Senior Systems Development / Support Analyst - Financial System

SkilGroup, Inc. is in immediate need of a Senior Systems Development/Support Analyst. Senior Systems Development/Support Analysts are members of the Investment Management Production Support team. This team supports numerous vendor and internally developed investment applications. The team member is responsible for 50-60% design/development of system enhancements, the balance associated with troubleshooting, system admin and production support activities. This requires ability to operate independently to analyze and troubleshoot complex software problems and provide solutions to resolve. Individuals will have excellent communication skills and act as a liaison to business areas and project teams. This position requires strong design, research, analysis and solution development skills. Duties and responsibilities include: address new support requests; receive support requests from clients; develop sound recommendations for solution options; estimate work effort required to address new support requests; work with manager to prioritize requests; perform day/night production support; support numerous vendor and internally developed applications; quickly resolve time-critical business/technology issues that impact production processes/ availability; work within rotating start and end time schedule in order to provide support coverage (for example: as early as 7:30a.m to 4:30 p.m., or late as 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.); independently analyze and troubleshoot production issues; develop and implement sound technical resolutions that address root cause; perform nighttime support coverage on rotating weekly basis (average 1 week out of every 6); perform system fixes / enhancements; document all work following client and Sarbanes Oxley guidelines; work with users to ensure that software enhancements and system fixes meet intended business needs without requiring changes after initial delivery for user acceptance; follow application development life cycle (SDLC) approach for development and maintenance activities; formulate and define scope and objectives; determine and document requirements; formulate and define system design and objectives based on user requirements; develop sound technical solutions to meet user requirements that consider system capacity and limitations, performance requirements; prepare technical specifications from which application programs will be developed; develop, test, debug, document and maintain application programs; review work deliverables at Q/A checkpoints, including design review and code walkthroughs; perform role of Client liaison, periodically meet with assigned clients to review Support Team tasks, priorities, status and upcoming user requests; perform role of Support Team liaison to project teams, participate in design and code reviews, facilitate transition to support team; proactively identify opportunities for application and system improvements; routinely keep manager and user community informed of progress, issues and concerns through discussion, voice & mail notifications, meetings and documentation of problems; utilize Tracker to keep users and management informed on work status; ensure that work status, due dates, estimates, actuals, notes and resolutions are up to date and complete; monitor Tracker system regularly to ensure that new production issues and requests are addressed in a timely manner in accordance with team responsibilities; and insure production issues receive immediate attention and are resolved within timeframes in accordance with departmental standards. This is a 6+ month contract opportunity for a client in Chicago’s loop.
REQUIREMENTS
Candidates must possess bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience with a Masters degree or technical certifications a plus. We are looking for individuals with 6+ years of technology experience and experience working with financial packages. 5+ years solid experience in Business Application Software design, development and support is also required. Other skills must include: strong analytical / problem solving skills; object oriented development (Java or C#); web applications: JSP, ASP, .NET; web servers: IIS, Jrun; RDBMS skills (Sybase and / or Microsoft SQL Server); SQL/ stored procedures; C, C++, Perl; operating systems (UNIX, Korn shell scripting or NT scripting); and strong verbal communication and written/ documentation skills. Candidates must possess a professional approach to work, a demonstrated ability to understand business processes and customer needs and translate into technology solutions, and working knowledge of all phases of a Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC). We are looking for experience designing and implementing custom 'add-on' functionality integrated to base packages, a demonstrated ability to work with users to ensure a high level of customer satisfaction, and the proven ability to learn new skills and environments. Candidates must have demonstrated the following: achievements as a self motivated performer and willingness to learn; the ability to work well with others in a team oriented environment; and the ability to effectively communicate technical information to non-technical people. Investment industry background a plus as is Portia experience (Portia is a portfolio management system, and is core to the firm’s investment technology infrastructure).