15792 Application Support III

For more than three decades, Strategic Data Systems (SDS) has been a software consultancy firm specializing in strategy, technology, and business transformation for Fortune 100 companies, mid-sized firms, and startups. At SDS, we empower our development teams to address our clients’ critical business challenges by leveraging cutting edge technologies. If you seek a workplace where your contributions are truly appreciated, then SDS is the company for you. Join us today to work alongside fellow development specialists and become a crucial part of our dynamic and cohesive community.

Job Title: Support & Operations Engineer III

Location: Blue Ash, OH (Cincinnati) - please see below for more details

Years of Experience: 3+

**Must be eligible to convert to full time employment without sponsorship**

TOP SKILLS:

Major Incident Management experience — has actually run or driven a bridge/war-room for a P1/P2 outage, not just "participated." This is the core of the role; everything else is supporting it. Ask for a specific incident they led end-to-end.

RCA/Problem Management rigor — can articulate a structured RCA methodology (5-whys, fishbone, timeline reconstruction) and, more importantly, examples where they drove a corrective action to closure (not just wrote a doc that nobody actioned).

Production troubleshooting under pressure across a mixed stack — comfortable reading logs/dashboards (Dynatrace-type tooling) and reasoning about cloud + on-prem + store/POS systems simultaneously, since a real incident here will span all three.

Additional Information

• Site Reliability Engineers will be successful but must understand this is a support role
• Still lots of engineering involved, will be working in the code every day
• Looking for a solid and motivated technologist
• Candidate does not need to tick all skills boxes, but does need to be able to be onsite and travel

Are there any automatic disqualifiers?

• No on-call/off-hours availability
• Pure DevOps/CI-CD background with zero incident-response exposure

Logistics:

Travel Expectations

• Lots of flexibility, it will ebb and flow with needs
• Currently more local travel (Cincy and Louisville Stores) but as new sites go live, travel will expand
• Will be traveling every 4 weeks or so
• Travel and on call is split between 6 people - and expecting team to grow

On Call/ Off Hours Expectations

• Split between 6 people and rotates weekly
• Team is currently splitting 2 shifts a day
• Periodic off hours during go lives
• This team is an escalation point - they are not fielding everything
• There is flexibility and team makes sure to balance personal lives

Work location

• In office 5-days a week at Blue Ash location to work in lab
• Might be relaxed on onsite later down line once travel picks up
• Relocation is fine - Candidate can start remotely and relocate within 1 month of onboarding, will most likely still have to travel during that time

Prescreening Details

• Automated prescreening

Interview process details

• First round: HM
• Second round: Team Interview
• Possibly 3rd round on site if candidate is able to

What You’ll Do

• Level 3 (LV3) Support, Site Reliability, and Operations Engineer supporting Kroger's Next Generation Point of Sale (NGPOS) platform
• This team is embedded within the engineering organization, partnering directly with developers throughout the SDLC rather than sitting in a separate support silo
• We care more about problem-solving instinct, curiosity, and drive than a checklist of prior experience — the items below describe a strong match, not a hard bar, and candidates early in their career or without every listed skill are encouraged to apply
• In office, Blue Ash, OH — 5 days a week; willingness to travel and provide onsite support for new go-lives, pilots, and rollouts
• Participate in a scheduled on-call rotation (nights/weekends/holidays) for 24x7 support; PTO/leave may be restricted during peak retail periods and major go-lives
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field (or equivalent experience) preferred; prior experience in application support, operations, or engineering is a plus but not required
• Exposure to Point of Sale systems in enterprise environments is helpful; some experience with Java is preferred, Go is a plus
• Any exposure to SQL or NoSQL databases (e.g., MongoDB), scripting (Shell, PowerShell, or Python), or ITSM/monitoring tooling (ServiceNow, Jira, Confluence, Splunk, Grafana, or equivalent) is a plus — willingness to learn these on the job matters more than prior mastery
• Interest in or willingness to learn payment card security standards (PCI-DSS)
• Excellent oral and written communication skills; able to translate between business users and Kroger Technology teams
• Familiarity with the Agile process is helpful; experience as a Scrum Master a plus
• Willingness to speak up and challenge developers on Agile best practices and definitions of done during refinement and QA
• Accountable for driving support tickets and emails to resolution
• Good judgment under pressure; able to prioritize across competing support, testing, and scrum-master duties

Key Responsibilities

• Partner with cross-functional teams to expedite issue resolution and manage to SLAs
• Support and maintain infrastructure and applications, including off-hours support (24 x 7) as required
• Test infrastructure and application changes
• Establish priorities and develop functional and programming specifications for application enhancements and modifications
• Participate in the application technical design process; design, code, and unit test application changes using SDLC best practices
• Complete estimates and work plans for design, development, implementation, and rollout tasks
• Monitor systems, consoles, and performance for service interruptions or delays
• Address and resolve infrastructure system failures
• Execute, log, and report break/fix changes, service requests, and support activities
• Maintain operational procedures, processes, and scripts; follow documented processes to ensure infrastructure stability
• Own incident and problem management: drive major incident response, root cause analysis, and post-incident reviews
• Champion engineering standards and continuously improve software delivery processes
• Build partnerships across application, business, and infrastructure teams
• Independently execute large projects and lead other analysts in completing projects

What You’ll Get

SDS, Inc. provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, amnesty, or status as a covered veteran in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws.

• Competitive base salary
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance coverage
• Optional life and disability insurance provided
• 401(k) with a company match and optional profit sharing
• Paid vacation time
• Paid Bench time
• Training allowance offering
• You’ll be eligible to earn referral bonuses!