Environment Management Analyst, Internet Development

The position is located in Northbrook, IL

 

Internet Channel Technology (ICT) is responsible for the development, maintenance, support and measurement of consumer Internet applications. 

 

Environment Management Analyst - Designs, develops, maintains, supports, and tests environments and infrastructure (e.g., servers, mainframes, etc.) to meet business needs. This job will be a member of the ICT Operation Services Team that provides services including server configuration & management, build and migration of application projects, production support, performance monitoring and capacity planning.

The primary responsibility of this role is to perform application build, migration and configuration activities in support of solution delivery for ICT applications on the Windows platform.

 

Primary Responsibilities: Manages the support incident and issue resolution process. Plans and executes configuration management activities related to code promotion.Supports application, hardware, and software health and resiliency. Creates, and maintains the environments such as:

o  Development

o  Test

o  Training

o  ProductionProactively monitors and supports production environment. Provides on-call support and escalates and coordinates resolution with other groups. Drives root-cause analysis on incidents to provide future application resiliency. Creates and maintains back-up and recovery processes. Provides input into detailed project estimates and work plan. Establishes and monitors application security.

 

Specific Responsibilities: Contributes to the development and update of the configuration management plan related to code promotion as directed. Develops, maintains and uses production monitoring tools. Follows an established, documented process for code migration and reports exceptions. Partners with software vendors to configure packaged software in the Allstate environment. Supports root-cause analysis on intermediate to moderately complex incidents to provide future application, hardware and/or software resiliency. Perform application build, migration and configuration activities in support of solution delivery. Designs the environment(s) for a business function or specific application. Monitors the daily use of the environment(s) in their area of responsibility. Coordinates with others to develop and maintain the production environment for broader and more complex applications. Checks application health logs, statistics, job history, and script results to determine need for action. Follows procedures methodically for ensuring uniform monitoring. Analyzes hardware and system software needs for the production system. Identifies improvement opportunities. Responds to calls, determines severity, and takes action within the specified service level for rapid response support. Resolves issue/problem or escalates as needed. Documents issue resolution and posts to appropriate logs for future reference. Leads the effort to determine the originating factors for a given incident and develop recommendations for preventing its repetition. Analyzes problems and develops solution alternatives. Recommends best alternatives and implements upon approval. Conducts tests of back-up procedures to ensure integrity of the back-ups. Maintains catalogs of back-up volumes. Consolidates recovery requirements of all service agreements. Assists with recovery/roll-back as necessary. Develops or confirms project plans and estimates for environment management activities. Develops plans to meet required service levels. Designs data collection and reporting mechanisms for application health reporting.Diagnoses deviation or substandard security performance. Identifies and addresses expected capacity shortfalls. Cooperates with the security coordinator or directly with AIS to establish and maintain required application security. Provides a security monitoring function for applications for which they are responsible.Updates security requirements as necessary based on changes in security rules and business application changes. Creates operational support tools for monitoring and reporting application health. Develops automated scripts for use in configuring and maintaining server images. Loads and maintains test data in cooperation with Quality Control Analysts. Serves as liaison to the enterprise technology organization for environment standards. Mentors and coaches peers and colleagues. Builds and sustains relationships. Supports process improvements. Supports corporate strategy. Designs operational tools to support application health monitoring and reporting needs. Independently creates operational tools. Prepares intermediate program scripts to run automated software updates. Packages intermediate program scripts and distributes to appropriate personnel. Reviews and approves scripts and packaging prepared by specialists. Reviews, introduces and follows enterprise environment standards. Partners with other APT and business groups to interpret and implement enterprise standards. Provides informal training to specialists and other professionals on the team. Builds, cultivates, and maintains long term relationships. Manages the expectations of customers. Assists in maintaining contact with software vendors and other groups external to the Allstate organization. Identifies and implements improvements to internal team processes or to supported business's processes, products, or services. Prepares estimates and implementation plans for best practices to be introduced into the organization. Supports and identifies opportunities to achieve the APT and corporate strategy.

 

The skills required are:

 

Computer Operations Procedures - Proficiency Level 3

System Migration - Proficiency Level 3

Application Operational Knowledge - Proficiency Level 2

Production Support Standards and Procedures - Proficiency Level 2

Configuration Management - Proficiency Level 3, Change Management - Proficiency Level 2

 

Experience Required: 3-5 years experience in Environmental Management (or equivalent) role. Must have working knowledge of network security, LAN Administration, Web and server Administration. Must have very good communication/ interpersonal skills; ability to interact with a variety of teams (this person will be interfacing with Project teams, Data Centers, ECC, Database Administrators, test teams, Service Solution Teams, programmers/application developers, deployment team and business customers--Customer Experience, Billing and Marketing.) Excellent problem solving/troubleshooting skills. Working knowledge of databases, particularly SQL. Working experience in Web based/Internet environment.

BIG PLUS SKILLS: Background in some type of programming. Working knowledge of databases (SQL & Oracle would be perfect). Previous work experience in big companies with large websites & initiatives. Virtual server experience & familiarity. Bachelors degree in IT related area preferred. May consider equivalent work experience, but some college is a must. 

 

Computer Proficiency:

Windows Operating System, IIS, web technologies, scripting, basic SQL knowledge, .NET, Visual Basic, Microsoft Security (file & share permissions), VSS, Sharepoint, Microsoft Office Suite, USD.

 

Education:

College Degree  - Preferred

Major preference: Open