Senior Applications Analyst

The City of Kirkland's Information Technology Department is seeking to hire a Senior Applications Analyst!

The City of Kirkland is seeking a Senior Application Analyst to support our Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. Candidates with hands-on expertise in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, particularly Tyler Technologies Enterprise ERP (Munis) are highly encouraged to apply, as this position will serve as the primary technical and functional support resource for the City's Munis environment. Experience with ERP lifecycle management, integrations, workflows, and database structures will be especially valuable in this role.

Why Kirkland?

Job Summary

The role of the Senior Applications Analyst is primarily to support Enterprise Business Applications and database systems to ensure usability, availability, and security. The Senior Applications Analyst is responsible for providing systems expertise in the technical implementation, project management, customization, database architecture and administration for assigned City systems and applications, both on on-prem and SaaS. Analyzes business needs, procures, develops, and implements software solutions to meet those needs. They are responsible for the complete COTS system lifecycle including recommendation, purchase, implementation, support, workflow, customization, programming, integration, and upgrades. Develops application customizations, scripts, and reports to manipulate data as required by internal customers. Coordinates assigned technology programs and projects. The role serves as a primary point in data-driven decision making by using business intelligence (BI), reporting tools, data manipulation and analytical techniques to support internal customers and applications. The Senior Applications Analyst also functions as the technology business liaison to the departments they support within the City.

City technical environment is primarily Azure government cloud, Windows OS and SQL Server databases. Special project or program roles may be assigned as needed. May work on cross- functional projects with the other Divisions in the IT Department as related to supporting enterprise applications.

Principal Accountabilities:

• Responsible for providing project management, implementation, application requirements, business process analysis, integration, customization, upgrade, training, maintenance and troubleshooting of assigned major City software applications and associated database systems, including guidance of vendor support organizations as needed in problem resolution or feature enhancement. Manages the technical implementation of assigned new systems.
• Performs system and database administration roles for assigned major City software application systems, including maintenance, database/application security, application functionality, creation and maintenance of application interfaces, creation and maintenance of workflow capabilities, creation of reports, ad hoc queries, complex reports and data manipulation and guidance of vendor work.
• Engages with business owners and stakeholders to establish appropriate governance of the application or system for the vetting and addition of updated or new content, enhancements, new features and functionality as well as upgrades to new version of the software. Gains approval for and maintains guidelines for site design standards.
• Performs database design, client/server application development and web page creation as needed for custom application business needs.
• Designs, develops and tests database scripts, functions, stored procedures and other database-related activities.
• Provides a unified user experience for service-oriented SaaS solutions such as the City's
• website for customers, both internal and external.
• Provides assistance in the overall operation of the data processing function of the City serving as backup to other Department staff as assigned by the Director.
• Provides technical and consulting support to outside agencies/jurisdictions hosted on City of Kirkland's IT system(s) and works with agencies/jurisdictions hosting applications for the City of Kirkland.
• Acts as a mentor for individuals in the Applications Analyst role.
• Recommends strategic direction for supported systems to the IT Supervisor - Enterprise Applications.

Distinguishing Characteristics:

The work of the Senior Applications Analyst is different than other IT functions as it is responsible for the overall function and accuracy of the various Enterprise Applications that facilitate the City's function. Analyzes business needs and processes, implements, and adheres to city data accuracy standards and procedures, directs business process automation, performs complex system analysis, and helps develop and implement application solutions to meet those needs. The Applications Analyst differs from the Senior Applications Analyst as the latter performs complex, non-routine system administration functions while the Applications Analyst performs standard, routine, and moderately-complex system administration functions. The Senior Applications Analyst is also deemed system owner for mission critical applications (MCAs) hosted by the City, while the Applications Analyst only owns non-mission critical or SaaS applications. However, the Applications Analyst can be a secondary owner or contact for mission critical and City hosted applications.

