WHAT DOES AN APPLICATION SUPPORT ENGINEER DO?

The Application Support Engineer supports third-party software developers with existing SDKs and APIs, offering guidance, sample applications, and code snippets to demonstrate functionality and best practices. Maintains customer-facing documentation and collaborates with Product Management to relay customer needs, ensuring support meets defined service level agreements. Facilitates cloud infrastructure operations and deployments across AWS/GCP/Azure, implementing CI/CD tooling, and enhancing application performance, security, and connectivity.

A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Application Support Engineer

1. Application Support Engineer Duties

  • SDK/API Support: Support 3rd party software developers in using existing SDKs and APIs.
  • Code Samples Maintenance: Create and maintain sample applications and code snippets to demonstrate the functionality of existing SDKs and APIs and best practices.
  • Code Review: Review 3rd party application code and make recommendations based on best practices.
  • Application Design Assistance: Assist 3rd party developers design applications to meet specific customer-defined use cases based on existing SDKs, and APIs.
  • Documentation Development: Develop and maintain customer-facing documentation to demonstrate known issues and best practices.
  • Customer Communication: Effectively summarize and communicate customer requests to Product Management and SDK development teams.
  • SLA Adherence: Meet defined Service Level Agreements in responding to 3rd party developers.
  • Cloud Infrastructure Management: Creating and operating Cloud infrastructure deployed in AWS/GCP/Azure.
  • Cloud Deployments: Performing deployments in the AWS/GCP/Azure environments.
  • CICD Operations: Implementing and operating CICD tooling.
  • Application Support: Supporting the applications in the scope of the infrastructure, databases, security, and connectivity.
  • Development Support: Supporting development teams to streamline delivery and improve quality.

2. Application Support Engineer Details

  • Issue Resolution: Liaise with end-users to investigate, triage, and address software issues in production systems.
  • Problem Analysis: Analyze, diagnose, and mitigate issues either by applying a resolution or escalating to relevant team members when this is no longer within the realm of expertise.
  • SQL Diagnostics: Write and run ad hoc SQL queries for diagnostic purposes.
  • Advanced SQL Reporting: Write complex SQL queries to generate reports and fulfill user requests.
  • Windows Management: Manage Windows Services and Event Logs.
  • Knowledgebase Development: Develop and maintain an application support knowledgebase and FAQ that documents solutions and workarounds for known issues.
  • Client Management: Manage client expectations and balance workload for competing priorities.
  • Release Testing: Participate in product release testing.
  • Digital Strategy Execution: Work with leaders and specialists from around the business to develop and execute a Digital Strategy.
  • Solution Innovation: Have a history of creating solutions to achieve an ideal result.
  • Project Implementation: Take an active role in the implementation of various projects in support of the Digital Strategy as the transformation of business into a smart factory.
  • Application Integration Support: Support new application integration.
  • Cost Optimization: Work with the business to secure cost reduction opportunities and to get the best value for expenditure.
  • Systems Support: Provide systems support for some key applications.
  • Relationship Management: Develop and maintain critical relationships with the business, vendors, and customers.

3. Application Support Engineer Responsibilities

  • Operational Troubleshooting: Troubleshoot and respond to operational issues and provide timely updates and resolutions to warehouse operatives.
  • Issue Escalation: Investigate application errors and escalate critical issues to platform and product engineering teams until service restoration.
  • System Monitoring: Monitor systems and applications by reacting to system alerts.
  • Diagnostic Analysis: Diagnose issues using log files and other relevant tools.
  • Operational Support: Work closely with engineering and operations teams to support and improve operational processes.
  • Service Quality Assurance: Work with engineering to resolve issues affecting service quality.
  • Proactive Maintenance: Identify potential issues and suggest corrective actions.
  • Customer Service Excellence: Provide excellent customer service and ensure that resolution is provided to every issue.
  • Technical Support: Using a customer-oriented mindset and technical knowledge, serve as a trusted advisor and provide technical support and troubleshooting for clients.
  • Strategic Problem Solving: Leverage development skills to uncover the root causes of malfunctions to resolve highly visible, technical, global, and strategic cases and ensure the highest level of support to clients.
  • Process Improvement: Provide feedback regarding trends in client issues and suggest improvements to processes, policies, and products to help streamline the customer journey.
  • Knowledge Management: Create knowledge base materials dedicated towards operational efficiency.
  • Customer Satisfaction: Maximize client satisfaction through timely and accurate resolution of customer inquiries that meet or exceed customer SLAs (Service Level Agreements).
  • User Onboarding: Ensure new users have a smooth onboarding experience, this is where strong communication and interpersonal skills will shine!
  • Documentation: Document all actions and responses via CRM tools (HubSpot) as well as ticketing system (Jira).
  • Collaborative Development: Work closely with engineers, product managers, and operations teams to improve and develop application.

