IT Operations Reliability Lead

Role overview

With stability of IT Operations of the utmost importance, this role as an operations stability leader is a person who oversees the performance, reliability, and availability of an organization's IT systems and services. They are responsible for ensuring that the IT operations run smoothly and efficiently, and that any issues or incidents are resolved quickly and effectively. You will have responsibility for monitoring and analyzing the IT metrics and trends supporting and leading as required the implementation of best practices to optimize the IT operations. This role is considered an expert level at operations and stability, that has had practicing roles in key technologies across multiple domains. You are expected to influence the organization by providing thought leadership, working independently and raising the bar for other operational practices. This role will have a key focus on turning a reactive operational environment into a proactive practice leveraging processes, technologies and thought leadership across the organization and our managed service partners.

Responsibilities

• Must be a driver who gets consistent results.
• Plan, organize, and direct the IT operations of the company, ensuring alignment with the company’s vision, mission, and values.
• Collaborate with peers to proactively monitor, identify, and propose solutions to prevent ongoing issues affecting both IT infrastructure and applications.
• Partner with key stakeholders to drive IT Operations activities against agreed timelines and metrics, ensuring application performance aligns with business needs.
• Define and propose effective methodologies, establishing a stable framework to support the delivery of business outcomes related to applications and services.
• Implement the concept of chaos engineering for our applications to provide higher stability and resilience.
• Work closely with Service Delivery Managers and internal leaders to align priorities and address critical operational issues affecting IT stability, particularly in application performance.
• Manage and monitor IT infrastructure systems and services, ensuring their availability, performance, reliability, and scalability, with a specific focus on applications.
• Monitor Enterprise Application systems and services, ensuring their availability, performance, reliability, and scalability meet business objectives.
• Identify and evaluate new technologies and solutions to enhance IT operations and application support, fostering innovation and growth.
• Support the management and resolution of complex IT operational issues, risks, and incidents, ensuring timely and effective delivery of IT services and application support.
• Identify and recommend automation opportunities to improve efficiencies and stability within the IT organization, particularly for application processes.
• Establish and maintain effective relationships with IT leaders, business stakeholders, and external vendors to align IT operations with business needs and expectations.
• Develop and implement IT operational policies, standards, procedures, and best practices, ensuring compliance with regulatory and contractual requirements.
• Report and communicate IT operational performance, status, and metrics to senior management and relevant stakeholders, with specific insights into application performance.
• Collaborate with key stakeholders to drive continuous improvement and optimization of IT operations, processes, and services, ensuring delivery of value and quality to the company and customers.
• Monitor application performance and system health using specialized tools (e.g., Dynatrace, AppDynamics)
• Respond to incidents and outages, providing rapid restoration of services and conducting root cause analysis.
• Collaborate with development teams to optimize application performance and ensure system scalability and resilience.
• Analyze and optimize application performance, identifying bottlenecks and areas for improvement.
• Drive continuous improvement backlogs with development teams to continuously improve the stability, resilience, and performance of our applications.
• Plan for future growth and scalability, conducting capacity planning and forecasting resource needs.

Qualifications

• Minimum 10 years of experience in IT operations, application operations support or service management, with at least 5 years in a senior lead role.
• Bachelor’s degree or relevant experience.
• Provide historical examples of driving IT results
• Expert knowledge and experience in IT application operations and best practices, particularly in performance optimization and reliability.
• Strong knowledge and experience in infrastructure, systems, and services, including network, cloud, database, middleware, and applications.
• Previous experience supporting Applications written in COBOL, RPG, .Net, Java, Informatica PowerCenter, JavaScript running on zSeries mainframe, iSeries midrange, HP Unix, and Windows Servers running in a co-located data center, Azure and AWS cloud.
• Cross-functional leader capable of organizing and leading analysis across multiple technologies and domains, including infrastructure and applications.
• Investigate and resolve complex technical issues within defined SLAs, coordinating with development, infrastructure, and third-party vendors when needed.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making skills, with the capacity to handle complex and ambiguous situations.
• Strong scripting skills (e.g., Python, Bash, PowerShell) for automation and monitoring tasks.
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines, DevOps practices, and tools (e.g., Azure DevOps, Jenkins, Ansible, Kubernetes, Docker).
• Strong knowledge and experience in IT operational frameworks, methodologies, and best practices, such as ITIL, COBIT, DevOps, Agile, etc.
• Proficiency with IT operational tools, technologies, and solutions, including ITSM, ITOM, ITAM, CMDB, monitoring, and automation, with a focus on application management.
• Strong leadership, management, and communication skills, with the ability to inspire, motivate, and influence others.
• Strong customer service, collaboration, and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to build and maintain effective relationships.
• Strong business acumen, strategic thinking, and innovation skills, with the ability to align IT operations with business goals and objectives.
• Experience with disaster recovery methodologies and best practices.
• Certifications in IT operations, cloud, or service management, such as ITIL, PMP, etc., are preferred.

Monitoring and Alerting:

• Implementing and managing comprehensive application monitoring systems to track key performance indicators (KPIs) like response times, error rates, resource utilization, and identify potential stability issues before they impact users.

Root Cause Analysis:

• Investigating application crashes, performance bottlenecks, and system failures to pinpoint root causes, collaborating with development teams to implement corrective actions.

Capacity Planning:

• Proactively assessing application capacity requirements to ensure systems can handle expected traffic surges and prevent performance degradation.

Incident Management:

• Leading the response to critical application incidents, coordinating with cross-functional teams to quickly diagnose and resolve issues while minimizing impact on users.

Performance Optimization:

• Identifying and implementing performance improvements to applications, including code optimization, database tuning, and caching strategies.

Stability Reporting:

• Regularly generating reports on application stability metrics, identifying trends, and communicating potential risks to stakeholders.

Proactive Risk Mitigation:

• Identifying potential stability risks within applications and proactively implementing preventative measures.

Team Leadership:

• Leading and mentoring a team of application stability engineers, assigning tasks, and providing technical guidance.

This selected candidate will be expected to work in a Hybrid environment in Indianapolis, IN. The candidate will also be expected to physically return to the office as business needs dictate or for team-building and collaboration.

If you are offered and accept this position, please be advised that OneAmerica Financial does not have any offices located in the State of New York and OneAmerica associates are not permitted to work remotely in the State of New York.

For All Positions

Because this position is regulated by the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, if an offer is made, applicants must undergo mandated background checks as a condition of employment. Such background checks include criminal history. A conviction is not necessarily an absolute bar to employment. Consistent with applicable regulatory guidelines and law, factors such as the age of the offense, evidence of rehabilitation, seriousness of violation, and job relatedness are considered.

Disclaimer: OneAmerica Financial is an equal opportunity employer and strictly prohibits unlawful discrimination based upon an individual’s race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, national origin/ancestry, age, mental/physical disability, medical condition, marital status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

To learn more about our products, services, and the companies of OneAmerica Financial, visit oneamerica.com/companies.