The Application Analyst role is to provide stewardship of the application by delivering support to end users on how to effectively use the application in fulfilling business objectives. This includes providing application subject matter expertise; providing 3rd tier support for troubleshooting applications issues for all internal/external customers, assisting with prioritization and resolution of defects / bugs and changes to the application.  Provide mentoring and guidance to lower level Application Systems Analyst when opportunities or situation arise.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Incident Response
• Provide 3rd tier support; review incoming incident tickets from internal/external end users and the Help Desk; quickly diagnose and assign relevant issues for further development or escalation to internal and 3rd party partners.
• Participate in on-call rotation for after-hours emergencies, engage internal and 3rd party support teams to triage and resolve issues.
  • Perform Incident Investigations for low-level or complex incidents; provide reporting, incident summary and resolution to impacted internal/external and 3rd party partners.
• Application Maintenance
• Provide subject matter expertise and testing support to internal/external and 3rd party resources for complex incident, maintenance and project changes related to assigned applications.
• Coordinate development, testing and implementation of changes for low-level incident and maintenance requests related to assigned applications; including post-resolution follow-up with impacted parties to ensure issue(s) have been adequately resolved.
• Document and track end user application issues, including issue summary, proposed and approved solutions, implementation details, as well as Business and 3rd party approvals, through to final resolution.
• Provide timely and concise communication regarding application errors, incidents, maintenance and project changes to key stakeholders, including management, business partners and applicable 3rd party participants.
• Complete internal/external and 3rd party user access/entitlement requests as applicable for assigned applications.
• Participate in validation of monthly patches and enterprise changes as applicable for assigned applications.
• Documentation Development
• Monitor and maintain application KPI’s and identify trends or problems (as defined under ITIL).
• Assist in ad hoc report creation for the purpose of providing users with information customized to specific business needs.
• Third party vendor liaise
• Liaise with 3rd party partners and internal infrastructure teams in order to resolve server / database / network / middleware / job scheduling and related issues.
• Help organize and facilitate weekly meetings with business and vendor regarding issue/enhancement or related work items.
• Application Management
• Provide superior customer service skills, with the ability to work with all levels within the organization.
• Develop and maintain application support plan, working with all support teams and 3rd party vendors to maintain application stability.
• Maintain SharePoint application site.
• Work with business users to understand and document priorities and schedule all instances where enhancements and defect resolution are required.
• Perform as a subject matter expert on assigned application’s functionality; how it is used by the end users, how it interfaces with other supported systems, and supported by the organization.
• Manage change control implementations for designated applications and impacted systems.
• Liaise with both IT Project Management and Business Project Management during implementation or upgrades for said application. 
• Execute feedback mechanisms for end users. Analyze results, make recommendations for support process improvement, and help implement changes.

REQUIREMENTS:

• College diploma or Bachelor’s degree in the Computer sciences, Information Systems, and/or 5 years equivalent work experience.
• In-depth, hands-on knowledge of and experience with enterprise desktop and web based applications, including Browsers, MS Office, GUI based applications.
• Proven experience with troubleshooting principles, methodologies, and issue resolution techniques.
• Able to develop and interpret technical documentation for training and end user procedures.
• Knowledge of trends in technology relating to software applications.
• Experience with maintaining databases or logs for problem tracking.
• Good understanding of the organization’s goals and objectives.
• Highly self-motivated and directed.
• Experience in monitoring of service thresholds and managing third party applications and systems.
• Good analytical and problem-solving abilities.
• Ability to effectively prioritize and execute tasks in a high-pressure environment.
• Ability to conduct research into application work-flows, as well as technical application issues.
• Very strong customer service orientation.
• Excellent written, oral, interpersonal, and presentational skills.
• Experience working in a team-oriented, collaborative environment.

PREFERRED:

• Enhanced knowledge of asset management industry, operations and trading systems.
• Enhanced knowledge of Waddell & Reed products and services supported by assigned applications.
• Knowledge of programming languages/scripting and techniques including (SQL, Visual Basic, R, etc.)
• Experience with database functionality and or log interrogation for issues tracking.
• Knowledge and experience with standard incident response processes and procedures.

Required Skills Required Experience