Technology Specialist

Position: Senior Support Engineer

Organisation: Retail Applications

Role Overview

The Senior Support Engineer operates at the advanced end of the support organization, providing deep technical investigation and resolution capability across complex, multi-technology environments. This role sits at the boundary between support and engineering, owning the most challenging incidents and acting as a technical authority across the teams it serves.

The engineer works across a broad technology stack including IoT-connected systems, relational and non-relational databases, cloud platforms, messaging infrastructure, and enterprise application layers, and is expected to apply structured diagnostic thinking regardless of the technology domain.

Operating within a pod rotation model, the Senior Support Engineer builds deep specialist expertise across defined technology areas over time, developing into a well-rounded technical SME capable of leading investigations across the full portfolio.

The role operates within a 24x7 support organization.

Pod Rotation Model

The Senior Support Engineer operates within a multi-pod support structure, aligned to defined technology and product domains. Rotation across pods enables the engineer to:

• Build deep technical expertise within each domain

• Understand interdependencies between application, platform, data, and infrastructure layers

• Act as a senior technical contributor within each assigned pod, leading investigations and mentoring

• Carry knowledge forward between pods, reducing single-point-of-expertise risk

• Support pod readiness for new product introductions, platform changes, and technology rollouts

Key Responsibilities

Advanced Technical Support

• Own the most complex and high-severity escalated incidents, providing structured, evidence-led investigation

• Diagnose issues spanning multiple technology layers: application, database, operating system, network, API, IoT/edge, and cloud

• Analyse logs, telemetry, database diagnostics, API traces, and system-level output to identify root cause

• Reproduce issues in controlled or lab environments to validate hypotheses and confirm fixes

• Provide interim workarounds and long-term remediation recommendations where engineering changes are required

• Support IoT-connected systems and edge infrastructure, ensuring stable communication between devices, middleware, platform services, and cloud layers

Database & Data Layer Support

• Investigate database-level issues across relational platforms (e.g., SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL) and non-relational platforms (e.g., MongoDB, Redis, Elasticsearch)

• Analyse query performance, indexing strategies, locking and blocking behaviour, schema integrity, and data consistency issues

• Identify and document application-to-database interaction defects for escalation to engineering

• Support data migration, patching, and upgrade activities where they intersect with customer-impacting incidents

• Understand and troubleshoot ORM behaviour, connection pooling, and transaction management where relevant to investigation

IoT & Connected Systems

• Support IoT-enabled environments including edge devices, on-premise gateways, and cloud-connected endpoints

• Troubleshoot device connectivity, state management, and communication failures across IoT stacks

• Diagnose messaging infrastructure issues (e.g., MQTT, AMQP, event bus patterns) and their downstream impact on system behaviour

• Identify firmware, driver, or OS-level contributions to device failures and escalate with complete diagnostic context

• Understand edge-to-cloud data flows and the failure modes that can occur at each layer

Service Ownership & Collaboration

• Retain end-to-end ownership of assigned incidents through to resolution or formal engineering handoff

• Provide clear, high-quality diagnostic summaries to Engineering and DevOps teams, including reproduction steps, logs, evidence, and probable root cause analysis

• Collaborate closely with Engineering, DevOps/SRE, Product Management, and platform teams

• Maintain strong, proactive communication with customers, reinforcing confidence and ownership throughout the incident lifecycle

Escalation & Problem Management

• Escalate issues only after full technical investigation and in line with defined escalation paths

• Identify recurring patterns across application, data, device, or infrastructure layers and feed findings into Problem Management

• Contribute to long-term service improvements that reduce repeat incidents and improve platform stability

• Participate in post-incident reviews and ensure learnings are captured and shared

Documentation, Knowledge & Technical Leadership

• Produce high-quality technical documentation including knowledge articles, troubleshooting guides, and platform interaction references

• Mentor and coach Level 1 and Level 2 engineers in advanced troubleshooting techniques, log analysis, and diagnostic discipline

• Act as a technical escalation point within the support organisation and assigned product pods

• Support cross-training, pod rotations, and readiness for new products, platform changes, and technology rollouts

Skills & Experience

Required

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience

• 3-5+ years in a senior technical support, software support, or systems engineering role

• Strong experience with Windows and/or Linux operating systems

• Demonstrable experience investigating relational database issues (query analysis, performance, integrity)

• Exposure to IoT concepts, edge computing, or connected device environments

• Ability to analyse complex logs, API traces, diagnostics, and system telemetry

• Strong written and verbal communication skills in English

Desirable

• Experience with NoSQL databases (MongoDB, Redis, Elasticsearch, or similar)

• Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and cloud-native architectures

• Exposure to containerisation and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes)

• Understanding of messaging protocols (MQTT, AMQP, Kafka, or similar)

• Networking fundamentals: TCP/IP, DNS, TLS, proxies, and firewalls

• Development or code-level debugging experience (e.g., Python, C#, Java, PowerShell)

• Experience in enterprise or distributed systems environments

• Familiarity with ITSM platforms such as ServiceNow

Core Competencies

• Deep analytical and root-cause analysis capability across multiple technology domains

• Strong ownership and accountability for customer outcomes

• Ability to operate effectively in complex, ambiguous technical environments

• Professional, confident, and customer-focused communicator

• Collaborative, team-oriented mindset

• Commitment to continuous learning and skill expansion across pods and technology areas

Career Progression

This role provides strong progression pathways into:

• Platform or Product Engineering

• DevOps / Site Reliability Engineering

• Principal Support Engineering

• Technical Leadership roles within the organisation

The Senior Support Engineer sits within the structured support model: Level 1 (intake and resolution) - Level 2 (deep investigation) - Senior Engineer / Level 3 (technical authority and complex RCA) - Engineering and platform roles.

Regards,

Jemima Dasari

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