Systems Administrator at Standard Bank Group

Job Purpose

To perform systems administration duties in the Data Centre as directed by the Team Leader and Manager. These duties include but are not limited to:

• Intraday processing, start/end of day activities, month end activities.
• Housekeeping/capacity management in all production servers with special attention to Tier I and II applications servers.
• System maintenance activities, backups, restores, user management (creation/deletion/unlocking/locking etc), report printing, starting/stopping servers and processes etc.
• The systems administrator will undertake proactive monitoring and system performance of all servers, facilities equipment and channels, report/address any of the incidents/faults/alerts and escalate as necessary to the Team Leader. Where the Team Leader is not reachable, the escalation will be made to the Manager Datacentre.
• First point of call (after hours) and provision of support where necessary.

Key Responsibilities/Accountabilities

• Execute Start, intraday and End of day processes including weekly, monthly, quarterly, half yearly and year end processes successfully and ensure all processes/tasks are completed within the agreed times so as to ensure high availability of service to branches, head office departments and South Africa teams.
• Troubleshoot and provide technical support for electronic channels
• Work on multiple projects and ensure compliance with SLAs
• Perform system and data backups in accordance with agreed cycles and ensure that all tapes/storage media are appropriately stored per Group guidelines and standards.
• Perform system and application restores as and when requested and also according to the required.
• Print reports and statements and ensure timely distribution branch network and other head office departments.
• Monitor system, network and data storage capacity and ensure these are within optimum limits.
• Complete daily/weekly/monthly checklists for all routine process. Verify data integrity and completion of backups by executing predefined system checks.
• Conducting routine systems clean ups and other database/file management activities to ensure optimum system performance.
• Call logging on Team Track for afterhours calls, provide resolution and escalate where necessary to the Team Leader Datacentre.
• Monitor ATM server and network activity and advise ATM custodians of any down time.
• Collect and compile statistical information on system performance as directed by the Team Leader.
• Participate in project implementations as directed by Team Leader.
• Perform, maintain and manage up to date tape inventory of all LTO5 tapes used to take backups, ensure safe keeping to avoid security breaches and data losses; in addition, ensure proper documentation on the retrieval of the same.
• Assist with reports and data extraction when needed.
• Perform and implement efficient and secure procedures for data handling and analysis with attention to all technical aspects and also ensure that proper rules and procedures are upheld when sharing data with external stakeholders, management and internal users.
• Ensure the Data Centre environment is maintained in a tidy/clean state.
• Participate in all Disaster Recovery Testing and Simulation activities.

Preferred Qualification and Experience

• First Degree in Information Technology or Computer Science
• At least one year experience in any of the following areas: IT security, Infrastructure Technical Support, Systems Administration, Applications support, Electronic Banking/Channels Support, Programming, Database Administration or Systems Analysis.
• Banking/financial industry experience would be an added advantage.

Knowledge/Technical Skills/Expertise

• Strong problem solving skills.
• Technically competent with knowledge of systems management, development and implementation methods.
• Knowledge of the bank’s Core systems (T24 Core banking).
• Certification/Active Membership of a professional organisation would be an added advantage e.g. A+, N+, MCSE, CCNA, AIX/Linux.