Job Description

The Production Support Manager is responsible for leading and managing the team that ensures the stability, performance, and availability of all production software applications and systems. This role is a critical link between development, operations, and the business, focusing on swift incident resolution, effective problem management, continuous service improvement, and maintaining high levels of service for customers and internal stakeholders.
Skills and Experience
What you'll do:
Leadership & Management

• Lead, mentor, and manage a team of Production Support Analysts and Engineers, fostering a high-performance, customer-focused, and collaborative culture.
• Manage team resources, schedules, and on-call rotations (including 24/7/365 coverage) to ensure adequate support and coverage for all critical systems.
• Set performance goals, conduct reviews, and manage professional development for team members.
• Manage relationships with external vendors, outsourced support partners, and internal cross-functional teams (Development, QA, Infrastructure, etc.).

Incident, Problem, and Change Management

• Oversee the Incident Management process, ensuring timely identification, triage, escalation, communication, and resolution of production issues and outages.
• Act as the Major Incident Manager during critical system failures, coordinating all necessary teams and communications until resolution.
• Drive the Problem Management process, including leading and performing Root Cause Analysis (RCA) for all significant incidents, documenting findings, and ensuring preventative measures are implemented by the appropriate teams.
• Ensure adherence to Change Management policies for all production system changes, updates, and releases, minimizing risk to the live environment.
• Develop, refine, and enforce production support processes and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in alignment with ITIL best practices.

System Monitoring & Service Improvement

• Establish, monitor, and report on key service metrics (KPIs) and Service Level Agreements (SLAs) such as Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR), system availability, and incident volume.
• Oversee and manage system monitoring, alerting, and logging tools to proactively identify and address potential system health and performance issues.
• Collaborate with Development/Engineering teams to improve the supportability, resiliency, and performance of applications.
• Drive continuous service improvement by identifying and implementing automation opportunities for routine support tasks, monitoring, and problem resolution.

Stakeholder Communication & Documentation

• Provide timely, clear, and professional communication of system status, outages, and resolutions to business stakeholders, executive leadership, and customers.
• Oversee the creation, maintenance, and distribution of comprehensive operational documentation, knowledge base articles, and runbooks.

Your Expertise:

• Minimum of 5+ years of experience in a technical support, application support, or production operations role within a software-driven environment.
• Minimum of 2-3 years of proven experience leading, managing, and mentoring a Production Support or Technical Support team.
• Proven experience managing critical incidents, coordinating technical teams, and providing executive-level status updates.
• Demonstrated experience with the full Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and deployment processes.
• Proven experience is Agile and Scrum methodologies including KanBan

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• ITIL Foundation Certification is highly desirable.

Other
Other information applicable to the opportunity:

• Contract position
• Location: Sandton

Why work for us?
Want to work for an organization that solves complex real-world problems with innovative software solutions? At iOCO, we believe anything is possible with modern technology, software, and development expertise. We are continuously pushing the boundaries of innovative solutions across multiple industries using an array of technologies.
You will be part of a consultancy, working with some of the most knowledgeable minds in the industry on interesting solutions across different business domains.
Our culture of continuous learning will ensure that you will have all the opportunities, tools, and support to hone and grow your craft.
By joining iOCO you will have an open invitation to developer inspiring forums. A place where you will be able to connect and learn from and with your peers by sharing ideas, experiences, practices, and solutions.
iOCO is an equal opportunity employer with an obligation to achieve its own unique EE objectives in the context of Employment Equity targets. Therefore, our employment strategy gives primary preference to previously disadvantaged individuals or groups.

Skills Required