Senior Systems Engineer

London, United Kingdom

Full-time, Permanent

3 Days Onsite - Hybrid

The Senior Systems Engineer is a Tier 2 support role responsible for the stability, performance, and continuous improvement of business critical applications supporting the Global Financial Solutions (GFS) business unit. This role acts as the technical escalation point from Tier 1, provides deep application and systems expertise, and partners closely with development, infrastructure, and business stakeholders to resolve incidents, prevent recurrence, and improve service quality.

A critical aspect of this role is strong Microsoft SQL Server expertise, including the ability to analyze data issues, support reporting, troubleshoot performance problems, and safely execute data related activities in line with operational and regulatory controls.

The ideal candidate combines strong technical troubleshooting skills with a service oriented mindset and a solid understanding of financial services operational requirements.

Key Responsibilities:

• Provide Tier 2 support for GFS applications, including investigation, diagnosis, and resolution of complex incidents not resolved at Tier 1
• Act as an escalation point for application-related issues, ensuring timely resolution in line with SLAs and business priorities
• Investigate incidents across application, database, and infrastructure layers
• Manage incidents through to resolution, ensuring accurate documentation and stakeholder communication
• Participate in major incident bridges, providing clear technical leadership and communication
• Provide advanced support for MS SQL Server, including: writing and analyzing SQL queries, investigating data integrity and data quality issues, supporting application reporting and extracts, and troubleshooting performance and blocking issues
• Analyze SQL logs, queries, indexes, and execution plans to diagnose issues
• Work closely with DBAs and development teams on database‑related incidents and improvements
• Monitor application health, performance, and availability using enterprise monitoring tools. Identify trends and proactively address potential issues before they impact the business
• Partner with infrastructure and platform teams to ensure systems are resilient, scalable, and secure
• Support application releases, patches, and configuration changes, including validation and post‑deployment monitoring
• Review and assess changes for risk and operational readiness
• Collaborate closely with GFS business users to understand application usage, pain points, and operational needs
• Provide clear, concise communication to both technical and non‑technical stakeholders
• Create and maintain technical documentation, runbooks, and support procedures
• Contribute to knowledge articles to improve Tier 1 resolution rates and reduce incident volumes
• Identify opportunities to improve application reliability, supportability, and operational efficiency
• Support automation efforts for monitoring, alerting, and routine operational tasks
• Promote best practices in application support, security, and compliance

Required Skills & Experience:

• Strong experience supporting enterprise applications in a production environment
• Advanced Microsoft SQL Server Skills, including:
  • Complex SQL querying and data analysis
  • Understanding of indexing, query optimization, and performance tuning
  • Experience supporting reporting and data extracts
• Solid understanding of:
  • Application architecture and integrations
  • Operating systems (Windows)
  • APIs, batch processing, and job scheduling
• Experience with monitoring, logging, and alerting tools
• Ability to troubleshoot across application, infrastructure, and integration layers
• Typically 5+ years in application support, or a similar role
• Proven experience in a Tier 2 or Tier 3 support function
• Experience supporting systems in a financial services or regulated environment is strongly preferred
• Strong analytical and problem‑solving skills
• Calm, methodical approach when working under pressure
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and incidents concurrently
• Strong sense of ownership and accountability
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field, or equivalent experience
• ITIL Foundation or higher
• Relevant technical certifications (cloud, database, OS, or application platforms) are a plus