Essential Functions: Essential functions, as defined under the Americans with Disabilities Act, may include any of the following representative duties, knowledge, and skills. This is not a comprehensive listing of all functions and duties performed by incumbents of this class; employees may be assigned duties which are not listed below; reasonable accommodations will be made as required. The job description does not constitute an employment agreement and is subject to change at any time by the employer. Essential duties and responsibilities may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• In coordination with other department staff, assists City staff with problems experienced with major software applications and related programs. Provides high-quality, detailed consultation, technical support, and troubleshooting with an emphasis on customer satisfaction. Works in a highly coordinated manner with other divisions in the department in problem resolution.
• Assumes technical system responsibilities for assigned major City applications to ensure high system availability, data integrity, security, performance, ease of use, navigability and accessibility. This includes running and monitoring system processes (after-hours if necessary), establishing system maintenance schedules, developing system administration and troubleshooting documentation, policies and procedures for application governance; directing and completing system upgrades and enhancements; creating, implementing, maintaining and upgrading application interfaces between a variety of systems and ensuring cross-platform functionality; completing needed application server and web server configurations for application functionality.
• Designs, builds, and maintains custom relational databases and interprets and analyzes enterprise relational databases. Develops strategies for database architecture, implementation, maintenance, archive, recovery and security of a database. Regularly checks and repairs database integrity. Must be able to design, develop and manipulate database management systems, data warehouses and multidimensional databases. Responsible for ensuring city business processes and strategic goals are optimized through the use of enterprise data standards.
• Creates and maintains data integration between systems and enhances systems through scripting, customization and/or programming.
• Performs programming of applications and databases to enhance major applications where functionality does not meet business needs and creates and maintains interfaces between major systems using coding, scripting and programming.
• Develops, deploys and customizes business intelligence (BI) and reporting tools and applies analytical techniques and processes to support reporting, tracking application reach and usage, manipulation of data and decision making as required by internal and external customers.
• Assists, facilitates, and/or supports user teams (formal and informal).
• Researches and maintains knowledge of current application, scripting and database.
• technologies to ensure the City's awareness of current technical tools. Assists IT Management in planning for future acquisitions and upgrades to equipment and software.
• Analyzes the application needs of client departments, performs research and recommends products and/or methods for applying technology to address business process and organizational needs. Includes detailed application requirements and business process analysis.
• Serves as liaison with vendor support organizations including selection and implementation of systems, licensing, upgrades, and problem resolution.
• Maintains detailed, up-to-date documentation of major application and database system configurations, management procedures, user and client procedures, problem fixes, vendor support contacts/procedures, customizations and interfaces and disaster recovery procedures.
• Ensures that responsible department staff are adequately trained on the essential procedures and activities of assigned duties to provide adequate coverage in the event of the absence of the incumbent. Ensures that documentation is kept up-to-date for responsible systems.
• Works closely with inter-governmental groups on joint projects.
• Provides after-hours technical support as needed to support completion of projects and/or ensure production systems are functioning properly.
• Creates production and test databases and queries in support of both departmental and organizational requests and needs.
• Serves as an IT project manager for major system implementations and significant system enhancements. This includes essential project management work such as task prioritization, project scheduling, status reporting, task direction of other members of the project team, risk assessment, and issues tracking.
• As liaison to business clients within the City to negotiate, prioritize, and facilitate discussions regarding technical solutions/projects to bring clarity to business clients and users.
• May work on joint projects with other IT divisions as related to supporting enterprise applications.
• The position serves as an escalation point to provide upper tier technical and database support as necessary in support of the Service Desk.
• Serves as an escalation point for Applications Analysts.
• Provides primary support for one to many applications or systems, and may act as a backup or secondary support for another system(s). Due to the highly specified duties for each application, employees will be provided training for any new applications or systems in which they are required to be backup or secondary support, including Cyber Security.
• Enforces City technology standards and policies.

Peripheral Duties:

• Performs functions as assigned in the City's emergency response plan in the event of an emergency.
• Performs other duties as assigned.
• Special project or program roles may be assigned as needed.

