Application Support Specialist

Purpose of the role

To manage the IT Services department and set the strategic direction, provide support to the bank's senior management team, and to manage IT Service risk across the organisation management of IT Services to support the banks operations and representing Technology service performance with senior stakeholders and managing IT service risk across the organisation.   

Accountabilities

• Development of strategic direction for IT Services, including the implementation of up-to- date methodologies and processes.
• Management of the IT Services department, including oversight of IT Services colleagues and their performance, implementation of departmental goals and objectives, oversight of department efficiency and effectiveness.  .
• Relationship management of IT Services stakeholders, including identifying relevant stakeholders, and maintenance of the quality of external third party services.
• Development and implementation of policies and procedures for IT Services, implementation and adherence of control targets and standards, policies and procedures for IT Services, managing adherence to group SLAs and controls associated with core technology production activities in incident, problem, and change.
• Management of IT Services risk, including identification of potential IT Services risks, development of strategies to mitigate those risks, and maintenance of alignment between the bank’s change and compliance functions.  .
• Monitoring the financial performance of the IT Services department, including revenue, profitability, and cost control, driving value from any commercial agreements, strong management of any directly controlled costs etc.
• Management of IT Services projects, including driving successful research and related product launches, and deliverance of integrated solutions to clients.
• Effectively monitor and maintain the bank’s critical technology infrastructure and resolve more complex technical issues, whilst minimising disruption to operations.

Assistant Vice President Expectations

• To advise and influence decision making, contribute to policy development and take responsibility for operational effectiveness. Collaborate closely with other functions/ business divisions.
• Lead a team performing complex tasks, using well developed professional knowledge and skills to deliver on work that impacts the whole business function. Set objectives and coach employees in pursuit of those objectives, appraisal of performance relative to objectives and determination of reward outcomes
• If the position has leadership responsibilities, People Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard. The four LEAD behaviours are: L – Listen and be authentic, E – Energise and inspire, A – Align across the enterprise, D – Develop others.
• OR for an individual contributor, they will lead collaborative assignments and guide team members through structured assignments, identify the need for the inclusion of other areas of specialisation to complete assignments. They will identify new directions for assignments and/ or projects, identifying a combination of cross functional methodologies or practices to meet required outcomes.
• Consult on complex issues; providing advice to People Leaders to support the resolution of escalated issues.
• Identify ways to mitigate risk and developing new policies/procedures in support of the control and governance agenda.
• Take ownership for managing risk and strengthening controls in relation to the work done.
• Perform work that is closely related to that of other areas, which requires understanding of how areas coordinate and contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the organisation sub-function.
• Collaborate with other areas of work, for business aligned support areas to keep up to speed with business activity and the business strategy.
• Engage in complex analysis of data from multiple sources of information, internal and external sources such as procedures and practises (in other areas, teams, companies, etc).to solve problems creatively and effectively.
• Communicate complex information. 'Complex' information could include sensitive information or information that is difficult to communicate because of its content or its audience.
• Influence or convince stakeholders to achieve outcomes.

All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship – our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset – to Empower, Challenge and Drive – the operating manual for how we behave.

Join us as a Application Support Specialist at Barclays, where you will drive the stability, resilience, and continuous improvement of critical business applications and services. You will lead support operations, enhance observability and operational excellence, and work closely with business, technology, and infrastructure teams to deliver secure, scalable, and highly available digital solutions.

To be successful as a Application Support Specialist, you should have experience with:

• Extensive experience in Application Support, Incident Management (Tier 2/3 support), and SLA-driven service restoration within a mission-critical environment.
• Strong technical expertise in SQL, database technologies, and data analysis for troubleshooting, root cause analysis, and performance optimization.
• In-depth knowledge of Unix/Linux and Windows Server operating environments.
• Experience with ITIL processes, including Incident, Problem, Change, and Service Management.
• Experience using ServiceNow, Jira, Service First, or similar ticketing and workflow management tools.
• Expertise in application monitoring, observability, and alert management using tools such as ITRS Geneos, AppDynamics, Observe, or equivalent platforms.
• Experience configuring, maintaining, and optimizing monitoring solutions, dashboards, alerts, and operational runbooks.
• Experience supporting front-office or business-critical applications with direct stakeholder and client communication responsibilities.
• Knowledge of middleware, messaging, and integration technologies including IBM MQ and related messaging frameworks.
• Experience with batch scheduling, monitoring, and troubleshooting tools such as TWS/Autosys.
• Experience with certificate lifecycle and security management, including SSL, SSH, FTPS, SFTP, and HTTPS.
• Proficiency in structured and unstructured databases including Oracle, MSSQL, and other enterprise database technologies.
• Ability to lead major incident resolution, problem management activities, and continuous service improvement initiatives.
• Strong understanding of risk, controls, governance, and operational resilience in a regulated financial services environment.

Some other highly valued skills may include:

• Good understanding of Corporate Banking .Payments and Channels lifecycle concepts.
• Automation mindset with hands-on experience in Python, Shell Scripting, PowerShell, Java, SQL, or Web Services.
• Experience with DevOps tooling including Git, CI/CD pipelines, and modern software delivery practices.
• Strong understanding of observability strategies, alert quality management, signal hygiene, event correlation, and proactive issue detection.
• Experience driving service stability initiatives through automation, monitoring enhancement, self-healing capabilities, and operational analytics.
• Ability to analyse complex technical issues across infrastructure, application, database, and middleware layers.
• Strong stakeholder management skills with the ability to effectively communicate technical issues to business and senior leadership audiences.
• Experience mentoring support engineers and driving technical capability development across the team.
• Knowledge of cloud technologies, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) principles, and operational excellence practices.
• Continuous improvement mindset with experience delivering process simplification, automation, and efficiency gains.

You may be assessed on key critical skills relevant for success in role, such as risk and controls, change and transformation, business acumen, strategic thinking, stakeholder management, operational excellence, digital and technology capabilities, as well as job-specific technical expertise.

The role is based out of Pune, India.