Applications Support Lead Analyst - Vice President

Citi • Tampa, FL

6d • $113,840 - $170,760 • Onsite

About The Position

We are seeking an experienced Vice President of Application Support to lead the production support function for multiple mission-critical enterprise applications within our global technology organization. This role requires a hands-on technical leader who can balance strategic oversight with deep technical expertise, driving operational excellence while fostering innovation through AI/ML and automation. The successful candidate will manage cross-functional teams, ensure high availability of critical systems, and serve as a trusted advisor to senior business and technology stakeholders across the organization. The Apps Sup Tech Lead Analyst is a strategic professional who stays abreast of developments within own field and contributes to directional strategy by considering their application in own job and the business. Recognized technical authority for an area within the business. Requires basic commercial awareness. There are typically multiple people within the business that provide the same level of subject matter expertise. Developed communication and diplomacy skills are required in order to guide, influence and convince others, in particular colleagues in other areas and occasional external customers. Significant impact on the area through complex deliverables. Provides advice and counsel related to the technology or operations of the business. Work impacts an entire area, which eventually affects the overall performance and effectiveness of the sub-function/job family.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in Production Application Support roles managing enterprise-level, mission-critical applications, with demonstrated progression to senior technical or leadership positions.
• SME-level expertise in SQL (complex queries, performance tuning, execution plan analysis) and Unix/Linux administration, including advanced Shell scripting for automation and troubleshooting.
• Expert-level knowledge of enterprise monitoring and observability tools such as ITRS Geneos, AppDynamics, Dynatrace, Splunk, ELK Stack, or equivalent platforms.
• Proven people management experience, including mentoring, performance management, hiring, and leading technical teams in high-pressure, 24/7 support environments.
• Extensive hands-on experience with containerization and orchestration platforms, particularly OpenShift and Kubernetes, including troubleshooting pod failures, networking, and persistent storage.
• Deep technical expertise with relational databases (Oracle, MS SQL Server, PostgreSQL) and NoSQL databases (MongoDB, Cassandra), including backup/recovery, replication, and performance optimization.
• Significant experience with messaging and event-streaming platforms such as Tibco EMS, IBM MQ, Apache Kafka, including message flow analysis, queue management, and throughput optimization.
• Strong understanding of REST APIs, including troubleshooting HTTP/HTTPS protocols, authentication mechanisms (OAuth, JWT), and API gateway technologies.
• Expert understanding of distributed application architecture, including load balancers (F5, NGINX), network protocols (TCP/IP, DNS), storage systems (SAN, NAS), and authentication services (Active Directory, LDAP).
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex technical concepts to executive leadership, business stakeholders, and cross-functional technology teams.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related technical field; Master's degree preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to remain calm and analytical during major incidents on critical systems, with a track record of leading successful resolution of high-severity production issues.
• Practical problem solving and strategic thinking skills.
• Demonstrated leadership, interpersonal skills and relationship building skills.
• Service oriented attitude.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment.
• Experience working or leading requirement gathering efforts for multiple large development projects at one-time.
• Proficient using basic technical tools and systems.
• Good interpersonal and communication skills.

Nice To Haves

• Proven expertise supporting high-volume, mission-critical financial applications that process, manage, and distribute securities data, pricing, rates, trade execution, or risk management information.
• Hands-on experience applying AI/ML techniques to production support, including anomaly detection, predictive analytics, log analysis using machine learning models, or AIOps platforms.
• Experience with prompt engineering and Generative AI / Large Language Models (LLMs) for intelligent automation, runbook generation, incident summarization, or knowledge management.
• Familiarity with modern observability standards and tools, including OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Grafana, Jaeger, or distributed tracing frameworks.
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and hybrid cloud architectures, including cloud-native monitoring and support practices.
• Knowledge of scripting languages beyond Shell, such as Python, Perl, or PowerShell, for advanced automation and integration.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines and DevOps toolchains, including Jenkins, GitLab CI, Ansible, Terraform, or similar technologies.

