Sr. Analyst – Applications Support (Permanent – Onsite – Houston, TX)
A global leader in the Computer and Mathematical industry is seeking a highly skilled and strategic Sr. Analyst – Applications Support (Permanent – Onsite – Houston, TX) to join their team. This permanent position, based onsite in Houston, Texas, is crucial for developing, leading, supporting, and implementing application solutions across MEMS and MEPUSA, with a strong focus on SharePoint and Microsoft Power Platform. The ideal candidate will possess deep expertise in automating and optimizing business processes, exceptional communication abilities, and the capacity to work independently in a dynamic environment, aligning successfully with the organization’s commitment to innovation and operational excellence.
Sr. Analyst – Applications Support (Permanent – Onsite – Houston, TX)
Location: Houston, TX – This is an Onsite role, requiring daily presence at the designated facility.
Employment Type: Permanent
Industry: Computer and Mathematical
Summary: Driving Business Transformation Through Application Solutions
The Sr. Analyst – Application Support will leverage their expertise in SharePoint and the Microsoft Power Platform (Power Automate, Power Apps, Power BI) to conceptualize, lead, support, and implement robust application solutions across the MEMS and MEPUSA entities. This pivotal role is centered on enhancing business processes through the development of custom workflows, intuitive applications, and insightful dashboards. Beyond development, this specialist will oversee critical operational tasks such as user onboarding and offboarding, precise account provisioning, and comprehensive equipment support. The ideal candidate will bring extensive experience in SharePoint Online development, a keen eye for UI/UX design, strong proficiency in .NET/C#/JavaScript, and a solid command of SQL. A proven track record of streamlining operations utilizing Power Automate is essential. Success in this dynamic environment hinges on exceptional collaboration with IT and business stakeholders, superior communication skills, and a demonstrated ability to operate autonomously.
Essential Functions & Responsibilities: Orchestrating Application Excellence
As a Sr. Analyst – Application Support, your responsibilities will encompass the entire lifecycle of enterprise applications, blending technical mastery with strategic management to ensure seamless operations and continuous improvement.
- Comprehensive Business Application Support: You will provide overarching support for all business applications, ensuring their continuous availability and optimal performance. This includes diligently managing regular support requests, being available for after-hours support, and providing weekend coverage as needed to address critical issues that impact global operations, including facilitating meetings with the Tokyo office. Your commitment ensures minimal downtime for vital business tools.
- Dedicated User Support and Liaison Services: You will deliver direct and empathetic user support, acting as the primary point of contact for inquiries and issues related to assigned applications. Furthermore, you will serve as a crucial liaison between users and vendors, translating user needs into vendor requirements and ensuring vendor solutions align with business expectations, thereby facilitating effective problem resolution and communication.
- Oversee and Direct Client Application Rollout: You will take a leading role in overseeing and directing the rollout of client applications. This encompasses a meticulous process that includes comprehensive documentation of new deployments, rigorous testing to validate functionality and performance, expert diagnosis and resolution of problems encountered during rollout, continuous monitoring and alerting post-deployment, and planning for future enhancements to ensure long-term success and user adoption.
- Conduct In-depth Data Analysis: You will perform in-depth data analysis to identify trends and drive data-driven decisions. This involves collecting, cleaning, and interpreting complex datasets related to application usage, performance, and user feedback. Your analytical insights will inform strategic recommendations for application optimization, process improvements, and resource allocation, ensuring that decisions are backed by solid evidence.
- Develop and Optimize Provisioning, Patching, and Upgrade Processes: You will actively develop and optimize critical processes for application provisioning, patching, and upgrades. This includes designing automated workflows for deploying new application instances, streamlining the application of security patches and updates to minimize downtime and risk, and optimizing upgrade procedures to ensure smooth transitions to newer versions. Your work enhances application security, stability, and efficiency across the enterprise.
- Design and Automate Custom Reports: You will be responsible for designing and automating custom reports specifically tailored to improve operational efficiency. This involves understanding stakeholder reporting needs, extracting relevant data from various application databases, and creating automated solutions (e.g., using Power BI, SQL scripts, or Power Automate) that generate accurate, timely, and insightful reports without manual intervention, thereby freeing up resources and accelerating decision-making.
- Enhance Application System Performance: You will continuously enhance application system performance through advanced tuning and monitoring. This includes identifying performance bottlenecks (e.g., slow queries, inefficient code, resource contention), optimizing application configurations, fine-tuning database parameters, and implementing solutions that ensure applications respond quickly and reliably, directly impacting user productivity and satisfaction.
- Own the Full Life Cycle of Applications: You will assume comprehensive ownership of the full life cycle of assigned applications. This includes involvement from the initial selection and evaluation of new software, through meticulous implementation and execution, to continuous improvement (including feature enhancements and performance optimization), and ultimately, thoughtful decommissioning when applications reach their end-of-life. This holistic responsibility ensures applications are managed strategically throughout their existence.