4. Application Support Engineer Job Summary

  • Environment Monitoring & Issue Resolution: Be responsible for environment monitoring (working with systems like Datadog and PagerDuty) and issue resolution.
  • Orchestrate Platform Maintenance: Maintenance and support activities on the Orchestrate Platform such as instrument and curve set-up and configuration, investigation and resolution of trade flow processing issues, and pricing setup and configuration.
  • Reporting: Realtime and EOD Report set-up and generation.
  • User Support: Work directly with End Users (e.g. Portfolio Managers, Traders) on any issues that arise.
  • Timely Issue Resolution: Ensure issue resolutions happen in a timely fashion and escalate to relevant development teams if needed.
  • Defect & Upgrade Support: Support defect fix and upgrade rollouts and ensure platform stability.
  • Root Cause Analysis: Responsible for root cause analysis on any production issues that arise.
  • Issue Governance: Be responsible for the governance process during issue remediation and post-root cause investigation process.
  • Automation: Automate support tasks with CI/CD and orchestration tools.
  • Knowledge Management: Update knowledge articles (e.g. wiki) on new issues (classify known issues, symptoms, and workarounds/fixes).

5. Application Support Engineer Accountabilities

  • Web-Scale Expertise: Working with web-scale applications and possessing knowledge of modern technology concepts, best practices, and patterns.
  • System Improvement: Working as part of a technology team to improve and maintain the system functionality.
  • Collaborative Design: Working with developers, QA, and the business to understand the environment, design improvements and implement them.
  • .NET Development: Using the technologies that support the development of .NET applications: .NET 4.5, MVC 5, WCF, Web API, SQL Server.
  • Technical Leadership: Contribute to architecture, design, and technical direction, and hold own in a technical discussion.
  • Technical Support: Providing technical assistance electronically, via phone, and in person.
  • Stakeholder Liaison: Liaise with business units, external clients, Vendors, and other technology teams to resolve application issues as well as provide input into product enhancements.
  • Continuous Improvement: Drive continuous improvement by documenting processes, analyzing trends, and proactively addressing risk items before they become issues.
  • Knowledge Update: Stay current with system information, changes, and updates.
  • Quality Assurance: Ensure all relevant processes, checklists, and standards are followed to maximize quality.

6. Application Support Engineer Functions

  • User Support Coordination: Act as the 1st point of contact for functional and technical support to end-users in all systems in scope.
  • Documentation Management: Manage the documentation and maintain the know-how in terms of using applications to support the business.
  • Meeting Participation: Attend meetings/events and reviews between end-users and IS Team.
  • Incident Management: Manage sub-projects related to incidents and requests.
  • Issue & Request Handling: Effectively resolve and manage user issues and requests on the ticketing support system, follow up on delayed items, and provide proper reporting.
  • Problem Solving: Investigate, diagnose, and resolve all application-related issues.
  • Issue Ownership: Take ownership of all issues and push for a swift resolution within the SLA.
  • Bug Fixing: Bug fixes (Java/SQL/SAS macro).
  • Customer Communication: Work closely with customers to inform of progress, request information, and manage expectations.
  • Root Cause Analysis: Perform root cause analysis and replicate bug issues with the end goal of resolving them.
  • Issue Escalation: Escalate any issues to the team lead.
  • Complex Issue Resolution: Coordinate with teams and resolve all complex application and system issues.
  • Application & Database Support: Provision, configure, deploy, and support applications, and databases, as well as support and maintain.
  • Application Administration: Perform root cause assessment and resolve issues. Administer and resolve application issues, provide updates related to Document Management System/application server.
  • Business Process Support: Develop, sustain, and evaluate delegated business processes and related applications.
  • SLA Management: Escalate properly unsolved issues and work closely with 2nd level support to meet clients' SLA.

