Application Services – Operational Lead (Hybrid)

Our IT Team is

looking for a highly motivated

Application Services - Operational Lead to join our team

(Hybrid – 18 Month Contract)

The Ontario Pension Board (OPB) administers the Public Service Pension Plan (the PSPP), a major defined benefit pension plan sponsored by the Government of Ontario. With 100,000 members and $34 billion in assets, the PSPP is one of Canada’s largest pension plans. It is also one of the country’s oldest, successfully delivering the pension promise since the early 1920s. Learn more about OPB.

The Application Services – Operational Lead position provides operational applications support oversight and direct support to the Manager, IT Applications. This role interacts with the internal IT team, OPB’s external Application Managed Support Provider (AMSP) team, and various business areas and key stakeholders to ensure all applications run smoothly and securely and all operational support activities are provided on a timely basis. Serving as a main point of contact for the business and key stakeholders, this role provides updates and addresses operational application concerns in addition to actings as the key resource to support the annual IT controls audit interacting directly with our external auditors.

Key Responsibilities:

• Assist the Manager, IT Applications in the management of operational applications performance and updating business areas of any impacts to applications and managing expectations.
• Acts as a main point of contact with the business areas and key stakeholders providing updates and addressing operational application matters and concerns.
• Monitors the performance of core pension applications, identifying and addressing issues to improve reliability.
• Reviews weekly and monthly reports, monitor OPB’s service ticketing system and work closely with the Application Support Analyst (ASA) team, Application Managed Service Provider (AMSP) to ensure all applicable application incidents are reviewed and resolved in a timely manner.
• Acts as a key contact to coordinate with internal IT teams and external IT support partners to gather required evidence in support of the annual IT Controls audit.
• Attends Change Advisory Board (CAB) sessions to ensure any planned maintenance or changes impacting production applications are completed with minimum disruption to applications.
• Collaborates with key business areas in identifying, negotiating and agreeing on any required outage windows to applications; ensuring outage windows and plans are proactively communicated to impacted parties.
• Works with the Manager, IT Applications, AMSP and other IT areas to maintain application inventory covering current versioning, end of life milestones, support coverage, and current risks.
• Works closely with ASA and AMSP to ensure all production validation and testing support is aligned with any operational maintenance or planned changes affecting our applications. 
• Works with the Manager, IT Applications and ASAs’ to assist with the coordination of SIT level testing or regressional testing support as needed for all organizational projects and operational changes affecting OPB’s applications
• Works with the Manager, IT Applications to develop and implement improvements to existing and/or new operational policies and procedures; track and maintain records of operational activities.
• Assists in IT documentation/administration duties i.e. reporting, dashboards, IT Event calendar, operational support procedures etc.

Key qualifications:

• Post secondary education in information technology, computer sciences or an equivalent combination of education and experience. Knowledge of systems development and test lifecycles.
• Minimum 5 years of experience in an IT operations role; specifically in operations and application support area.
• Possesses strong leadership, relationship management, and interpersonal/ skills for collaborating with both internal and external business partners to lead, build consensus, and co-ordinate the support of operational applications and maintenance.
• Possesses familiarity with pension administration systems or similar applications.
• Excellent research, analytical and problem-solving skills required to understand system analysis reviews, IT operational procedures, to evaluate, and recommend operating methods and technological options.
• Good understanding of incident management and problem management processes to ensure application incidents are properly addressed in a timely manner while aligning to industry best practices and controls. 
• Ability to understand organization’s current application environment and interdependencies, and information technology planning principles and practices.  
• Tact, diplomacy, effective communication and negotiation skills required to lead effective discussions and provide proactive feedback and recommendations/advice on best options for application support.
• Strong written communication skills are needed to draft, develop, maintain and update operational policies and procedures.
• Good organizational skills and the ability to prioritize and meet non-negotiable and conflicting deadlines.
• Must be adaptable and have the ability to adjust to changing circumstances and customize/develop new solutions as needed.
• Demonstrates sound judgement and well-developed problem identification and resolution skills to develop and implement effective solutions with minimal supervision.
• Initiative driven with the ability to learn on the job and keep apprised of rapid changes in a dynamic environment and its impact on the organization.

Please submit your resume if you are interested in this exciting opportunity.

The competition will remain open until a successful candidate is selected or until the competition is closed.

OPB is committed to providing accommodation for people with disabilities in its recruitment process. Please advise OPB if you require an accommodation, and we will work with you to meet your needs. OPB is committed to fostering a culture of diversity, equity and inclusiveness that reflects the diverse communities we serve. We welcome and encourage applications from those who may contribute to the further diversification of ideas. Candidates being considered for this position will be required to submit to a background screening. We thank all applicants, however, only those selected for an interview will be contacted.