Application Support Specialist III

Position Summary

The Application Support Specialist III is a senior technical support professional responsible for providing advanced technical expertise in the support, maintenance, troubleshooting, and optimization of Dark Matter applications and supporting technologies. W orking with a high degree of independence, this role leads the investigation and resolution of complex client and production issues, coordinates critical incident response, performs root cause analysis, and drives sustainable corrective and preventive actions. Provides technical guidance concerning application support, business processes, integrations, and emerging AI-enabled solutions. Responsibilities are based on depth and scope of support expertise, client impact, and complexity of issue resolution.

Job Responsibilities

Provide advanced Tier 3 application support to clients and internal users, resolving complex functional, technical, configuration, integration, and data-related issues within established service-level and severity guidelines.

Serve as a technical escalation point for critical incidents and high-severity production issues; assess impact and urgency, coordinate responders, maintain clear stakeholder communications, and support restoration of service.

Reproduce reported issues in appropriate test environments; isolate contributing factors; document findings; and distinguish application defects from configuration, data, infrastructure, integration, or user-process issues.

Lead root cause analysis for recurring or significant incidents and partner with Product, Engineering, Infrastructure, and other teams to implement corrective and preventive actions.

Use SQL to investigate incidents, validate data, reconcile results, and support troubleshooting while following data-access, privacy, and security requirements.

Review application logs, code paths, and system interactions; apply working knowledge of .NET and C# to debug issues and collaborate effectively with development teams.

Monitor application health, availability, performance, and operational trends to identify service risks and recommend preventive improvements. S upports application deployments, releases, upgrades, maintenance activities, and change management processes.

Analyze APIs, integrations, distributed services, and business process flows to identify dependencies, failure points, and downstream impacts.

Create and maintain accurate knowledge articles, runbooks, troubleshooting guides, known-error records, and operational procedures.

Identify opportunities to automate repetitive support activities, improve observability, reduce recurring incidents, and strengthen the client and user experience.

Provide technical coaching and knowledge transfer to less experienced specialists without direct people-management responsibility.

Handle other related responsibilities consistent with the role.

AI Support & Innovation Responsibilities

Supports AI-enabled applications, copilots, intelligent automation solutions, and machine learning-powered products utilized by Dark Matter and its clients.

Monitors AI solution performance, usage trends, and operational effectiveness.

Investigates and resolves issues related to AI-generated outputs, workflow failures, prompts, integrations, and data quality concerns.

Assists with AI feature testing, validation, and user acceptance activities to ensure quality, accuracy, and business alignment.

Collaborate with Product and Engineering teams to evaluate AI enhancements and recommend improvements.

Documents AI support procedures, governance requirements, best practices, and troubleshooting methodologies.

S upport responsible AI practices by following established requirements for privacy, data security, regulatory compliance, human oversight, and appropriate use.

Use approved AI tools in day-to-day work to improve research, analysis, troubleshooting, documentation, communication, and process efficiency while validating outputs before use.

Identifies opportunities where AI capabilities can improve client experience, employee productivity, and support operations.

Maintains awareness of emerging AI technologies and industry best practices relevant to application support and client success.

Competencies

Client focus - Builds trust through responsive, accurate, and transparent support.

Technical problem solving - Uses evidence, pattern recognition, and disciplined analysis to isolate causes.

Business acumen - C onnects technical details to client workflows, risk, and downstream impact.

Incident leadership - C reates clarity, coordinates action and communicates effectively during high-pressure events.

Ownership and execution - Takes issues through resolution, verification, documentation, and follow-up.

Communication - Tailors concise technical and business messages to the audience.

Collaboration and mentoring - Shares knowledge, coaches peers, and works effectively across teams.

Adaptability and learning agility - Quickly learns unfamiliar tools, interfaces, processes, and emerging technologies.

Quality and judgment - Challenges assumptions, validates evidence, protects data, and makes practical decisions.

Continuous improvement - Identifies recurring patterns and converts lessons learned into durable improvements.

Required Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Information Technology, Data Science, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education, training, and relevant experience.

At least 7 years of progressive experience supporting enterprise software applications, including complex production support and client-facing issue resolution.

Advanced troubleshooting and root cause analysis skills across SaaS, web-based, multi-tier, or distributed application environments.

Hands-on experience with SQL Server or a comparable relational database, including the ability to write queries for investigation and data validation.

Working knowledge of object-oriented programming and .NET/C#, including the ability to review code and collaborate with software engineers on defect resolution.

Experience supporting APIs, integrations, application monitoring, incident management, release support, and change-control processes.

Ability to assess impact, urgency, and risk; prioritize competing work; and escalate in accordance with service-level and severity standards.

Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate technical findings for client, business, and leadership audiences.

Demonstrated ability to work independently, exercise sound judgment, and lead technical investigations with limited guidance.

Advanced proficiency with Microsoft 365 applications, including Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and SharePoint.

Preferred Qualifications

E xperience in mortgage banking, financial services, banking technology, or fintech.

Experience supporting Dark Matter products or a comparable mortgage technology ecosystem.

Experience with cloud-based services, modern application architectures, observability platforms, and IT service management practices or frameworks such as ITIL.

Experience supporting AI-enabled applications, copilots, intelligent automation, chatbots, or machine-learning solutions.

Experience mentoring supports professionals and improving knowledge-management or operational-support processes.

Role Expectations

Operates as a senior individual contributor and recognized technical resource; this role may lead investigations and mentor peers but does not inherently include direct people-management responsibility.

Maintains confidentiality and complies with applicable security, privacy, regulatory, and records-management requirements.

Participates in scheduled production-support coverage, release activities, or incident response as required by business needs and co