Responsibilities

• Partner with multiple technology teams to ensure appropriate integration of functions to meet goals; identify and define necessary system enhancements; analyze existing system logic, identify problems; and recommend and implements solutions.
• Provides expertise in area and an advanced level of understanding of the principles of apps support.
• Formulates and defines systems scope and objectives for complex, high impact application enhancements and problem resolution through in-depth analysis and evaluation of complex business processes, systems and industry standards; documents requirements.
• Partners with multiple technology areas and management teams to ensure appropriate integration of functions to meet goals.
• Works closely with Product Owners, Business Analysts and Systems Analysts to determine and document Systems impacts and support requirements.
• Considers the implications of the application of technology to the current environment.
• Identifies risks, vulnerabilities and security issues; communicates impact; proposes risk mitigation options.
• Acts as advisor or coach to new or lower level analysts; allocates work.
• Provides in-depth analysis with interpretive thinking to define problems and develop innovative solutions.
• Directly impacts the business by influencing strategic functional decisions through advice, counsel or provided services.
• Persuades and influences others through strong and comprehensive communication and diplomacy skills.
• Performs other duties and functions as assigned.
• Appropriately assess risk when business decisions are made, demonstrating particular consideration for the firm's reputation and safeguarding Citigroup, its clients and assets, by driving compliance with applicable laws, rules and regulations, adhering to Policy, applying sound ethical judgment regarding personal behavior, conduct and business practices, and escalating, managing and reporting control issues with transparency.
• Own end-to-end production support for a portfolio of enterprise-level applications, ensuring 24/7 availability, performance, and resilience across global markets.
• Lead incident, problem, and change management processes, including root cause analysis, post-incident reviews, and implementation of long-term strategic fixes to prevent recurrence.
• Drive the adoption of AI/ML and Generative AI techniques within support operations, including AIOps for anomaly detection, predictive alerting, LLM-based runbook automation, and prompt engineering for intelligent troubleshooting.
• Provide strategic technical leadership across distributed application architectures, including microservices, containerized platforms (OpenShift, Kubernetes), messaging middleware (Kafka, Tibco EMS, MQ), and hybrid cloud environments.
• Collaborate closely with development, infrastructure, and business teams to ensure seamless integration of new features, system enhancements, and technology upgrades while maintaining production stability.
• Manage and mentor a team of application support engineers, fostering a culture of continuous learning, technical excellence, and accountability; conduct performance evaluations, hiring, and career development planning.
• Architect and implement advanced monitoring and observability solutions using tools such as ITRS Geneos, AppDynamics, Splunk, Prometheus, Grafana, and OpenTelemetry to proactively identify and resolve issues before business impact.
• Serve as the primary escalation point for critical production incidents, demonstrating calm, analytical decision-making under pressure and coordinating resolution across global teams and time zones.
• Champion stability and resiliency initiatives, including failover testing, disaster recovery planning, capacity management, and performance tuning to achieve and exceed SLA commitments.
• Communicate complex technical issues and solutions effectively to both technical and non-technical audiences, including senior business leaders, providing holistic views of production health and risk.
• Ensure compliance with audit, regulatory, and security requirements, partnering with Risk, Compliance, and Information Security teams to maintain controls and evidence for internal and external audits.
• Drive continuous improvement through automation, process optimization, and the elimination of toil, leveraging scripting (Shell, Python), CI/CD pipelines, and infrastructure-as-code practices.
• Manage budget, resource planning, and vendor relationships for the application support function, ensuring cost-effective delivery and alignment with strategic technology roadmaps.
• Contribute to enterprise-wide technology strategy, providing input on tooling standards, architectural patterns, and best practices for production support across the organization.

Benefits

• medical, dental & vision coverage
• 401(k)
• life, accident, and disability insurance
• wellness programs
• paid time off packages, including planned time off (vacation), unplanned time off (sick leave), and paid holidays

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Executive