Officer Data Centre Operations (Saudi National)

Job description / Role

Our exclusive and esteemed client who has steadily grown to be the biggest bank and leading financial institution in the Middle East and North Africa Region with a market share around 45% of banking sector assets is looking to hire a manager trade finance operations.

Job Purpose Summary:
The incumbent is primarily responsible of managing a team within the data centre department to coordinate and oversee operations procedures and controls of the Country’s installed main systems in the protected production and backup environments to the requirements of the technical and business units on a 24-hour basis. The incumbent will be responsible for coordinating the helpdesk related issues pertaining to IT.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities by Dimensions:

Shareholder & Financial:
- Oversee the performance of necessary Data Centre support to all business units to further the Country’s strategy.
- Assist in the preparation of strategies, standards, guidelines and procedures for data and systems data operating in the Country’s enterprise network in accordance with the overall systems profiles and data retention and backup policy of the group.
- Take part in the overall IT strategy execution.

Customer (Internal & External):
- Liaise with the business unit heads for their various requirements and follow-up as and when required to answer their business needs.
- Oversee relations with selected vendors for systems media and hardware delivery and maintenance.
- Build and maintain strong and effective relationship with all other related departments and units to achieve the Country’s goals/ objectives in systems availability monitoring and SLA compliance.
- Ensure timely production of customer communications.
- Provide timely and accurate information to the external and internal auditors and the Compliance function as and when required.

Internal (Processes, Products, Regulatory):
- Manage the resources and coordinate staff in a 24-hour shift environment to attend to the operations procedures cycle management and environment monitoring of the main systems housed in both the live and backup data centre sites.
- Ensure that the Data Centre operations environment is the most protected area from any external threats and internal threats, including strong control over a team of 24-hour shift operators with daily ad-hoc checks on logs and proof of execution.
- Oversee the execution of procedures and guidelines for business continuity and contingency planning of the Country’s systems architecture in accordance with the overall contingency planning policy of the Country.
- Ensure timely and complete execution of backups within the backup policy of each system and store them according to the retention and storage policy of each system.
- Oversee the keeping of all records of job execution, backups, cycles, and incident reporting logs for the different activities and systems as per the overall documentation policy.
- Oversee the monitoring of main systems housed in the sites as per the operations and monitoring policy of the Country.
- Provide the Head of Infrastructure Services s with daily reports on cycle, job execution, incidents and suggested resolutions for the expediency of time consuming procedures.
- Oversee the reporting of any failures as per the operational procedures system, and the overall escalation policy of the Country.
- Ensure computer operations staff are trained and prepared for the support tasks required for daily operations and first line support.
- Ensure computer operations staff are trained and prepared for the daily synchronization of the backup and live site and assist in simulated disasters.
- Oversee timely production and delivery of reports as per the operations procedures and business guidelines.
- Ensure physical protection and soundness of the operating environment and the supporting contingencies including power generators, alarms, and safes.
- Ensure all disaster recovery procedures and components are up to date and regularly rehearsed.
- Execute DR procedures upon authorization to move services to the backup data centres and revert back.
- Maintain a library of tape backups with backtracking capability, the media should be protected and circulated as per the policy for each system. Ensure validity of the same by running periodical restore checks.
- Maintain a clear set of Database procedures to ensure overall availability of the system data and also to ensure proper performance and user satisfaction in consultation with the Head of Infrastructure Services.
- Motivate staff to maintain responsiveness to a 24-hour based shift to ensure reliable support to all calls.
- Coordinate all IT related help desk issues.
- Recommend system purchases for main servers, applications, and tools.
- Participate in meeting ad-hoc requirements as and when required.

Learning & Knowledge:
- Ensure the provision of end user training as and when required.
- Posses a high technical knowledge in operating systems business and applications of main servers to understand the work involved and provide first line support, and understand systems S.W and its corresponding limitations to enable proper decision making on methods to be used for the resolution of problems that may critically impact the Country.
- Possess ability to recover cycles and programs with the given tools and with close coordination with the Systems Support function.
- Identify areas for professional development of self and direct reports and act to enhance professional development of self and others.

Other:
- Ensure high standards of confidentiality to safeguard commercially sensitive information.

Requirements

Education/Experience Requirements:

- Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering or any related subject.
- Minimum 5 years’ experience preferably in financial services with a specialization in managing systems operations and data centre environments of:
+main server systems (IBM E server- i series (AS/400), Windows, Linux, Tardem NSK, etc.)
+storages (EMC, IBM etc)
- Training courses and certification in operating systems, operational management, and data centre environments.

Required Special Skills:

- Excellent oral and written communication skills in English and Arabic (preferable).
- Strong analytical, problem solving, decision-making and financial management skills.
- Self-driven with well-developed leadership, motivational and team-building skills.
- Project management skills.
- Ability to identify need for change, adaptable and flexible in anticipating and realizing market opportunities.
- Understanding of linkages driving profit.
- Good interpersonal skills.
- Decision making and crisis management capability.
Operating Environment/ Location:
- The referenced position will be based at the Data Centre in Country Country and will involve liaison with the support functions at HO.
Framework and Boundaries:
- Country’s overall strategic plan.
- Budgetary targets.
- Applicable policies and procedures.
- Relevant regulatory pronouncements of the applicable local and international regulators and related best practices.
- Delegated and re-delegated authorities as per the delegation of authorities’ structure.
- Instructions of the Head of Infrastructure Services and GM IT.

Communications and Working Relationships:
- Divisional and departmental heads of business units, network project teams, units providing support operations and all other related divisional/ departmental heads.

About the Company

Building businesses, changing lives

At Tandem, we’ve built a vast network of top-tier professionals across the globe. We empower businesses to thrive by delivering unmatched talent solutions. With our global reach, collaborative approach, and unwavering commitment to excellence, we drive transformative growth and shape exceptional teams.

Who we are.

We are a team of industry experts, driven by a passion for innovation and excellence. We are dedicated to providing unique talent solutions and nurturing collaborative partnerships that redefine success.