- Lead and Manage Application-Related Projects: You will take a leading role in leading and managing application-related projects according to industry best practices (e.g., Agile, Waterfall). This involves defining project scope, establishing timelines, allocating resources, managing budgets, mitigating risks, and ensuring that all projects are delivered on time, within scope, and within budget, driving successful outcomes for new functionalities or major enhancements.
- Establish Governance, Policies, and Procedures: You will contribute significantly to establishing robust governance, policies, and procedures designed to optimize application utilization. This includes developing guidelines for user access, data handling, configuration management, and security. Your efforts will minimize operational costs, streamline workflows, and ensure strict compliance with both internal business and external regulatory requirements (e.g., in the Oil and Gas industry, which often involves specific compliance needs).
- Serve as Highest Level of Escalation and Provide Strategic Analysis: You will serve as the highest level of escalation for application-related issues, proactively resolving complex production problems that frontline support cannot address. Beyond immediate resolution, you will provide strategic analysis and recommendations to management, identifying systemic issues, proposing long-term solutions, and contributing to strategic planning for the application portfolio.
- Develop and Maintain Strong Vendor Relationships: You will cultivate and maintain strong vendor relationships with third-party software providers. This involves negotiating service agreements (SLAs), managing vendor performance to ensure alignment with business objectives, advocating for new functionality in future releases, and serving as the primary technical liaison for issue resolution and strategic planning.
- Drive Innovation and Continuous Improvement: You will actively drive innovation and continuous improvement within the application portfolio. This involves proactively identifying emerging technologies, evaluating their potential benefits, and recommending enhancements to existing applications or the adoption of new solutions that can significantly improve business processes and operational capabilities.
- Other Duties as Assigned: You will be flexible and willing to perform other duties as assigned that fall within the scope of application support, management, and engineering, contributing to the overall success and adaptability of the IT department.
Required Skills & Abilities: Your Core Competencies for Success
To excel in this Sr. Analyst – Applications Support role, you will need a robust blend of technical expertise, strong communication, and a strategic mindset, particularly with Microsoft technologies and a focus on operational efficiency.
- Advanced Communication Skills: You must possess exceptional verbal and written communication skills. This includes the advanced ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly and concisely to both highly technical peers and non-technical business stakeholders, leadership, and end-users. You should be adept at leading meetings, confidently presenting findings and recommendations to leadership, and drafting strategic documentation (e.g., architectural diagrams, policy documents, project plans) that is clear, accurate, and impactful.
- Expertise in Third-Party Software (Microsoft 365 & Power Platform): You must demonstrate extensive experience and expertise with Microsoft 365, including its various components. Specifically, deep knowledge of SharePoint Online development is required, encompassing site creation, list/library management, permissions, and custom solutions. Crucially, you must have advanced experience with the Microsoft Power Platform, including Power Apps (for custom low-code/no-code application development) and Power Automate (for workflow automation). This expertise includes a deep understanding of how to optimize and customize these tools to enhance business processes, create custom workflows, and build intuitive applications that streamline operations.
- Advanced Proficiency with Microsoft Applications and SQL: You will possess advanced proficiency with core Microsoft applications, including the entire Office suite (Word, PowerPoint, Outlook). You must have particularly strong skills in Excel, utilizing advanced functions, pivot tables, data visualization, and potentially VBA for complex data analysis and reporting. Alongside this, strong SQL proficiency is essential for querying databases, analyzing data, and troubleshooting application-related data issues.
- Ability to Design, Implement, and Optimize BI Tools and Cloud Apps: You will have the advanced ability to design, implement, and optimize Business Intelligence (BI) tools and cloud-based applications, with a strong focus on data integration. This includes experience with platforms like Power BI, designing data models, creating interactive dashboards, and ensuring seamless data flow from various sources into BI solutions to support data-driven decision-making.
- Proficiency with Specific Third-Party Software Adoption and Support: You must have the ability to effectively and quickly demonstrate proficiency in the adoption and support of specific third-party software licensed to the Company. This indicates adaptability and quick learning in handling specialized applications such as:
- Allegro Horizon ETRM (Energy Trading and Risk Management): For managing energy commodities trading.
- Document Intelligence: For advanced document processing and automation.
- Enverus Products: A suite of energy industry data and analytics solutions.
- Quorum: For oil and gas industry business processes.
- Aucerna Execute: For capital project management in oil and gas.
- zdSCADA: Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition systems for industrial automation.
- Spotfire: For data visualization and analytics. This diverse list indicates a need for a highly adaptable individual with a strong background in supporting complex, industry-specific applications, particularly in the Oil and Gas domain.
