Solution Manager Production Support & QA Services (HYBRID)

Solution Manager Production Support & Quality Assurance Services will be leading on a day-to-day basis an assigned portfolio of branch operations and governance responsibilities to deliver high level of quality, availability, reliability and performance for WSIB’s outsourced and managed services.

Accountable on an ongoing basis for shaping the short-term plans and long-term strategy aligned with the broader IT roadmap for assigned service portfolio and responsible for providing input into the overall divisional strategies including further optimization opportunities including outsourcing of existing or new services.

Maintain a holistic view of all BAU work items and IT/Corporate projects under the assigned portfolio of services and manage ongoing deliverables, priorities, challenges, resources allocation, conflicts, and govern the suppliers in the delivery of the technical solutions.

Works with Managers and Directors to build and maintain collaborative, trusting relationships with internal and external stakeholders as well as strategic vendors/suppliers to ensure the appropriate design, installation, configuration, maintenance, support and optimization of new and existing processes, strategies and/or solutions.

Major Responsibilities:

Operations & Governance Oversight

Leading an assigned portfolio of operations and governance responsibilities to deliver high level of quality, availability and reliability for services which contains critical enterprise wide foundational technologies.
Determine and execute IT staffing capabilities and sourcing strategy based on weekly reviews of assigned service portfolio based on client demand and required skills.
Oversee the technical resolution of incidents, problems, service request, and change requests for infrastructure services, ensuring quality and compliance to policy, standards, and contractual service levels from suppliers.
Lead the internal and external audit exercises for assigned portfolios, such as compliance audits to portfolio specific services, which can include findings around risk and staff compliance gaps and remediation actions that could include further optimization opportunities such as outsourcing of existing or new services.
Oversee the technology and people resource capacity management by performing capacity utilization assessments based on client needs, monitoring service consumption, and identifying opportunities for efficiencies leveraging current and/or new external service agreements.
Maintain a holistic view of all BAU and ITC/Corporate projects under the assigned portfolio involving portfolio specific services and manage ongoing priorities, challenges, resources allocation, conflicts, and govern the supplier‘s involvement in project delivery activities.
Spearhead processes by overseeing the creation and review of documents including plans to ensure alignment business, technology and/or production requirements.
Providing input to project plans, financial estimates, resourcing estimates, business cases and high-level solution documents.
Assemble and provide oversight to delivery teams of designers and senior specialist with the appropriate capacity allocation and skills to meet the demands of the initiative or BAU activity
Provide oversight of the technical solutions for high visibility projects, including removing roadblocks, managing escalations, and provide guidance and directions to assigned team.
Oversee the collection of requirements for projects from corresponding internal clients and other IT stakeholders and make the appropriate recommendations based on input from team.
Accountable for the negotiation and completion of supplier project delivery contracts and govern the compliance, quality and timeline.
Ensure that new and updated components are compliant with current WSIB IT standards, that internally managed and externally provided cost, and resource estimation is executed and validated using a standardized approach and tooling.
Develop, validate, and present resource and cost utilizing standardized methodology and tooling.
Oversee the hand-off of practices and/or solutions from project mode to operational state.
Business and Strategy

Accountable for shaping the short-term plans and long-term strategy for assigned portfolio and responsible for providing input into the overall divisional strategies.
Day to day governance of strategic outsourced and managed suppliers related to continuity, service improvement and risk management including budgetary, financial, contractual obligations and resourcing capacity and attrition.
Execution of overall Branch vision for assigned portfolio by creating tactical and strategic plans aligned with market conditions for outsourced and managed services, participate in business planning, allocating appropriate resources, and ensuring the team members are aligned
Maintain a holistic view of the broader Branch services organization and identify opportunities for continuous improvement to improve quality of the service delivery including automation and elimination of manual processes/activities.
Identify human capital optimization opportunities, and lead the implementation to improve the delivery efficiency, which includes reduction of manual efforts for engineers, specialists, and clients.
Engage in proactive risk mitigation activities and actions to prevent service interruption, and degradations.
Develop yearly budget, review monthly budget forecast, validate invoices, and track actual spent to minimize the financial variances for assigned portfolio(s) based on existing and/or new outsourced and managed services.
Develop business case for proposed Branch initiatives and support the Manager and/or Director to obtain buy-ins from leadership team on moving forward.
Support the Manager on an on-going basis in confidential procurement initiatives which includes strategy on technology or resources that are disruptive and positions the organization to take advantage of emerging technology and external services.
Accountable for creation of executive reports for assigned portfolio on services for the management and executive teams including status, accomplishments, risks, issues, and KPI, and financial information including business case and ROI opportunities for acquisition or replacement of external services to reduce ongoing operating spend.
People