• Excellent interpersonal skills for establishing and maintaining effective working relationships with City staff and vendors, including an ability to effectively facilitate diverse technical and non-technical functional teams.
• Comprehensive knowledge of web application design and management concepts, including knowledge of industry standards in website development and content accessibility.
• Comprehensive knowledge of database administration, relational database theory and design methods for all current versions of Microsoft SQL Server. Knowledge of Oracle, Informix, Progress and Sybase relational databases helpful. Comprehensive knowledge of data manipulation language (DML), data definition language (DDL) and data control language (DCL) in support of extracting and transforming (ETL) data for business intelligence applications, reporting, analysis and data transfer between systems. Knowledge of multi-dimensional data structures such as cubes, dimensions and measures.
• Knowledge of SQL Server Database Replication Services, Integration Services, Analysis Services and Business Intelligence Development Studio. Knowledge of Visual Studio especially in support of SQL Reporting Services and SQL Server Integration Services.
• Requires a depth and breadth of database knowledge to help with formal design of relational databases and provides insight into strategic data analysis.
• Ability to create, interpret and manage databases, indexes, stored procedures and user- defined functions. Ability to plan and allocate database storage and capacity, backup and recovery, user access and security.
• Comprehensive knowledge of programing, scripting and coding languages including (X)HTML, XML, CSS, Vbscript, JavaScript, ASP, .NET, advanced Transact SQL and other scripting languages in support of major systems customizations, custom databases and applications, analysis, integration and client/server applications.
• Knowledge of distributed computing architectures and application development methods and techniques; knowledge and experience with web analytics, usability and search engine optimization.
• Comprehensive knowledge of business intelligence and reporting tools, their use and programming syntax including Crystal Reports, structured query language, SQL Reporting Services, Access, Excel. Knowledge of vendor proprietary reporting tools as assigned.
• Knowledge of image editing application programs such as Photoshop; working knowledge of illustration and layout programs such as Illustrator and InDesign, streaming media and digital production technologies.
• Comprehensive knowledge of the Windows Operating systems.
• Working knowledge of application packages supported by the Department such as Microsoft Office Suite and Microsoft Exchange/Outlook, Adobe products such as Adobe Reader and Pro, image editing application programs such as Photoshop and Microsoft Image Composer, and a working knowledge of illustration and layout programs such as Illustrator and InDesign.
• Working knowledge of Network and operating systems, storage technologies, memory management, data communication concepts, PC hardware platforms, peripherals and operating systems. Knowledge of spatial data systems and GIS concepts helpful.
• Working knowledge of IIS, Web server, and web applications. Comprehensive knowledge of web design and management concepts, scripts and web database integration.
• Ability to comprehend and resolve the technical issues experienced by City staff using software application programs.
• Ability to read and comprehend technical manuals and apply their contents to solving hardware and software problems.
• Ability to accurately convey technical information to non-technical audiences both orally and in writing.
• Ability to manage more than one project and/or major task assigned at any given time.
• Aptitude for self-direction and initiative to manage projects and complete tasks with minimal supervision.
• Capture and document requirements and specifications concisely as well as provide analysis.
• Excellent project management, planning, organizing, problem solving and time- management skills.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Education: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Business or a closely related field.
• Experience: 5 or more years' experience implementing and administering cross-departmental applications and associated database systems.
• Or: In place of the above requirements, the incumbent may possess any combination of relevant education and experience which would demonstrate the individual's knowledge, skill, and ability to proficiently perform the essential duties and responsibilities listed above.

Licenses and Other Requirements:

• Certification in Project Management Professional (PMP) and Agile methodologies is desired.
• ITIL Certification preferred.

Physical Demands and Working Environment:

Incumbent is typically required to reach, stand, walk, type, talk, hear and perform activities requiring repetitive motions. Work is typically light work. Exerting up to 50 pounds of force occasionally, and/or up to 10 pounds of force frequently, and/or a negligible amount of force constantly to move objects. If the use of arm and/or leg controls requires exertion of force greater than that for sedentary work and the worker sits most of the time, the job is rated as light work.

Selection Process

Position requires a resume and cover letter for consideration of application. Please note how you meet minimum qualifications within the cover letter. Applicants who are selected for next steps in the hiring process will be invited by phone or e-mail. Candidates are encouraged to apply at the earliest possible date as screening, interviewing, and hiring decisions will be made through the recruitment period, until such time as the vacancy is filled.

The City of Kirkland is a welcoming community where every person can thrive and grow. We value diversity, inclusion, belonging, and work together to support our community. We do this by solving problems, focusing on the customer, and respecting all people who come into the City whether to visit, live, or work. As an Equal Opportunity Employer, we are committed to creating a workforce that does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, age, color, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, marital status, genetic information, veteran status, disability, or any other basis prohibited by federal, state or local law. We encourage qualified applicants of all backgrounds and identities to apply to our job postings. Persons with a disability who need reasonable accommodations in the application or testing process, or those needing this announcement in an alternative format, may call 425-587-3210 or Telecommunications Device for the Deaf 711.