Technical Application Analyst IV - Lead

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

Job Overview

We’re always looking for bright individuals to join our growing organization. As a part of the First Financial Family, we will invest in your development and provide a dynamic work environment where you’re challenged, valued and empowered every day.

Office Location: Abilene, Texas, United States. This is an in‑office position.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical ownership for day‑to‑day oversight of the technical application team and assigned application portfolio.
• Direct daily production support activities, coordinate workload and escalation management, and ensure the stability, security, performance, and supportability of enterprise and banking applications.
• Provide expert‑level support for complex incidents, conduct root cause analysis and corrective action planning.
• Partner with business units, vendors, infrastructure, cybersecurity, and project teams to deliver resilient and compliant application services.
• Lead operational readiness for upgrades, releases, conversions, integrations, and business continuity activities.
• Mentor analysts and promote service quality, documentation discipline, and process improvement.
• Co‑coordinate release readiness, deployment support, post‑release validation, and production handoff activities.
• Support application upgrades, conversions, integrations, data mapping, reconciliation, and acquired institution or platform transition efforts.
• Clarify requirements with business units, assess production support impacts, and align technical support practices with operational priorities.
• Coordinate vendor support, issue escalation, maintenance planning, defect remediation, and service review activities.
• Ensure adherence to incident, problem, change, release, access, and operational risk management practices consistent with ITIL and internal governance standards.
• Maintain runbooks, support procedures, support diagrams, configuration records, knowledge articles, and technical documentation.
• Track and communicate application service risks, recurring issues, support metrics, backlog status, and operational trends to leadership and stakeholders.
• Provide coaching, mentoring, and technical direction to Technical Application Analysts I–III.
• Support audit, exam, disaster recovery, business continuity, vulnerability remediation, and control evidence activities.
• Participate in after‑hours support, weekend releases, incident response, and recovery activities when required.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Information Systems, or related field (or equivalent combination of education and directly relevant experience).
• Advanced‑level experience supporting applications and production systems, typically 10+ years.
• Demonstrated senior or lead‑level experience coordinating support activities, mentoring analysts, and guiding technical issue resolution across complex application portfolios.
• Preferred certifications: ITIL, PMP or CAPM, Security+, database, cloud, or platform‑specific certifications aligned to supported systems.
• Expert‑level SQL skills, including complex data analysis, query optimization, troubleshooting, reconciliation, and performance review across relational databases.
• Experience supporting enterprise and banking applications, including core banking, loan, deposit, treasury, digital, and integrated business systems.
• Strong working knowledge of application architecture, integration patterns, APIs, middleware, batch processing, scheduling, and multi‑tier system dependencies.
• Hands‑on experience with enterprise databases and platforms such as PostgreSQL, Oracle, DB2, SQL Server, Java, .NET, and related ecosystems.
• Experience with messaging and integration technologies such as IBM MQ, RabbitMQ, or similar middleware and event‑driven support models.
• Advanced knowledge of monitoring and observability tools such as Splunk, Dynatrace, AppDynamics, Prometheus, Grafana, Wireshark, Lansweeper, or comparable platforms.
• Strong experience leading production incident response, root cause analysis, change coordination, release support, and service restoration activities.
• Strong understanding of ITIL‑aligned service management practices, including incident, problem, change, request, and service level management.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience leading technical application teams or providing day‑to‑day oversight of analyst workload, queue management, and operational performance.
• Experience supporting financial services, transaction‑based, or compliance‑driven environments with strong auditability, resiliency, and control execution.
• Experience with application conversions, acquisitions, data migration, mapping validation, and cutover support activities.
• Experience with cloud‑enabled environments, automation, scripting, and CI/CD or deployment support practices.
• Ability to establish support standards, drive service improvement initiatives, and use metrics to improve mean time to resolve, stability, and support quality.
• Strong vendor management, stakeholder communication, and cross‑functional coordination skills across operations, infrastructure, development, and security teams.
• Demonstrated ability to develop analysts, assign work effectively, and maintain documentation, support readiness, and knowledge transfer standards.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Equal Opportunity Employer / Protected Veterans / Individuals with Disabilities. The contractor will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor’s legal duty to furnish information. 41CFR60‑1.35(c)