7. Application Support Engineer Job Description

  • Advanced Technical Issue Ownership: Taking ownership of advanced technical issues (T3-T4 Engineering level), and working with engaging Development groups as needed.
  • Collaborative Problem-Solving: Working with the customer's (hospitals) IT/System/Application teams to co-investigate issues at sites.
  • Design Input: Working with Product Management on design issues and enhancement requests.
  • Quality Assurance Support: Working with QA to reproduce issues.
  • Defect Documentation: Assuring defects are being documented and processed.
  • Knowledge Base Contribution: Writing troubleshooting and resolution steps for Knowledge Base articles.
  • Knowledge Sharing: Delivering knowledge and training sessions to Support/Services/Distributors teams.
  • Strategic Project Participation: Participate in Engineering strategic projects (i.e., Beta Projects).
  • Subject Matter Expertise: Becoming an SME (subject matter expert) for specific modules.
  • On-Site Customer Support: Traveling to customers' sites to resolve critical escalations.

8. Application Support Engineer Overview

  • Incident Support: Acts as the first point of support for system incidents including trading applications.
  • Decision-Making: Capable of making independent decisions while mitigating risk.
  • Problem Resolution: Identifies, diagnoses, and resolves functional and technical problems and business-critical incidents through research and analysis of trends, root causes, and business impact.
  • System Checks: Perform daily AM and PM checks per documented processes and procedures.
  • Reporting: Generate ad hoc quantitative and qualitative analysis reports for users.
  • Incident Tracking: Tracking change requests and high-severity incidents in accordance with defined service levels.
  • Corporate Support: Provide second-level technical support for corporate users and analysis of application issues.
  • Data Collection: Gathering data and handing them over for further technical analysis.
  • IT Collaboration: Interact with other IT departments to avoid or solve incidents and service requests.
  • Knowledge Sharing: Actively participate in knowledge sharing with colleagues for the creation and implementation of best practices of users' support.
  • Customer Experience: Provides F5 customers and partners with a consistently outstanding support experience.
  • Communication: Proactively and effectively communicates status, plan of action, and resolution of issues.
  • Technical Troubleshooting: Provides Level 1 to Level 3 technical support to remotely troubleshoot and resolve issues on F5 hardware and software products.
  • Case Management: Manages multiple cases and prioritizes based on customer and business needs.
  • Escalation Management: Effectively manages case escalations to tier 3 (Engineering Services) while maintaining customer communication.
  • Schedule Adherence: Maintains high schedule adherence (work hours and on-phone time).
  • Continuous Learning: Participates in ongoing training with F5 products and related technologies.

9. Application Support Engineer Details and Accountabilities

  • Cross-Team Escalation Management: Own and bring to conclusion escalations by working across multiple teams such as support, infrastructure, engineering, and operations in a Java-based, web environment.
  • Operational Procedures Development: Develops operational procedures and adopts standard operating procedures necessary for the day-to-day maintenance and incident response methodologies (identification, triage, troubleshooting, escalate, close).
  • Production Support Representation: Assists in representing Production Support to the organization, ensuring that high availability and the ability to identify customer-facing issues are included in the development or deployment of new products and services.
  • Solution Development: Works with Architecture, Development, and Systems Engineering teams to develop innovative solutions to attain high availability, scalability, and reliability.
  • Incident Documentation: Logs incidents within the Incident Tracking System [Service Desk], clearly documenting symptoms, identifying root causes, and providing/recommending solutions.
  • Log Analysis: Logs searching using Log Stash, impact management, root cause analysis, and reports findings to Management and customers.
  • Process Execution: Ensures timely execution of scheduled and repeatable processes such as periodic system validations, daily triage, system monitoring, and event log management.
  • Incident Ownership: Acts as incident owner, escalates to other support groups, and follows the status of the incident until it has been confirmed to be resolved.
  • Investigative Collaboration: Works closely with technical support, engineers, customers, and other groups to narrow investigative efforts and resolve incidents.
  • Documentation Maintenance: Maintains critical documentation assets, such as customer contact lists, escalation procedures, scheduled job inventories, and operational cookbooks.

