Manager, Production Support at 9Mobile

Job Summary           

• Responsible for facilitating collaborative communications across product and solution implementation teams that are cross-functional and dispersed across multiple partner organisations.
• Manage the entire IT production support staff and provide leadership to other applications systems team members in the enhancement and maintenance of application systems relating to production support activities, including integrated software and hardware configurations.
• Accountable for organizing, directing and monitoring staff work assignments,training and coaching, resolution of reported defects as well as the completion of administrative requirements.
• Liaise with all relevant teams to assess solution and/or product adoption and overall user experience.    

Principal Functions         

• Provide leadership in developing, implementing and maintaining departmental processes, identifying and resolving departmental issues, and directing, guiding and supporting the staff in the performance of their responsibilities;
• Develop and continually refine the production support procedures;
• Define and manage scope, budget, schedules, priorities and risk across multiple projects/tasks.
• Develop escalation matrix for Mobile Software Application Providers and Aggregators.
• Manage the day-to-day activities of the production support staff that provide analysis and definition of efficient, cost effective solutions to reported defects;
• Liaise with product / solution design and implementation teams with learning, observations and escalate defects that require a structural change to design.
• Discuss all production support aspects with application development team;
• Focal point for critical / high impact resolution of defects in products and other solutions in scope.
• Co-ordinate escalation and resolution of major product and service issues;
• Responsible for managing the production support environment and contribute to defining the requirements for other application environments;
• Contribute to the analysis of business process and functional requirements. Review and validate documentation and product/solution specifications;
• Assign work, set individual performance objectives for team members;
• Monitor and control progress through continuous assessment and feedback;
• Ensure the effective coordination of work activities and objectives with other internal departments as required;
• Interact with infrastructure, release management,change management, QA, DBA and application development teams to ensure that the application environments are fit for purpose;
• Prioritize issues raised and schedule resources to resolve accordingly (ensure appropriate on-call support).
• Track the utilization of resources (time and material) across tasks and strive for continuous improvements;
• Provide input into the development of the department budget.
• Manage budget and control expenses while meeting service requirements;
• Develop and maintain good relations with the business community and the outsourced service providers.
• Manage all collaborators to agreed SLA;
• Monitor post production performance trends and develop Service Improvement Plans.
• Ensure availability of SOP manuals for 3rd party products and services.
• Communicate fix status and performance metrics to the relevant teams and management in relation to production support;
• Escalate areas needing support timely;
• Carry out other activities as instructed by the line manager.

Educational Requirements       

• First degree or equivalent in Computer Science/IT, or a related or relevant discipline;

Experience, Skills & Competencies       

• 6 to 8 years post-NYSC experience in all phases of application software development, solution architecting, infrastructure and solutions/maintenance life cycles in an enterprise environment. Solid knowledge of solution development alternatives;
• Previous supervisory role (1-3 years) in solution development,full-stack development and/or infrastructure lead experience required.  Solid knowledge and experience of DevOps, agile delivery and related or similar paradigms desirable;
• Demonstrable knowledge of the Intelligent Network platforms (or similar)in use at Etisalat Nigeria, VAS, protocols and technologies are strong requirements;
• Strong ability to facilitate collaborative communications.
• Well-developed business communications skill (verbal and written), team player, change agent, excellent project management skills, good scheduling, planning and risk awareness and the ability to drive performance within cross-functional team;
• Strong leadership, critical thinking and analysis, verbal and written communications skills and proven ability to manage teams that are cross-functional and dispersed across multiple partner organisations;
• Strong influencing, planning and relationship management skills.