Associate Systems Specialist - Middleware Applications

“Want to know what it’s like to work in IT at The Home Depot?”

POSITION PURPOSE –

Do you enjoy being in the middle of it all and making a real and tangible difference every day / every hour as part of a 24 x Forever organization? We are the tip of the spear; we are the first in, and the last out. We are the IT Operations Command Center (OCC) for The Home Depot. Come join us and live the Orange Life values.

The Associate Systems Specialist - Middleware Applications, will work with Level 2 and other team members to support production environments across the Home Depot enterprise. You will be a part of a 24 x Forever IT Operations team, serving to ensure IT service levels are met in an exciting, fast-paced retail environment. The ideal candidate for this position will have a strong conceptual knowledge of retail supply chain business process and technology, as well as the ability to work with subject matter experts in both the business and technology. You will be part of a successful and growing operations organization that puts customers first, delivering on commitments, leveraging the latest technology, with a continuous improvement focus.
 

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS –

A bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Systems Engineering or related field; Master’s degree or additional certification is preferred

2+ years of experience in the technical areas below

Experience supporting a 24x7 production environment in a large Operations setting

ITIL v3.0 certification or equivalent experience

Required Technical Skills:

System Administration: Unix System Administration fundamentals, experience in other operating systems and the following applications listed below:

Operating Systems: RHEL (Linux), AIX or Windows, VMWare

Infrastructure/Application Skills: Active MQ and Websphere MQ messaging services, Apache Tomcat, ECM/Documentum content repositories, IBM Business Process Manager (BPM), SAP/XI, WTX

System Tools: TWS/Maestro, ServiceNow, Splunk, Netcool, App Dynamics

Roles and Responsibilities:

Ability to troubleshoot production issues in a timely manner, involving integrated support of middleware and application components in IT Operations Command Center

Monitor systemic alerts, tickets and dashboards to ensure all SLA’s are met

Triage or resolve user/system-generated tickets created in ServiceNow

Serve as the initial point of contact for customers during shift; effectively leverage Level 2 associates for knowledge transfer, to serve customers

Review and suggest actions for support documentation and runbooks, where appropriate to edit or retire

Maintain awareness of and experience in deployments, migrations and upgrades through a change management process

Understand role-based administration / management of users, groups, and security roles across a corporate environment

Understand and practice ITIL principles, including delivering customer support through a Service Catalog; Incident, Problem, Configuration, Change and Knowledge Management

Participate in the effective delivery of small to medium-size projects

Communicate status of issues, assigned tasks and projects in a concise, effective manner

Soft Skills:

Communicate effectively - verbally and written, technical documentation and presentation skills

Deliver excellent customer service; follow-up, follow-through, go the extra mile

Interact effectively at all levels (peer and leadership) of the organization

Display strong initiative and the ability to drive execution

Flexibility and availability in support of the 24x7/365 environment; on a rotating shift basis, and as required by our retail business

NATURE AND SCOPE - 

Position Reports to: IT Supervisor No direct responsibility for supervising others.

ENVIRONMENTAL JOB REQUIREMENTS –

Under regular pressure to meet deadlines, quotas and/or must frequently deal with difficult issues related to people or situations.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS –

EDUCATION REQUIRED -

The knowledge, skills and abilities typically acquired through the completion of a high school diplomas and/or GED.

YEARS OF RELEVANT WORK EXPERIENCE - 02

PHYSICAL JOB REQUIREMENTS –

Most of the time is spent sitting in a comfortable position and there is frequent opportunity to move about. On rare occasions there may be a need to move or lift light articles.

MAJOR TASKS, RESPONSIBILITIES AND KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES –

20%: Investigate, diagnoses, and takes prescribed actions on all operational events, alarms and incidents escalated from level 1 support technicians based on mean time to recover service levels and incident severity.

10%: Participates on business impacting incidents and problem management (high number of repeat incidents) support activities with the main goal of assisting in the diagnostics of the error logs in order to recover services quickly.

20%: Develop, implements and operate all network\system infrastructure and procedures; Perform scheduled Preventive maintenance such as (file system cleanup, rack realignment, support tools client upgrades, backup job failure remediation.

10%: Ensure that all routine maintenance tasks (security patch management, firmware updates, etc.) are completed on all operational infrastructures.

10%:Monitor and manage batch schedules to ensure service levels is being delivered on a daily basis Maintains all operational documentation, processes, and (management and diagnostic) tools ensuring that spares are maintained at the agreed service

10%: Ensures that all infrastructure equipment is maintained according to policies and recommendations and perform regular checks on infrastructure.

10%: Develop automation tools using standard scripting languages Powershell(Windows), Kornshell (Linux), TcL (Cisco) and REXX(MVS) to improve stability and increase efficiency of system

10%: Implement Low Impact infrastructure\application changes such as upgrades and patching of operating systems and non-business critical applications.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, ABILITIES AND COMPETENCIES –

Maintaining a high degree of technical competence and knowledge that involves the understanding of concepts and facilities utilized in support of computer and network systems. Ability to communicate effectively with all levels of personnel, both verbally and in writing. Ability to quickly analyze and resolve systems problems as they occur. Ability to utilize operational experience and knowledge to effectively write methods, standards and procedures in a clear and concise manner to ensure ease of use. Ability to verbally communicate with all levels of associates within the organizations.