10. Application Support Engineer Tasks

  • Contact Center Support: Support day-to-day operations, including resolution of technical contact center and communications issues and requests via phone, e-mail, and/or chat/co-browse sessions.
  • Case Management: Manage support cases, drive to resolve cases, and support customers quickly and efficiently.
  • Knowledge Base Contribution: Author and submit knowledge-based articles based on customer issues and interactions.
  • Customer Communication: Ensure timely, quality responses to customer, partner, and OEM inquiries and proactive communications, to enhance customer satisfaction and minimize service downtime.
  • Issue Management: Follow through and manage active software problems and advancements between Customers, Partners, and OEMs.
  • Resolution Process Management: Manage effective issue identification and resolution process.
  • Process Improvement Participation: Participate in process improvement initiatives, when applicable.
  • Pre-release Testing: Pre-release load, stress, and failure testing in a pre-production environment.
  • Back Office Support: Back office developer and pm tools implementation, integration, and support.
  • Operational Automation: Assists in the automation of customer ops tasks and ensures requirements with outward-facing customers are completed in a timely fashion (order reconciliation).
  • Critical Incident Coordination: Implements after-hours call facilitation, coordination, and communications during critical outage situations.
  • Monitoring Setup: Set up and develop monitoring for both technical and functional calls, infrastructure level, and container level monitoring.
  • Release Coordination: Coordinate and execute production releases.
  • SSL Management: Understanding of SSL certs and Key Stores.

11. Application Support Engineer Roles

  • Production Updates: Apply development changes/Product updates on production where applicable.
  • Script Development: Develop scripts for execution of commonly used processes and automation of simple tasks.
  • Problem Solving in Mixed OS: Apply problem-solving skills in a mixed operating system environment to support assignments.
  • Cross-Group Collaboration: Partner closely with development groups, infrastructure support groups, and vendors to coordinate operations, and communicate/escalate problems as appropriate to meet assigned deadlines.
  • Application Diagnostics: Diagnose problems with applications and provide prompt recovery and problem resolution.
  • System Monitoring Refinement: Work closely with support groups to refine system monitoring and reporting, and to assist in analysis and problem recovery.
  • Task Management: Proper creation, execution, documentation, and closure of tasks, changes, and service requests.
  • Advanced Issue Resolution: Investigation, diagnosis, and resolution of application-related issues (Level 3/Level 4).
  • Issue Ownership: Take ownership of issues and push to resolution within SLA.
  • Bug Fixing: Make bug fixes (Java/SQL/SAS macro).
  • Customer Liaison: Liaise with customers to inform of progress, request information, manage expectations, and close out issues in a timely manner.
  • Critical Issue Participation: Participate in customer calls on P1 issues from a technical perspective.
  • Escalation Management: Appropriate escalation to Team Leads.
  • Service Transition Ownership: Take ownership of handovers from Professional Services to Support.

12. Application Support Engineer Additional Details

  • Global Client Support: Support Client Success Team as service clients all over the world.
  • Design Collaboration: Work with designers to deliver branded online communities for clients, and maintain them over time.
  • Production Troubleshooting: Troubleshoot issues in a production environment, escalating to the on-call Engineer.
  • Engineering Support: Support the Engineering team with code reviews and collaboration.
  • Client Reporting: Generate monthly and quarterly activity reports for clients.
  • Database Management: Run reports and scripts using MySQL database.
  • Application Enhancement: Enhancing applications by identifying opportunities for improvement.
  • Ticket Response: Respond to tickets in a timely and professional manner.
  • Performance Management: Performance reviews and change control management.
  • Automation Scripting: Monitoring and alerting as well as developing scripts to help automate manual processes.
  • Complex Problem Solving: Work collaboratively with application support team members to analyze and resolve complex problems in customer implementations.
  • Product Improvement Contribution: Contribute to lessons learned from support issues for future enhancements to Split Limit Studios’ products.
  • SQL Query Execution: Write and execute SQL database queries.
  • Data Modification: Make changes to customers’ data.
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