Application Production Support Specialist

Job Summary / About the Role Client is seeking a technically strong and self-sufficient Tier 1 Application Production Support Specialist to provide 24x7 support for critical enterprise integration, messaging, and event-driven applications. This is not a pure monitoring or escalation role. The ideal candidate is expected to independently identify root causes, apply fixes, and resolve the majority of incidents without Tier 2 involvement. Tier 2 is engaged only for complex or architectural issues that go beyond Tier 1 resolution scope. The candidate must have solid working knowledge of the full technology stack and the ability to triage, diagnose, and remediate issues end-to-end. Key Responsibilities - Provide 24x7 support for incidents, alerts, and operational issues with a strong bias towards independent identification and resolution. - Triage and diagnose incidents using logs, monitoring dashboards, and platform knowledge; resolve issues directly without defaulting to escalation. - Engage Tier 2 only when incidents involve architectural complexity, infrastructure-level failures, or changes beyond Tier 1 resolution authority. - Support client-submitted iTrack incident tickets and maintain end-to-end ticket ownership including resolution and closure. - Respond to PagerDuty and automated alerts; validate, investigate, and remediate before escalating. - Monitor production and non-production environment health; proactively identify anomalies and take corrective action. - Monitor application support mailboxes and manage operational follow-through. - Provide C2W emergency support as the first responder; independently handle and resolve wherever possible. - Share client profile data and usage reports on request. - Maintain clear incident communication to clients even when Tier 2 is engaged. - Track and report operational metrics including MTTR and ticket resolution trends. - Develop and maintain Tier 1 SOPs and operational runbooks based on real resolution patterns. Required Qualifications / Must-Have Skills - 4 years of experience in application production support with a strong track record of independently diagnosing and resolving incidents. - Solid working knowledge of the full technology stack in scope including event streaming platforms, integration middleware, AKS-hosted microservices, and observability tooling. - Hands-on experience with incident lifecycle management in ticketing systems (iTrack or equivalent), including root cause identification and resolution documentation. - Proficient with Splunk, PagerDuty, Prometheus, and Grafana for active troubleshooting and issue resolution, not just monitoring. - Hands-on operational experience with Kubernetes, especially Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), including pod-level diagnostics, restarts, and health investigation. - Practical working knowledge of Confluent Kafka and Azure Event Hub: consumer lag analysis, topic health checks, and message flow troubleshooting. - Solid SQL/Postgres skills for data-level investigation and validation during incidents. - Working ability to read and interpret Java, Spring Boot, and React application logs for issue identification. - Basic Python scripting capability for operational checks and quick-fix automation. - Good Linux/Unix command-line skills for real-time log analysis and system diagnostics. - Strong written and verbal communication skills for incident updates, resolution documentation, and client coordination. - Willingness to work in rotational 24x7 shifts. Good-to-Have / Nice-to-Have - Awareness of hybrid streaming ecosystems including Confluent Cloud, AWS-MSK, and Apache Flink. - Exposure to IBM Sterling Integrator integration flows for context during incident triage. - Telecom or high-availability enterprise support experience. - Experience with CI/CD-driven deployment pipelines in a support context.