Identify the capability & skills required to support the Manager in the recruitment process for individual contributor roles within assigned portfolio.
On-going input to the management team on staffing plans including team capacity & composition requirements, based on project and operational demands aligned with the IT roadmap and external market conditions.
Act as a mentor by providing advice, guidance and direction to individual contributor team members day to day work and broader portfolio initiatives.
Support the development of a positive, cooperative team culture by increasing collaboration with team members.
Evaluate and improve own performance based on feedback from the management team.
Engage in self-development activities by continuously improving personal knowledge of new technologies, business competencies, processes, and methodologies to adapt to the changing environment.
External Stakeholders

Govern suppliers by participating in various Management committees confirming that expectations are aligned and ensuring the supplier’s services are assembled and initiatives are delivered according to specifications and within the agreed timeline and cost.
Hold vendors and external suppliers to service level commitments while cultivating and ensuring functional and effective relationships with WSIB
Continuously monitor the effectiveness of the governance framework, and provide recommendation on to the management team for changes.
Accountable for the negotiation and completion of supplier end-to-end project delivery contracts and govern the quality and timeline as per agreements.
Monitor supplier progress on continuous improvement initiatives and compliance items to ensure adherence to contracts.
Assess and determine capacity of planned work and initiatives for assigned portfolio which includes determining whether work should be performed by external suppliers or internal resources.
Internal Stakeholders

Engage with Leads, Managers & Directors, as appropriate, to develop a positive relationship, set clear expectations, and maintain communication with clients and peer groups within the WSIB ITC organization.
Proactively seeking client feedback on satisfaction level of services and remediate delivery gaps for assigned portfolio within the Branch.
Manage issue resolution and communication of results to groups within the WSIB ITC organization.
Oversee and provide system and financial consumption information to consumers and provide recommendations on further optimization of outsourced and managed services opportunities.
1) Education requirements:

Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science and/or Information Technology (or equivalent education and work experience
Industry relevant education or certificates (e.g. ITIL, Dev Ops Certification, Microsoft Azure, Certified Software Test Professional (CSTP), Certification for Foundation Level Extension – Agile Tester, AWS, IBM, Oracle)
2) Experience:

Minimum Experience Required

++ years of work experience related to Production Support & Quality Assurance Services
++ years' experience related to Release Management, Quality Assurance, Production Readiness or Application Support services with 2+ years of experience in a leadership role
Minimum 5 years’ experience in Release Management, Quality Assurance, Production Readiness or Application Support management, project management, financial management, and/or vendor/supplier management
2+ years of experience with end-to-end delivery or operations accountability
Demonstrated experience in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of IT service delivery
Demonstrated experience leading complex IT projects involving internal and external stakeholders
Demonstrated experience, and achievements with three or more of the following area specific technologies (Release Management technologies: Jenkins, GITHUB, BITBUCKET, SMARTSHEET, JIRA ITIL Windows, UNIX, Release and Deployment Automation tools; Quality Assurance technologies: Windows, UNIX, Mainframe, Middleware, Database, Automation, Test Data Management, QA Testing/Automated Tools; Production Readiness & Application Support technologies: Windows, UNIX, Mainframe, Middleware, Database, Enterprise Backups, Automation, Security

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We respect and value the diversity of our people. We strive to create an environment where employees can be themselves and where our differences are celebrated.

We value and celebrate diversity and are committed to creating inclusive experiences for both our employees and prospective employees. We invite all interested individuals to apply. If you require accommodations in order to apply to this position please contact talentacquisitioncentre@wsib.on.ca. If you are invited to participate in the interview or assessment process, you can advise our Recruiter of your accommodation needs at that time.

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To apply for this position, please submit your application by the closing date.