Senior System Analyst and Team Lead (Middleware: Integration) - Department of Information Technology Services at University of Pretoria/Universiteit van Pretoria

RESPONSIBILITIES:

The successful candidate’s responsibilities will include, but are not limited to:

Implement System Integration solutions:

• Gather, analyse and document user requirements related to user authentication, single sign-on, and identity and access management;
• Take overall responsibility for the implementation of robust, smooth running integration processes;
• Implement robust error exception handling mechanisms and procedures to easily monitor and manage implemented system integration processes;
• Ensure that the implemented system integration processes are well designed in the sense of re-usable object and/or processes and is well aligned with the University’s business processes and future growing business requirements;
• Advise management on feasible procedures and processes to standardise, automate and simplify management of the implemented system integration processes;
• Oversee change management to ensure smooth implementation of system integration processes and/or changes there to;
• Ensure that system developers and owners of the integration processes are well informed of changes and the affect that may have on existing system integration processes;

Team Lead tasks:

• Analyse business requirements. Investigate potential solution options. Design and document proposed solutions;
• Define, plan and co-ordinate the tasks related to the designed solution. Define milestones, test plans and implementation plans;
• Do research on new technologies, “tools” and techniques related to system integration processes;
• Provide technical guidance to colleagues, team members and System Administrators;
• Establish effective communication channels;
• Facilitate regular meetings with team members and relevant stakeholders to ensure that milestones are met, and planned activities are completed successfully and in time;
• Ensure that mechanisms and procedures are put in place in order to ensure that the system integration team's activities comply with the agreed-on architecture, standards, methodologies and work procedures applicable on system integration;
• Provide guidance and support to team members in respect of their individual performance and ensure that team members are optimally productive;

Assign particular tasks to team member(s) according to the:

• Nature or complexity of the task;
• Work load of the team member(s),
• Priorities
• Knowledge, experience and personality of the team member(s);
• Ensure that information needed for management reporting, e.g. in terms of time spent on the particular tasks, and is captured continuously and accurately by team members;
• Develop and implement training programs for existing and new members of the development team in order to assure growth in competencies;
• Implement efficient performance management in respect of the team members to ensure that performance of the individual team members contributes positively to the team’s performance;

Implement system integration tools and infrastructure:

• Oversee the implementation and configuration of the Oracle SOA Suite, Oracle Data Integrator, Oracle Web Services Manager, Oracle Business Activity Monitoring infrastructure to ensure the University experiences full benefit from these implementations, and subsequent upgrades thereof;
• Oversee documentation, configuration and tuning of the implemented system integration architecture and tools;
• Investigate feasible cutover/transition strategies to ensure business continuity during upgrades;
• Support system development teams with upgrades of applications, which may affect implemented system integration processes;
• Responsible for monitoring, performance testing and tuning of system integration processes prior and after implementation;
• Support development teams in the compilation of system integration user requirement specifications.
• Responsible for technical documentation of implemented system integration infrastructure and frameworks;
• Advise management on feasible alternatives and/or changes to existing architecture, infrastructure and/or strategies which will be in best interest of the University to establish a well governed and managed system integration infrastructure;
• Support ITS to establish a robust and well managed system integration infrastructure that adheres to the more recent best practices;
• Do knowledge sharing to UP personnel to ensure a well understanding of system integration strategies and infrastructure implementation;
• Implement mechanisms and procedures to monitor and maintain this environment;
• Implement preventative measurements and/or monitoring mechanisms to alert support personnel of high watermarks;

User support:

• Oversee user support on system integration processes and resolution of system integration related production problems reported at ITHelp and/or student help desks;
• Follow up on trends of reported production problems to identify the root cause of the problem and subsequently rectify the problem and apply measurements to prevent similar problems in future;
• Keep users updated on resolution and/or progress on the resolution of production problems;
• Act pro-actively on alerts to prevent production problems from realising.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS:

• A relevant Bachelor’s degree (e.g. B.Sc., B.Comm Informatics, B. Eng.); WITH
• A minimum of five years’ proven experience in: 
• Development and maintenance of enterprise systems;
• Business process design and implementation;
• Design, development and implementation of web services (e.g. REST, SOAP) to enable system integration;
• A minimum of two years’ (of the above five years) experience in: 
• Using Oracle SOA Suite components;
• Implementing Oracle Fusion Middleware products, including loading of patches and undertaking version upgrades;
• Leading and managing a technical system development team.

REQUIRED COMPETENCIES (SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE AND BEHAVIOURAL ATTRIBUTES):

Knowledge:

• Oracle SOA suite (11g, 12c);
• Oracle WebLogic;
• Web-services based integration;
• PeopleSoft Development tools (PeopleTools);

Technical competencies:

• Proficiency in MS Office (MS Word, MS Excel, MS Visio);
• Java development;
• Oracle SOA 12c development (i.e. BPEL, OSB);
• PL/SQL, SQL/Advanced;
• Ant scripting, automated deployments;