Application Support Engineer

Job Title: Application Support Engineer - L3

Location: Charlotte, NC HIGHLY preferred but open to remote candidates

Assignment Type: 6 month Contract-to-Hire

Job Summary

We are seeking an experienced Application Support Engineer (L3) to join our Run Support team. This role provides advanced technical expertise, incident resolution, and long-term application stability improvements. The L3 engineer acts as the final escalation point for critical issues, leads root cause analysis (RCA), and partners with Product and Development teams to ensure that defects (bugs) and feature requests (stories) are properly documented, prioritized, and delivered through Azure DevOps (ADO).

Key Responsibilities

The L3 Run Support (AXIOM) role requirements have been refined based on guidance from the Development Manager. This is a Run Support position that must also be able to troubleshoot data-platform workflows independently.

The role now includes the following and the team has asked that we source accordingly. Please withdraw any candidates that do not fit this requirement from JP1747. The key items to be included are below.

Core Technical Skills (required):

• Snowflake: querying, monitoring query history, task scheduling, data validation

• SQL: strong ability to write, debug, and optimize queries

• Airflow: DAG dependencies, task retries, scheduling, manual triggers

• dbt: running models, understanding project structure, debugging transformation errors

• Fivetran: connector monitoring, log review, manual refreshes

• Python: read/modify scripts used in ETL jobs or Lambda functions

• AWS Lambda: review logs and execution results for event-based jobs

• ETL/ELT: strong understanding of ingestion and transformation flows

Representative support scenarios:

• Investigating Snowflake table/view refresh failures and reviewing logs

• Checking and re-running Airflow DAGs or dbt models

• Validating ingestion via Fivetran and confirming source loads with SQL

• Reviewing ETL/ELT job dependencies and manually triggering failed runs

• Identifying/resolving timing or sequencing issues in scheduled jobs

Incident & Problem Management

• Own resolution of high-severity and complex incidents escalated from L2.
• Lead root cause analysis (RCA) and ensure corrective actions are implemented.
• Ensure adherence to SLAs for incident resolution and problem closure.
• Act as Subject Matter Expert (SME) for Tier 1 applications.

Bug & Story Management (Azure DevOps)

• Collaborate with Product Owners to document, prioritize, and manage bugs and user stories in ADO.
• Ensure clear acceptance criteria and proper linkage between incidents, bugs, and backlog items.
• Partner with Development teams to validate bug fixes and story completions in lower environments.
• Track recurring incidents and translate them into actionable backlog items in ADO.
• Provide visibility into backlog health, ensuring business-critical items are prioritized.

Continuous Improvement & Automation

• Identify and implement automation opportunities for monitoring, triage, and resolution.
• Contribute to the development of proactive health checks and preventive measures.
• Support ongoing improvement of runbooks, SOPs, and knowledge base.

Release & Change Support

• Participate in release readiness activities, deployments, and post-release validations.
• Validate bug fixes and story releases in lower environments before production rollout.
• Support release pipelines by ensuring successful delivery of backlog items through ADO.

Leadership & Mentorship

• Mentor L1 and L2 support engineers to improve technical depth and incident handling.
• Share best practices for incident-to-bug/story conversion in ADO.
• Advocate for customer and business impact during sprint planning and prioritization.

Core Competencies

• Expert problem solver with ability to navigate complex technical environments.
• Strong technical troubleshooting and RCA expertise.
• Proficiency in Azure DevOps (ADO) for backlog and release management.
• Ability to translate incidents into actionable bugs/stories with clear business value.
• Knowledge of ITIL practices (Incident, Problem, Change).
• Strong collaboration with Dev, QA, Product, and cross-functional teams.
• Ability to operate under pressure while maintaining stakeholder confidence

Professional Experience & Education

Required:

• 5+ years of experience in application support, production support, or software operations.
• Strong hands-on experience with ticketing systems (Helix) and backlog management tools (e.g., Jira, Azure DevOps).
• Expertise in monitoring platforms (Splunk, Dynatrace, Zabbix, AlertBot).
• Experience leading root cause analysis and managing complex production incidents.

Preferred:

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, Information Technology, or related field (or equivalent experience).
• Certifications such as ITIL Intermediate/Expert, Splunk Power User, Dynatrace Associate, or Certified Problem Manager.
• Familiarity with Agile and DevOps practices, including backlog grooming and sprint planning.
• Experience in enterprise-scale environments with complex application landscapes.