GPS - Application Support Engineer - Senior Associate

From strategy to execution, the Government & Public Sector (GPS) practice of Ernst & Young LLP provides a full range of consulting and audit services to help our Federal, State, Local and Education clients implement new ideas to help achieve their mission outcomes. We deliver real change and measurable results through our diverse, high-performing teams, quality work at the highest professional standards, operational know-how from across our global organization, and creative and bold ideas that drive innovation. We enable our government clients to achieve their mission of protecting the nation and serving the people; increasing public safety; improving healthcare for our military, veterans and citizens; delivering essential public services; and helping those in need. EY is ready to help our government build a better working world.  

Our GPS Technology Organization is a structure within the US GPS practice that implements and maintains a new operate and technology model designed specifically to support U.S. defense and Government engagements. 

The opportunity

You will be a key member of a dedicated operations team with responsibility of assuring overall health of business applications, making recommendations on their continuous health, performance and reliability. 

You will monitor applications and their hosting environments in Azure Gov for exceptions, review their performance, manage demand planning and capacity utilization. Your focus will be on stability and application uptime with an emphasis on quick incident resolution and automated solutions that prevent future outages. You will support promotion cycles of solutions, testing and executing version upgrades and patches. 

You will be expected to keep up with industry developments and standards, ensuring innovative approaches to operate and support data environments. 

Your key responsibilities

• Work within Azure Containers/Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS)   (Track Pods Health, Node Performance, respond and troubleshoot incidents)
• Lead delivery of on-going maintenance and management of pre-production, production environments, setting timelines and monitoring activities in alignment with business requirements
• Contribute to the development of implementation plans for dealing with complex requests for change
• Review new product support documentation and design release packages for solutions
• Monitor effectiveness of installations and ensure that appropriate recommendations for change are made
• Oversee preliminary reviews for new environments and the remediation of findings to existing environments, including capacity and performance management recommendations, 
• Develop internal control standards and contribute to the development of procedures
• Develop relationships with other engineering groups to gain a strong understanding of products and services as well as key business processes and apply technical support engineering expertise to ensure solutions are property managed and maintained
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Skills and attributes for success

• Comprehensive understanding of complete stack of technologies in Azure Gov, with ability to troubleshoot underlying issues.
• Knowledge of business processes, products, and services, within agreed areas of expertise and can provide input and advice to key stakeholders, such as Product Owners, business sponsors and Service Delivery Managers
• Ability to systematically break apart complex problems (written, verbal or numerical). Ability to analyze figures to solve a problem. 
• Ability to be analytical and systematic whilst being open-minded and creative.
• Able to base decisions on facts rather than emotions, and always using logic.  

To qualify for the role, you must have

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, IT, Mathematics, or relevant experience
• 2-4+ years of relevant work experience  
• Significant experience in either a support engineering role, or similar
• Proven experience in customer facing roles
• Knowledge and experience with Azure Containers/Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS)   (Track Pods Health, Node Performance, respond and troubleshoot incidents
• Experience in Installation, Administration and Troubleshooting of Data Technologies in Azure.
• Proven managed service experience with modern technology understanding including cloud service, virtual networks/systems
• Sound experience working with environment configuration management, technical and process support for new infrastructure and environments
• Ability to create, diagnose and execute CI/CD pipelines
• Excellent analytical and communication skills (verbal and written). 
• Ability to effectively prioritize and execute tasks in a dynamic and high-pressure environment 
• Ability to work in a team environment within a high performing team
• ITIL Foundation Certification and other technology certifications are very beneficial 
• Ability to obtain and maintain Top Secret security clearance level

Ideally, you’ll also have

• Experience working in a diverse fast paced environment in collaboration with other technical teams.
• Detail-oriented, well-organized with ability to translate & communicate complex and abstract issues. 
• Experience working Agile/Scrum environment preferred.
• Experience utilizing automated solutions with Azure Devops as the orchestrator of choice would be a plus.
• AZ‑900 Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals (foundational, non‑role‑based)

What we look for

• A self-starter, independent-thinker, curious and creative person with ambition and passion
• History of continuous learning and continuous progression