- Understanding of IT Controls, Document Management, Automation, and Audit: You should possess a foundational understanding of the concepts behind IT controls (e.g., Sarbanes-Oxley, internal controls), Document & Contract Lifecycle Management (DLM/CLM), Automation principles, and Audit requirements. This ensures you can implement solutions that are not only efficient but also compliant and secure.
- Basic Commercial Concepts in Oil and Gas (Plus): A general understanding of the basic commercial concepts behind Oil and Gas Accounting, Lease Management, and gas and power trading is a significant plus. This domain knowledge will enable you to better understand user requirements and design more effective solutions tailored to the industry’s unique business processes.
- Ability to Work Independently: You must have the ability to work independently under limited supervision. This demonstrates self-motivation, initiative, and accountability in managing tasks, prioritizing workload, and driving projects to completion without constant oversight.
Education & Experience: Your Professional Journey
To qualify for this Sr. Analyst – Applications Support role, candidates should meet the following educational and experiential criteria:
- Bachelor’s Degree or Equivalent: A bachelor’s degree in computer science, management information systems, or equivalent related work experience is required. This academic background provides a strong foundation in information systems principles and problem-solving.
- Extensive Information Systems and Applications Experience: A minimum of 5 years of working experience with information systems and applications is required. This experience should involve hands-on support, administration, or development, demonstrating a proven track record of managing complex IT solutions. Alternatively, equivalent project management-related experience that involved deep engagement with application lifecycle management is acceptable.
- Oil & Gas Industry Experience (Preferred): A minimum of 3 years of working experience with information systems and applications in the Oil & Gas industry is highly preferred. This specialized industry experience indicates familiarity with the unique challenges, terminology, and compliance requirements inherent in the energy sector, allowing for faster ramp-up and more effective solution delivery.
Other Requirements: Essential Workplace Competencies
Beyond technical skills, success in this role demands a set of key professional competencies:
- Customer-Oriented IT Team Mentality: You must possess the ability to work effectively in a customer-oriented IT team with a strong “Users First” and “Business Enabler” mentality. This means prioritizing user needs, striving to empower business functions through technology, and viewing IT as a strategic partner to the organization.
- Exceptional Communication and Organization: You will exhibit excellent written and oral communication skills, along with the ability to provide reliable and informative project status updates to supervisors and users. Your excellent organizational, analytical skills will be crucial. Furthermore, you must have excellent phone support and customer service skills, ensuring professional and effective interactions with all stakeholders.
- Independent and Team Collaboration: You must demonstrate the ability to work independently on tasks and projects while also being a strong team player with the ability to work collaboratively in a team environment. This balance is essential for individual contribution and collective success.
- Cross-Level Interface Capability: You will have the ability to interface effectively across different levels of the business, from end-users to senior management, tailoring your communication and approach to each audience.
- Multi-Tasking Capability: You must possess the ability to work on multiple tasks at any one time, effectively prioritizing and managing diverse responsibilities in a dynamic work environment.
- Complex Idea Explanation: You will have the ability to explain complex ideas in a cohesive and clear manner, simplifying intricate technical concepts for non-technical stakeholders to ensure understanding and buy-in.
Language Skills:
- English Fluency: Fluent verbal and written skills in English are required for all communication and documentation.
Licenses, Certificates, Registrations (Plus):
- Microsoft Certified: Power Platform Fundamentals (PL-900) is a plus: This certification validates foundational knowledge of the Microsoft Power Platform.
- Microsoft Certified: Power Automate RPA Developer Associate (PL-500) is a plus: This certification demonstrates expertise in building Robotic Process Automation (RPA) solutions with Power Automate.
- Project Management Professional (PMP) certification with IT-focused projects is a plus: This widely recognized certification indicates advanced project management skills, specifically applied to IT projects.
Work Environment & Physical Demands:
This job operates in a professional office environment in Houston, TX, and routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers, phones, photocopiers, and filing cabinets. Physical demands include:
- Prolonged Sitting: Prolonged periods of sitting are common.
- Routine Movement: May need to routinely move around the office to communicate with different groups.
- Occasional Late Work: Occasionally work late to meet business demands and to facilitate meetings with global offices (e.g., Tokyo office).
- Lifting: Must be able to lift up to 15 pounds at times.
- Valid Driver’s License: Must have a valid DL.
If this Sr. Analyst – Applications Support role in Houston, TX, aligns with your expertise in SharePoint and the Microsoft Power Platform, your experience with complex application support in an enterprise (preferably Oil & Gas) environment, and your passion for driving business optimization, we encourage you to learn more about this exceptional permanent opportunity. This is a chance to lead, innovate, and make a significant impact on critical business applications.
To take the next step in your career and potentially contribute to a dynamic team, click “Apply Now.” A recruiter will be in touch with you promptly to discuss this outstanding opportunity in greater detail, answer any questions you may have, and guide you through the application process. We look forward to connecting with you and exploring how your expertise can help shape the future of our application landscape!
Job Features
Job Category | IT |