Senior Production Lead

Location
Dubai (Onsite), United Arab Emirates

About
We are seeking a highly experienced Senior Production Lead with over 15 years of hands-on experience in managing production support for high-volume, customer-facing applications within the banking and financial services domain. This role is accountable for the end-to-end management of production incidents, service requests, and escalations, ensuring timely resolution, effective communication, and minimal business impact. The Senior Production Lead will oversee a team of production support engineers and analysts, driving operational excellence through incident management, root cause analysis, automation, and continuous improvement.

Job Description
Must have Skills: Incident management, Java (Expert), Cloud, Production Support, Stakeholder & Vendor Management

Knowledge & Experience:

• Own and manage end-to-end production support for digital applications, ensuring timely resolution of incidents and service requests.
• Lead the production support team, assigning tickets, overseeing issue analysis, and coordinating fixes and deployments.
• Ensure production go-live handoffs are seamless, with proper documentation, readiness checks, and support coverage.

Incident & Problem Management

• Act as the primary escalation point for major incidents, SLA breaches, and recurring issues.
• Lead incident triage, root cause analysis (RCA), and post-incident reviews to drive long-term resolution.
• Maintain clear and timely communication with IT management, business users, and stakeholders during incidents.

Monitoring & Health Checks

• Proactively monitor applications to pre-empt issues, minimize downtime, and ensure performance against SLAs.
• Implement and maintain health check routines, dashboards, and alerting mechanisms for critical systems.

Automation & SOP Development

• Identify and automate manual, repetitive tasks to improve operational efficiency.
• Develop and maintain Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for production support activities and incident handling.

Technical Troubleshooting & Consultation

• Provide hands-on troubleshooting for Java backend systems, web and mobile technologies, and various frameworks.
• Understand and resolve issues related to certificate exchanges, API integrations, cloud infrastructure, and system dependencies.
• Offer technical consultation to support teams and contribute to solution design reviews when needed.

Cloud & Infrastructure Coordination

• Leverage hands-on experience with Azure (primary) and AWS (secondary) cloud platforms for troubleshooting and deployment support.
• Coordinate with network, firewall, SecOps, and infrastructure teams to resolve cross-domain issues.

Stakeholder & Vendor Management

• Maintain strong relationships with business users, IT teams, and external vendors, ensuring alignment and timely resolution.
• Review vendor fixes and designs, and coordinate production deployments with third-party teams.

Communication & Reporting

• Own communication for major incidents, including status updates, impact assessments, and resolution timelines.
• Prepare and deliver incident reports, RCA documentation, and performance dashboards to senior stakeholders.

Team Leadership & Mentorship

• Mentor and coach production leads and support engineers, fostering a culture of ownership and continuous improvement.
• Ensure team members are equipped with the right tools, knowledge, and support to handle production issues effectively.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work closely with application development teams, infrastructure teams, and business units to ensure smooth operations and issue resolution.
• Participate in project planning and go-live readiness to ensure production support requirements are met.

Compliance & Policy Adherence

• Ensure all production support activities conform to IT and bank policies, procedures, and security standards.
• Support Business Resumption Plan (BRP) testing and other compliance-related activities as required.

Operational Continuity & Coverage

• Provide coverage during team absences, and be prepared for temporary reassignment or promotion in case of business necessity.
• Strive to understand peer and superior roles to ensure continuity of operations during emergencies or transitions.

Skills

• Strong troubleshooting skills in Java backend systems
• Understanding of web and mobile technologies and various frameworks
• Hands-on experience with Azure Cloud (primary) and AWS Cloud (secondary)
• Knowledge of certificate management, including exchange and renewal processes
• Familiarity with API integrations, system interfaces, and backend services
• Ability to analyze and resolve complex production issues across distributed systems

Qualifications
The ideal candidate will be a problem solver and strategic thinker, capable of challenging build teams and architects, coordinating across multiple technical domains (network, security, firewall, application teams), and ensuring seamless production handoffs during go-lives. A deep understanding of certificates, integrations, system dependencies, and cross-functional collaboration is essential.