Application Lead

Company
About Xchanging Xchanging is a business process and technology services provider and integrator. Listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE:XCH), we have over 7,500 employees in ten countries, providing services to customers in 48 countries. We specialise in Insurance, Financial Services, Technology and Procurement, with processing skills and capabilities applicable to other vertical industry and market sectors.

The Role
Reporting to the ITC Systems Manager, the ITC Application Lead will have overall responsibility for the integrity of the applications in their remit, ensuring Production availability, adherence to appropriate SLAs and the quality of any changes and enhancements delivered to those applications.

Key Accountabilities
Application Development The ITC Application Lead is accountable for ensuring that application developments are fit for purpose; adhering to standards and developed for supportability and scalability. The ITC Application Lead is responsible for ensuring effective transition of changes into the Production environment.. Recognised within ITC as owner of all applications in remit, therefore a go-to person for all change activities. Implementing change and maintaining production integrity for each of the applications within the area of responsibility. Liaising with all relevant stakeholders within ITC (eg Strategy and Architecture, Change and Major Programmes). Owning an overall delivery plan including pipeline demand for their applications. Managing System Managers expectations and completing reporting schedule. Embedding delivery methodologies and procedures in the overall culture of the business through awareness training, aide memoir's and communications. Ensuring user guides, disaster recovery plans and knowledge management requirements for appropriate applications are maintained. Ensuring all work packets provided to development parties are comprehensive and validate completed projects for accuracy and adherence to requirements. Managing and coordinating software change deliverables with a focus on maintaining the Production service, minimising downtime and conflicts that lead to service interruption. Ensuring all software change deliverables for managed systems are compliant with the ITC Service Development Framework. Ensuring all monitoring and reengineering of applications is complete to permit a proactive Production support operation. Managing application roadmaps and maintain pertinent supporting system version plan and schedule. Production Support The ITC Application Lead is accountable for the integrity of the application, ensuring that it is fit for purpose, performs to agreed SLAs, is supported in a proactive manner and production support governance protocol is adhered to. Recognised within ITC and by stakeholders as owner of all applications in remit, therefore a go-to person for all Run activities. Undertaking regular application performance reviews and manages all future proofing tasks to ensure Production systems meet agreed delivery SLAs. Maintaining and developing the support capability for pertinent applications, establishing Knowledge management processes to ensure skills retention.. Ensuring adherence to support processes and procedures. Prioritising resources during periods of high incident volumes and maintain flexibility within the team to respond to critical production issues. Managing expectations and completing reporting schedule to all key stakeholders including SLA adherence. Managing improvement programmes for system monitoring and alerting capability and focus on advancement to a proactive Support operation. Supporting disaster recovery plans and test exercises. Ensuring all relevant projects comply with ITC Service Readiness process and quality gates included in ITC Service Development Framework for all managed systems. Contributes to the Non-Functional Requirements and Failure Modes and Effect Analysis for all development project adhering to SDLC. Maintaining regular contact with all 3rd party suppliers for relevant software services. Dealing with customer queries professionally and expeditiously creating an environment where peers recognise positive service and respect for customers. Recognise opportunities for improvement and champion change management initiatives and motivate team members to embrace change.

Skills, Experience & Qualifications


Essential.
Very strong reasoning and analytical skills - comfortable with detail/complexity and naturally able to distil large amounts of information down to its key components.. Strong written communication skills with the ability to relay often complex information clearly, tactfully and concisely to a variety of people and group sizes, and an understanding of how those groups have differing needs for the information.. Significant experience in system development and support operations. A broad technical background is important to understand our systems and processes. A high degree of independent judgement for decision making and problem solving where limited standardisation exists. Leads by example motivating others to support change initiatives; promotes a professional image of self, the team and Xchanging. Self-motivated and should not require chasing for responses or outstanding actions. Highly organised and disciplined to balance a number of priorities at any one time.. An ability to understand internal processes/policies and procedures. An ability to listen to and resolve customer issues whilst preserving positive relationships (by effective, efficient, tactful and courteous). Experience of project and resource planning.

Desirable.
An understanding of the London Market insurance business. Knowledge of the London Insurance Market Business Processes

Values
Personal competencies: The Values Our corporate culture is built on six pillars.. Customer focus. Innovation. Speed & Efficiency. People. Excellence. Integrity We take these values seriously. We live by them. We bring them to life in our customer relationships