Deployment & Change Management

• Serve as a QA gatekeeper prior to production releases, validating readiness, test results, and operational criteria
• Review and approve release artifacts, deployment plans, and rollback strategies
• Provide deployment oversight, including real-time monitoring and post-deployment verification
• Participate in Change Control Board (CCB) activities, including risk assessment and post-implementation reviews
• Ensure adherence to ITIL-based change management processes and documentation standards

Monitoring, Reliability & Performance

• Monitor production systems using logging, alerting, and observability tools
• Oversee batch jobs and scheduled processes, investigating failures as needed
• Track certificate lifecycles and coordinate renewals to prevent outages
• Monitor vendor releases and patches, assessing impact and coordinating upgrades
• Track and report operational metrics such as availability, incident trends, performance, and capacity
• Analyze recurring issues to drive proactive improvements and improve system reliability

Communication & Documentation

• Serve as a primary communication point during incidents, outages, and maintenance windows
• Translate technical issues into clear updates for business and leadership stakeholders
• Create and maintain runbooks, SOPs, troubleshooting guides, and operational documentation
• Ensure documentation remains accurate, current, and audit-ready

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in Production Support, DevOps, or IT Operations
• Strong hands-on experience supporting live, mission-critical systems
• Demonstrated experience with incident response, RCA, and change management
• Software testing / QA experience, including functional, regression, and integration testing
• Experience validating fixes and releases prior to production deployment
• Detail-oriented problem solver with a structured troubleshooting approach
• Clear and confident communicator during incidents and escalations
• Strong documentation and reporting skills
• Working knowledge of ITIL practices (Incident, Change, and Problem Management)

Preferred Qualifications

• QA or software testing certification (e.g., CTFL, CSTE, CSQA, or equivalent)
• Experience supporting high-availability or regulated production environments
• Familiarity with DevOps or SRE practices, including CI/CD and observability
• ITIL certification

Employment type

• Contract

Seniority level

• Mid-Senior level