Lead Applications Support Analyst

POSITION PURPOSE

The Lead Applications Support Analyst leads BAC’s global application support function within the Digital Applications & Product Delivery organization, ensuring reliable, responsive, and high-quality support across the enterprise application estate. SAP S/4HANA and the wider SAP landscape are the primary focus and the largest share of support volume, but the role covers the full portfolio - including OutSystems and other custom applications, Microsoft 365 and collaboration services, manufacturing execution systems, customer experience platforms, and reporting and analytics tools.

The role combines hands-on senior support with team leadership. As a working lead, the incumbent resolves the most complex first and second line issues, acts as the primary escalation point below level 3, and at the same time coordinates the day-to-day activity of the application support analysts, owns the support process and its service levels, and drives continuous improvement of the support function. It is the operational bridge between the support team and the business analysis, development, SAP Basis, and application security functions that provide level 3 resolution.

The successful candidate brings strong SAP and broader application support depth, proven experience coordinating a support team or shift, and the judgement to balance individual ticket ownership with the wider health of the support service.

PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTABILITIES

Support Team Leadership & Coordination

• Coordinate the day-to-day activity of the application support analysts, including work allocation, ticket assignment, shift and coverage planning, and prioritization across regions and time zones.

• Act as the first line of leadership for the support team, providing guidance, coaching, and functional direction, and supporting the onboarding and development of analysts.

• Set and maintain support standards, ways of working, and ticket quality expectations, and monitor adherence across the team.

• Support the Global Senior Manager, Digital Applications with resourcing, planning, performance input, and reporting for the support function.

Escalation & Major Incident Management

• Act as the primary escalation point for complex first and second line issues, resolving the most difficult tickets personally and guiding analysts through the rest.

• Coordinate the response to major incidents affecting business-critical applications, including communication, escalation, and engagement of level 3 and infrastructure colleagues through to resolution.

• Own the interface to level 3 resolver groups - SAP Business Analysis, application development, integration, SAP Basis, and application security - ensuring escalations are well qualified and hand-offs are clean.

• Coordinate with the global IT service desk operated by Infrastructure, Operations & Security on incidents that span application and infrastructure boundaries.

Service Management & Performance

• Own the application support process end-to-end - incident, request, and problem management - in line with ITIL principles and organization standards.

• Define, monitor, and report service levels and key performance indicators for the support function, including response and resolution times, first-line resolution rate, and user satisfaction.

• Analyze support trends and recurring incidents, raise and drive problem records, and channel structural issues to the relevant business analysis, development, or Business Enablement team.

• Provide regular reporting to the Global Senior Manager, Digital Applications on service performance, risk, and improvement opportunities.

Hands-on Senior Application Support

• Provide hands-on senior support across the SAP landscape, including complex functional queries, authorization issues, background job and interface failures, and period-end and year-end support.

• Provide senior support across non-SAP applications, including OutSystems and custom applications, Microsoft 365 and collaboration services, manufacturing execution systems, and reporting and analytics tools.

• Oversee application user access administration across SAP and non-SAP applications, ensuring requests are processed accurately against approved workflows and escalating any that appear to breach segregation of duties, without exception.

• Support user access reviews, segregation of duties reviews, and audit evidence gathering across the estate.

Knowledge Management & Continuous Improvement

• Own and curate the support knowledge base, ensuring articles, resolution guides, and FAQs are current, accurate, and driving first-line resolution.

• Lead continuous improvement initiatives for the support function, including automation of routine requests, self-service enablement, and simplification of support processes.

• Ensure new applications are cleanly transitioned from project teams into support, with adequate documentation, knowledge transfer, and readiness.

• Provide structured feedback to business analysts, developers, and the Business Enablement & Adoption team where incident patterns indicate training, process, or design gap.

NATURE AND SCOPE

The Lead Applications Support Analyst reports to the Global Senior Manager, Digital Applications within the Digital Applications & Product Delivery organization. The role provides leadership and coordination to a global team of application support analysts across multiple regions and time zones; depending on team size and structure, analysts may report to this role directly or on a coordination basis.

The role is accountable for the performance and continuous improvement of the global application support service across the full enterprise application estate, and operates within the incident management, change management, and access control procedures owned by the Digital Applications & Product Delivery organization.

PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

• Overall support service performance against agreed service levels, across the application estate.

• First-line resolution rate and reduction in unnecessary level 3 escalation.

• Effectiveness of major incident coordination, measured by time to restore and quality of communication.

• Team performance, capability growth, and coverage across regions and applications.

• Reduction in repeat incidents through effective problem management and knowledge management.

• Accuracy and compliance of access administration, with zero unapproved or policy-breaching access grants.

• End-user satisfaction with the application support service.

Limited grants of authority may be assigned to the Lead Applications Support Analyst in accordance with the Grant of Authority issued and applicable by region, for example relating to support coordination and prioritization. Access provisioning is executed strictly against approved requests and does not constitute approval authority.

The Lead Applications Support Analyst maintains regular contact with the application support team; business users and super-users across all regions; the SAP Business Analysis, application development, integration, SAP Basis, and application security functions; the global IT service desk; the Business Enablement & Adoption team; and third-party support partners.

KNOWLEDGE & SKILLS

• Bachelor’s degree in information technology, computer science, business, engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

• Minimum 6 years of experience in application support, with demonstrable experience coordinating or leading a support team, shift, or service.

• Strong practical knowledge of SAP S/4HANA or SAP ECC support across multiple functional areas, including authorizations, background jobs, and interface troubleshooting.

• Broader applications support experience across non-SAP applications such as Microsoft 365 and the Power Platform, custom or low-code applications, and manufacturing or reporting systems.

• Solid understanding of ITIL service management, particularly incident, request, problem, and major incident management, and experience owning support processes and service levels.

• Experience with IT service management tooling and support reporting.

• Understanding of access management, segregation of duties, and the control and audit requirements that apply to application support and access administration.

• Strong leadership, coordination, and coaching skills, with the ability to develop analysts and sustain service across time zones.

• Excellent diagnostic and problem-solving skills, and the judgement to balance hands-on resolution with leadership of the wider service.

• Clear written and verbal communication in English, strong customer service orientation, and composure under pressure during major incidents and critical business periods.

Preferred

• ITIL Foundation or higher certification.

• SAP certification or formal SAP training in one or more functional modules.

• Experience leading support through an S/4HANA implementation, upgrade, or hyper care period.

• Exposure to SAP GRC, access control tooling, or user access review processes.

• Experience in a manufacturing or engineer-to-order environment.

• Additional language capability relevant to BAC’s regional footprint.

WORKING CONDITIONS

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of the job. This is primarily an office-based role. The position requires participation in and coordination of shifts, extended coverage, or on-call rotations to maintain service continuity across global time zones and during critical business periods such as period-end close, releases, and hyper care. This position requires travel both domestically and internationally up to 15% of the time