Senior Applications Functional Specialist

Essence Coaching Group; Pretoria; On-site; ZAR 935 000 - 1 100 000; Full time

Job summary

A leading organisation is seeking a Senior Applications Functional Specialist to drive a team responsible for functional support, testing, analysis, configuration, and continuous improvement of business applications. The role involves strong leadership, client engagement, and solution design within an onsite capacity in Pretoria, Gauteng. Candidates should have an Honours degree and 8-10 years in relevant experience with a focus on quality assurance and business optimisation.

Qualifications

• 8-10 years of experience in application support or software implementation.
• Strong experience in functional and business analysis.
• Confident communicator with stakeholder-management experience.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team providing functional support for business applications.
• Guide functional analysis initiatives and oversee cross-functional projects.
• Manage client engagements and build strong relationships.

Skills

Business and industry awareness

Quality assurance

Continuous improvement

Business transformation and optimisation

Elicitation techniques

Business analysis methodologies and tools

Testing and realisation practices

IT domain management

Education

Honours degree (NQF 8) in Business Administration, Computer Science, or Information Technology

Job description

Senior Applications Functional Specialist

Location: Pretoria, Gauteng
Job Type: Full-Time, Onsite
Annual Salary: ZAR 1,100,000 gross

Overview

A leading organisation is seeking a Senior Applications Functional Specialist to drive and manage a team responsible for functional support, testing, analysis, configuration, and continuous improvement of business applications. This role involves leadership, client engagement, solution design, and end-to-end functional support.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead a team providing functional support for business applications, including testing, analysis, configuration, and system setup.

• Guide functional analysis initiatives and oversee cross‑functional projects, including multi‑year programs.

• Manage client engagements, ensuring strong relationship building and continuous communication.

• Collaborate with business owners to define requirements, identify optimisation opportunities, and propose solutions.

• Support architects in developing business architecture, frameworks, and implementation roadmaps.

• Manage change requirements, specifications, and user acceptance testing.

• Provide expert input to project management, systems development, quality management, and change management teams.

• Apply industry best practices to improve business processes and workflows.

• Identify and manage risks within assigned functional streams.

• Develop training manuals, training plans, and deliver training sessions for new initiatives.

• Configure advanced business processes within systems to enhance functionality and provide specialist support.

• Ensure quality assurance of all work produced by application functional specialists.

Requirements

• Honours degree (NQF 8) in Business Administration, Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field.

• 8‑10 years of experience in application support, business analysis, project environments, or software implementation.

• Strong experience in functional and business analysis and supporting application implementations.

• Knowledge and skills in:

  • Business and industry awareness

  • Quality assurance

  • Continuous improvement

  • Business transformation and optimisation

  • Elicitation techniques

  • Business analysis methodologies and tools

  • Testing and realisation practices

  • IT domain management

Ideal Candidate Profile

• Strong leadership capabilities

• Excellent analytical and problem‑solving skills

• Confident communicator with stakeholder‑management experience

• Ability to manage large, complex functional environments

• Highly organised, detail‑oriented, and focused on quality