This role at FNB offers a critical opportunity for a skilled Trade Support Specialist to become an integral part of their Foreign Exchange (FX) e-Trading operations. Based in Johannesburg, this position focuses on providing robust Level 2 production support for the entire FX e-Trading technology stack. The successful candidate will be instrumental in ensuring the smooth functioning of front-office trading activities, maintaining the integrity of pricing and trade flows, and efficiently resolving incidents across various integrated systems. A key objective of this role is to minimise the reliance on Level 3 support teams, thereby enhancing the overall operational efficiency and responsiveness of the FX e-Trading department.

About the Role

The core of this position revolves around delivering dedicated, high-quality production support for the FX e-Trading platforms. This involves acting as a primary point of contact for front-office users, addressing their technical and functional needs in real-time. You will be responsible for monitoring the health of the FX ecosystem, which includes pricing engines, trade execution, booking systems, and downstream data flows. Your proactive approach will be crucial in identifying and resolving issues related to pricing, execution, credit limits, connectivity, and market data. This role demands ownership of incidents from diagnosis through to resolution, including effective escalation to Level 3 teams or external vendors when necessary. Clear and timely communication with stakeholders in trading, eClient Services, and technology departments regarding incident status and service impact is also a vital aspect of the job.

Your daily responsibilities will encompass a wide range of critical support functions. You will actively monitor the FX platform's performance, paying close attention to trade processing, interface health, FIX connectivity, and market data feeds. Troubleshooting will involve tracing issues across all FX products, including complex integrations and market data providers, often requiring in-depth log analysis, transaction tracing, and validation of pricing and trade data. A proactive element of the role includes identifying recurring failures and implementing improvements to monitoring tools, alerting mechanisms, operational documentation, and control frameworks.

Furthermore, you will be involved in platform administration, managing user access, entitlements, and configurations for clients and instruments. Supporting daily operational checks, addressing credit and limit-related queries, and facilitating client enablement will also fall under your purview. Maintaining up-to-date runbooks, support procedures, and escalation paths is essential for knowledge transfer and consistent service delivery.

You will also play a role in change and release management, supporting platform upgrades, configuration changes, and post-release validation. Participating in User Acceptance Testing (UAT), production readiness checks, and hypercare phases for new FX capabilities will be required. This includes supporting disaster recovery and resilience testing across the FX stack, necessitating close coordination with network, infrastructure, database, and cybersecurity teams, as well as external vendors, especially during complex multi-layer incidents or changes.

Finally, you will collaborate closely with the FX eTrading Technology team, trading desks, and vendors to enhance service quality. A significant aspect of the role involves contributing to service improvement initiatives, such as reducing repeat incidents through root cause analysis, implementing permanent fixes, and driving automation and better observability. Building FX platform knowledge within the broader support function and reducing dependency on Level 3 resources are key strategic goals. You will also support the migration and stabilisation of new FX capabilities as the technology landscape evolves.

What They're Looking For

To be successful in this role, candidates should possess a Bachelor's Degree in a relevant field such as Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or Finance. A minimum of 3 to 5 years of experience in application or production support is required, with a strong preference for candidates who have worked within FX, electronic trading, or financial markets technology environments. Prior experience supporting business-critical applications in a front-office or time-sensitive setting is essential. Familiarity with incident, problem, change, and release management processes, working with both internal technical teams and external vendors, is also a key requirement.

Technically, proficiency in FX products like Spot, Forwards, Swaps, and NDFs is important, along with a solid understanding of the FX trade lifecycle, pricing, execution, and post-trade flows. Experience with platforms like SmartTrade or comparable FX e-Trading systems would be advantageous. Knowledge of the FIX protocol and eTrading connectivity is crucial. Competency in Linux/Unix environments, SQL, networking fundamentals, and log analysis is expected. Experience with monitoring, alerting, scripting, and automation tools will be highly valued. Furthermore, experience troubleshooting market data and integration issues, coupled with a strong understanding of operational risk and change control procedures, will be beneficial.

In South Africa, trade support specialist roles, particularly within the demanding financial markets sector, typically command competitive salaries reflecting the specialised skills and critical nature of the work. Employers often include major banking institutions, investment firms, and financial technology providers. Career progression can lead to senior support roles, team leadership, or specialisation in areas like system architecture or business analysis within the trading technology domain.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Finance or related field
• 3-5 years' application or production-support experience, preferably within FX, electronic trading or financial-markets technology
• Experience supporting business-critical applications in a front-office or time-sensitive environment
• Experience with incident, problem, change and release management across technical teams and vendors

TECHNICAL AND FUNCTIONAL SKILLS

• FX products: Spot, Forwards, Swaps and NDFs
• FX trade lifecycle, pricing, execution and post-trade flows
• SmartTrade or comparable FX eTrading support
• FIX protocol and eTrading connectivity
• Linux/Unix, SQL, networking and log analysis
• Monitoring, alerting, scripting and automation• Market-data and integration troubleshooting
• Operational risk, change control and DR

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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.