A prominent financial institution in Johannesburg is seeking a skilled Trade Support Specialist to join their dynamic technology team. This role is crucial for ensuring the seamless operation of critical electronic trading and market-data platforms that underpin the organisation's financial markets activities. The successful candidate will be instrumental in maintaining the availability, stability, and overall resilience of these vital systems, working at the intersection of business operations and sophisticated technology.

This position offers the opportunity to engage directly with trading desks, collaborate with a wide array of internal technology departments, and liaise with external vendors and financial exchanges. It's a role that demands a blend of technical expertise, a deep understanding of the financial markets, and the ability to perform under pressure in a fast-paced environment.

About the Role

The core purpose of this role is to provide expert technical and operational support for the organisation's electronic trading and market-data infrastructure. This encompasses a broad range of responsibilities, including troubleshooting complex production issues across various technical layers – from applications and servers to databases and networks. You will be the go-to person for time-sensitive queries from trading desks, addressing challenges related to systems, connectivity, order flow, trade execution, and market data.

Beyond immediate incident resolution, the role involves a proactive approach to service improvement. This includes maintaining and enhancing monitoring systems, identifying potential performance bottlenecks or stability gaps, and implementing preventative measures. A significant aspect of the job will be the development and implementation of automation scripts to streamline manual processes and boost operational efficiency. You will also be responsible for maintaining comprehensive support documentation and driving the remediation of recurring technical problems.

Your day-to-day responsibilities will span several key areas:

• **Trading Systems Support:** Providing Level 1 and Level 2 technical and operational support for electronic trading and market-data platforms. This involves diagnosing and resolving intricate production issues across application, server, database, network, and integration layers.
• **Connectivity and Platform Administration:** Managing and troubleshooting exchange connectivity, FIX sessions, order routing mechanisms, trade execution systems, and market-data services. You'll also administer application access, user entitlements, trading sessions, and manage essential reference and static data.
• **Monitoring and Automation:** Proactively monitoring system health, setting up alerts, and developing dashboards to ensure operational resilience. You'll also identify areas for improvement in stability, performance, and monitoring, and create scripts to automate repetitive tasks.
• **Incident and Change Management:** Owning and managing incidents from initial diagnosis through to root cause analysis and permanent resolution. This includes coordinating responses to major incidents involving multiple business and technology teams, as well as vendors. You will also coordinate and support production changes, upgrades, patches, and application releases, ensuring operational readiness through testing and validation.
• **Vendor and Risk Management:** Collaborating with vendors and technology partners to resolve incidents, defects, and manage upgrades. You will also be responsible for supporting technology risk, audit, and regulatory compliance requirements for the supported platforms, and identifying and escalating any operational, security, or technology risks.
• **New Service Onboarding:** Playing a key role in the onboarding of new platforms, migrations, and production stabilization efforts, ensuring all necessary support processes, monitoring, and documentation are in place.

What They're Looking For

To be successful in this role, you will need a solid educational foundation, ideally a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Finance, or a related discipline. Practical experience is paramount, with a requirement of 3-5 years in a technology or production support environment. Prior exposure to trading systems or financial markets technology would be a significant advantage.

Essential technical skills include a strong understanding of electronic trading systems, financial markets, and the trade lifecycle. Familiarity with order routing, execution, market connectivity, and market-data flows is crucial. Experience with the FIX protocol, Linux/Unix environments, SQL, networking fundamentals, and general application troubleshooting is expected. Proficiency in scripting, automation, monitoring tools, and an understanding of cloud platforms and infrastructure are also highly valued. Knowledge of access management, cybersecurity principles, operational controls, disaster recovery, and resilience concepts will be beneficial.

Key competencies include exceptional analytical and troubleshooting abilities, a strong sense of ownership, and a results-oriented problem-solving mindset. The ability to remain calm and deliver effectively under the intense pressure of trading environments is vital. Clear and concise communication skills, both technical and business-oriented, are necessary for managing stakeholder and vendor relationships. The capacity to juggle day-to-day operations, incident management, change activities, and project priorities, coupled with a proactive approach to continuous improvement and automation, will set candidates apart. A strong focus on operational risk, control, and stability is also a must.

This role offers a pathway into the complex and rewarding world of financial technology support within a major South African banking group. Roles like this typically involve competitive remuneration packages, often with performance-based bonuses, reflecting the critical nature of the systems supported. Career progression could lead to senior support roles, team leadership, or specialisation in areas like automation engineering or system architecture within the financial services sector.

Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Finance or a related field

• 3-5 years' experience in a technology or production-support environment, ideally with exposure to trading systems or financial-markets technology

• Experience supporting business-critical enterprise applications and integrated technology environments

• Experience with incident, problem, change and release management   Experience working with technology vendors and cross-functional technical teams

Technical and Functional Skills

• Electronic trading systems, financial markets and trade lifecycle

• Order routing, execution, market connectivity and market-data flows

• FIX protocol and electronic trading connectivity

• Linux/Unix, SQL, networking and application troubleshooting

• Scripting, automation, monitoring and alerting technologies

• Cloud platforms and infrastructure

• Access management, cybersecurity and operational controls

• Disaster recovery and operational resilience 

Key Competencies

• Strong analytical and troubleshooting capability
• Ownership and problem-solving mindset
• Calm, effective delivery in time-sensitive trading environments
• Clear technical and business communication
• Stakeholder and vendor management
• Ability to balance BAU, incidents, change and project priorities
• Continuous-improvement and automation mindset
• Strong focus on operational risk, control and stability

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Important Closing Date Note

Take note that applications will not be accepted on the below date and onwards, kindly submit applications ahead of the closing date indicated below.