Lead - Application Support & Operations

Orion Innovation is a premier, award-winning, global business and technology services firm. Orion delivers game-changing business transformation and product development rooted in digital strategy, experience design, and engineering, with a unique combination of agility, scale, and maturity. We work with a wide range of clients across many industries including financial services, professional services, telecommunications and media, consumer products, automotive, industrial automation, professional sports and entertainment, life sciences, ecommerce, and education.

Role Summary:

We are seeking a senior resource to lead the Application Support and Operations function for enterprise-grade applications hosted on Microsoft Azure. This role will be responsible for ensuring high availability, operational excellence, and continuous improvement through automation and AI-driven practices. The candidate will lead a global support team and act as a key liaison between engineering, vendors (including Microsoft), and business stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities

• Operational Leadership

• Lead day-to-day operations of the Application Support & Operations team, ensuring efficient ticket triage, troubleshooting, and resolution

• Manage and mentor a global team (~8 analysts across onshore and offshore)

• Own application uptime, SLA adherence, and operational stability

• Incident & Problem Management

• Act as the escalation point for critical incidents and perform hands-on troubleshooting

• Conduct root cause analysis (RCA) and implement preventive measures

• Enforce ITIL best practices across incident, problem, and change management

• Azure & Technical Oversight

• Collaborate with Microsoft and internal engineering teams on Azure performance and reliability

• Monitor application health using logs, metrics, and observability tools

• Ensure stable environments across releases, deployments, and system updates

• Stakeholder & Vendor Management

• Coordinate across business, technical teams, and external vendors

• Drive clear communication during incidents, releases, and operational reviews

• Continuous Improvement & Automation

• Drive transformation initiatives including:

• Process automation

• Proactive monitoring

• AI/agentic automation for incident detection/resolution

• Improve documentation, knowledge management, and self-service capabilities

• Reporting & Governance

• Define and report KPIs, trends, and operational insights

• Provide regular updates to leadership on performance and risks

Experience

• 8+ years in Application Support / Production Operations / Service Management
• 3+ years in a team leadership or management role
• Experience managing global/offshore teams

Technical Skills

• Strong knowledge of Microsoft Azure architecture and operations

• Hands-on experience with:

• .NET / C#

• SQL Server

• IIS / WCF / Windows-based applications

• Ability to analyze logs, system metrics, and performance issues

Tools & Frameworks

• ServiceNow (ITSM)
• Application Insights / monitoring tools
• ITIL processes (incident, problem, change)

Soft Skills:

• Strong communication and stakeholder management
• Ability to operate in high-pressure, mission-critical environments

Preferred Experience

• Supporting large-scale enterprise applications
• Experience in regulated / audit-driven environments
• Exposure to AI-driven operations (AIOps), automation, or agentic workflows

Key Differentiator

• Proven ability to modernize support functions using AI, automation, and proactive operations

Orion is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, age, national origin, citizenship status, disability status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

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