[Hiring] Application Support Engineer @Zact Inc.

Role Description

We are building out a dedicated Application Support function for our GCP-hosted, microservices-based commercial card and payments platform. This mid-level analyst is the second US seat on the team, working alongside a Lead Application Support Engineer who anchors the function.

You will handle tier-1 and tier-2 support tickets independently, investigate issues across GCP logs and MySQL data, and be a reliable presence during US banking hours for our bank clients. This is a hands-on investigation role — you will spend real time in log consoles and query interfaces, not just routing tickets.

What You'll Do

• Day-to-Day Ticket Handling
  • Own the Zendesk ticket queue during US hours — triage incoming issues by severity, respond within SLA, and resolve or escalate with full documentation.
  • Handle known incident types independently using the team's runbook library — no need to escalate for established patterns.
  • Be the first US contact for bank client technical queries — acknowledge promptly, investigate thoroughly, communicate clearly.
  • Cover the queue when the Lead is occupied with complex incidents, client escalations, or tooling work.
• Investigation & Triage
  • Search and filter GCP Cloud Logging to find error entries, trace requests across microservice boundaries using correlation IDs, and identify where failures occur in the service chain.
  • Write MySQL SELECT queries against production read replicas to investigate transaction status, card data, account records, and settlement details.
  • Escalate to the Lead with a structured handoff — logs reviewed, queries run, hypothesis formed, nothing left vague.
  • For P1/P0 incidents, join the Lead immediately — contribute to the investigation rather than waiting for direction.
• Monitoring & Alerting
  • Check GCP monitoring dashboards and Zendesk alert channels at shift start — surface anything anomalous before clients report it.
  • Track open incidents across shifts and ensure clean handoff to the team at end of US day.
  • Flag alert noise or misconfigured thresholds to the Lead — you are on the front line and will notice signal problems first.
• Client Communication
  • Write clear, professional, jargon-free updates to banking client operations teams during and after incidents.
  • Follow up on resolved tickets — confirm the fix, provide a plain-language explanation, close cleanly.
  • Maintain a professional tone under pressure; bank clients operate in regulated, audit-sensitive environments.
• Documentation & Knowledge base
  • Document every new issue investigated — symptom, logs found, queries run, resolution or escalation path.
  • Contribute to and improve runbook entries after resolving incidents.
  • Build and share a personal MySQL query library for common investigation patterns.

Technology Environment

• Cloud platform: Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
• Logs & monitoring: GCP Cloud Logging, Cloud Monitoring — primary investigation tools
• Database: MySQL — read-only investigation queries (SELECT only; strict change-control for anything else)
• Architecture: Microservices — REST APIs; tracing requests across services using correlation IDs
• Ticketing: Zendesk — managing your queue, documenting investigations, client communication
• Scripting: Python / Bash — desirable; the Lead will help you grow here if needed
• Product domain: Commercial card programs — card issuance, payments authorization, settlement, spend controls
• Client environment: US community and regional banks — SLA-bound, audit-sensitive, regulated

Qualifications

• 2–4 years in application support, technical support, IT operations, or a closely related role
• Solid SQL — you write SELECT queries with JOINs, subqueries, and WHERE clauses without needing a template; you read query results and know what to look for
• GCP Cloud Logging or equivalent — you have used at least one cloud log platform (CloudWatch, Splunk, Kibana, Datadog, or GCP) to investigate a real production issue
• Familiarity with microservice concepts — you understand that a user action may touch multiple backend services and know how to trace a request across them
• REST API literacy — HTTP status codes, reading API responses, identifying where in a request chain an error originated
• Methodical troubleshooting — you rule out possibilities systematically and document as you go
• Clear written communication — you can write a calm, professional client-facing update mid-incident
• Change-control discipline — you never modify production data without explicit authorization

Nice to Have

• GCP-specific experience — Cloud Logging query syntax (Log Explorer), Cloud Monitoring dashboard navigation
• Familiarity with Zendesk as a support platform — using ticket views, macros, and SLA tracking
• Basic Python or Bash scripting — log parsing, simple automation, or one-off scripts count
• Experience in a regulated or compliance-sensitive environment — fintech, banking, healthcare, or telecoms
• Exposure to commercial card or payments concepts — authorization flows, settlement, spend controls — helpful but fully trainable

Working Hours

• Standard shift of 8–10 hours per day, US business hours (Eastern or Central preferred for bank client coverage)
• ~2-hour overlap with India team at start of US day — used for handoff, standups, and any incidents in flight