Production Engineering Manager Jobs in Washington

Summary

This opportunity is open to all current King County employees and the general public.

The King County Information Technology department's vendor systems team is looking for two Senior IT Production Engineers. The Senior IT Production Engineer serves as a vital technical anchor for the county’s most essential operational systems. In this lead role, you will act as a technical lead for application projects and will be responsible for the end-to-end health, availability, and connectivity of a diverse portfolio that directly impacts public service and regional infrastructure. Your work will ensure the seamless operation of critical transit systems, county transfer stations, and robust Asset Management/CMDB platform and other critical business systems. These systems are the backbone of the county’s operational effectiveness, requiring a high level of technical precision and proactive oversight.

The successful candidate for this position will have extensive knowledge and experience with software administration, integration, and scripting. The successful candidate will also have basic knowledge and experience with SQL databases, Windows and Linux server administration and possess an understanding of application runtime, middleware, OS, virtualization, servers, storage, networking technologies along with a proficiency in Azure Cloud services. Experience is needed in supporting production application technology domains and troubleshooting complex technical issues. We are looking for a seasoned professional who thrives in high-stakes environments where system uptime is paramount. Beyond day-to-day maintenance, you will lead impact analyses for module configurations, facilitate complex system changes, and spearhead post-modernization support hand-offs. You will act as a primary technical point of contact, bridging the gap between sophisticated vendor applications and the internal teams that rely on them to keep the county moving.

KCIT uses the power of technology to digitally transform King County. Building vibrant communities through digital equity and social justice, KCIT offers innovative solutions that engage, empower, and serve our residents, businesses, communities and interested stakeholders. As the first-place recipient of the 15th annual National Association of Counties (NACo) Digital Counties Survey, KCIT is recognized for its vision, strategy, innovation, and collaboration. KCIT has a focus of delivering smart technology solutions that support customers, building stronger communities through innovation.

KCIT is providing the building blocks for many of the region's most critical services. As the business solutions partner, we collaborate with the 18 County departments to develop products and services that better serve the needs of our customers and our community.

Job Duties

• Establish and upgrade application systems and associated servers, databases, scripts and integrations for lifecycle management and to implement technology roadmaps.
• Troubleshoot system issues and coordinate progress with customers and stakeholders, while collaborating with vendors, and KCIT cross-functional teams.
• Act as technical lead for application projects, overseeing KCIT technical requirements for systems and coordinating and collaborating with customers, stakeholders, vendors and KCIT cross-functional teams.
• Manage the end-to-end operational health of the vendor systems portfolio, ensuring high availability, capacity planning, and seamless connectivity through proactive monitoring and maintenance.
• Provide Tier 2 and Tier 3 support for applications service requests and incidents.
• Serve as the primary technical point of contact for complex system issues, leading the troubleshooting and resolution of significant service failures while adhering to established SLAs.
• Facilitate system changes and configurations by conducting thorough impact assessments to identify and mitigate potential system-wide risks before deployment.
• Write scripts for automation, reporting, and standardization of operational processes. Author and maintain comprehensive system documentation, including complex technical analyses, architectural diagrams, and flowcharts, while integrating resolutions into the team knowledge base.
• Lead the transition of modernized systems from project phase to steady-state operations, ensuring a seamless hand-off to customers and other support staff through detailed documentation.
• Design and facilitate rigorous testing activities for system updates and vendor patches to ensure functionality meets business requirements without regressive impacts.
• Adhere to and champion formal change management processes to ensure all system modifications are tracked, prioritized, and implemented with minimal disruption to operations.
• Participate in an After-Hours Support Rotation.

Experience, Qualifications, Knowledge, Skills

• Bachelor’s Degree in an IT discipline and/or five years of experience in systems engineering and support.
• Possess three or more years of experience with Microsoft products, software support expertise and application integrations.
• Demonstrated competence with MS Windows operating systems required.
• Possess skill in configuring monitoring using SCOM, Orion, or other similar systems.
• Familiarity with software testing concepts: regression testing, negative testing, functional v. non-functional testing.
• Experience establishing SSO Single Sign On, and Azure Entra access management.
• Clear understanding of software development process.
• Basic understanding of runtime, middleware, OS, virtualization, servers, storage and networking technologies.
• Experience renewing server certificates.
• Provide solutions-oriented recommendations to customers for software use cases, including defining problems, solutions, and determining the best solutions.
• Possess excellent written and oral communication skills and demonstrate excellent customer service communication skills.
• Demonstrate quality-consciousness, reliability, and know how to follow up effectively with others.
• Manage and track multiple tasks while navigating competing priorities.
• Possess effective time management while juggling multiple assignments.

Desirable Qualifications:

• Three years of work experience supporting applications.
• Microsoft Certifications including Azure is desired.

Supplemental Information

Hybrid Work

The work associated with this position will be performed through a combination of onsite work and telecommuting. Employees will have access to shared workspaces at various King County facilities. Employees must reside in Washington state and within a reasonable distance to their King County worksite to respond to workplace reporting requirements. King County has a robust collection of tools and resources to support when working remotely.

Classification

IT Production Engineer-Senior - 741601

Union

This position is represented by PROTEC17-Information Tech

Work Schedule

The normal work week for this position is Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Alternative work schedules may be considered. This position is FLSA Exempt and is not eligible for overtime pay.

This position participates in an After-Hours Support Rotation.

Forbes named King County as one of Washington State's best employers. Together, with leadership and our employees, we're changing the way government delivers service and winning national recognition as a model of excellence. Are you ready to make a difference? Come join the team dedicated to serving one of the nation's best places to live, work and play.

Guided by our "True North", we are making King County a welcoming community where every person can thrive. We value diversity, inclusion and belonging in our workplace and workforce. To reach this goal we are committed to workforce equity. Equitable recruiting, support, and retention is how we will obtain the highest quality workforce in our region; a workforce that shares and will help advance our guiding principles - we are one team; we solve problems; we focus on the customer; we drive for results; we are racially just; we respect all people; we lead the way; and we are responsible stewards. We encourage people of all backgrounds and identities to apply, including Native American and people of color, immigrants, refugees, women, LGBTQ+, people living with disabilities, and veterans.

King County is an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Employer

No person is unlawfully excluded from employment opportunities based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex (including gender identity, sexual orientation and pregnancy), age, genetic information, disability, veteran status, or other protected class. Our EEO policy applies to all employment actions, including but not limited to recruitment, hiring, selection for training, promotion, transfer, demotion, layoff, termination, rates of pay or other forms of compensation.