Supply Chain Application Engineer II

About the Role

The Application Engineer II provides leadership and guidance relating to the company’s technical assets. This role focuses on building solutions, utilizing management tools, and defining and architecting solutions to meet business needs. Application Engineers will facilitate process, method, and standard definitions for governing solution transformation, enhancing customer experience, increasing store productivity, and enabling business expansion within a product/service operating model. This role supports various technologies and domains, acting as a subject matter expert (SME) in specific technical areas.

Responsibilities

• Escalated Operational Support (35%)
  • Provide and/or coordinate Level 2/Level 3 support for incident resolution, including:
  • Identifying and resolving solution-related issues (code, data, or architecture).
  • Addressing production issues through root cause analysis and resolution.
  • Responding to questions and suggestions from other IDS teams.
  • Conducting investigations (e.g., root cause analysis), diagnosing issues, resolving incidents/problems, identifying workarounds, and ensuring proper closure for knowledge and reporting purposes.
  • Ensuring system stability and performance to support customer experience and productivity.
• Improvements: Solution Development (35%)
  • Define, design, and develop solutions, including custom application development, solution orchestrations, and advanced solution support to improve customer experience, store productivity, and business expansion.
  • Respond to business requests by leveraging appropriate solutions and tools.
  • Identify approaches to meet business requirements, confirm controls, and drive architecture decision-making.
• Improvements: Solution Architecture (20%)
  • Evaluate technology options to address business needs and manage the overall solution technical lifecycle, aligned with strategic goals for customer experience, productivity, and growth.
  • Establish and improve solution architecture (application, data, etc.) in alignment with the Les Schwab Enterprise Architecture framework and methodologies.
  • Define standards, policies, and procedures for solution architecture.
  • Ensure documentation of enterprise artifacts and assist Enterprise Architecture in artifact management.
• Improvements: Solution Quality & Governance (5%)
  • Monitor and adhere to technical application practices, including company governance and guiding principles.
  • Perform administration activities (data or solution) as needed.
  • Define and govern standards for implemented solutions.
• Service Levels: Stakeholder Relationship & Vendor Management (5%)
  • Collaborate with business and IDS teams to understand and enable needed business capabilities.
  • Facilitate discussions with business stakeholders to ensure solutions meet strategic objectives for customer experience, productivity, and expansion.
  • Engage with vendors to understand product roadmaps and lifecycles to future-proof the solution portfolio.

Requirements

• Educational/Experience Requirements:
  • Four-year college degree in a related field, preferably in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or equivalent experience.
  • Minimum of 5 years of IT experience in the required domain for this position.
  • A minimum of 2 years of experience architecting and implementing enterprise solutions (e.g., customized program development, enterprise data integration, business intelligence, and governance processes).
• Technical Skills/Knowledge:
  • Moderate breadth and depth of experience in solution development and implementation (e.g., coding, database, business intelligence).
  • Basic knowledge of productivity applications (e.g., Google Applications, MS Office).
• General Knowledge and Abilities:
  • Analytical Skills: Strong problem-solving and analytical abilities.
  • Communication: Ability to communicate technical and non-technical information clearly and professionally, both verbally and in writing. Active listening skills and effective written communication.
  • Confidentiality: Ability to work discreetly and effectively with all staff levels.
  • Flexibility: Willingness to adapt to organizational, process, and technology changes.
  • Initiative: Ability to work effectively with moderate supervision and execute high-complexity assignments.
  • Multitasking: Ability to perform multiple tasks simultaneously or shift between activities without difficulty.
  • Organization: Strong prioritization, attention to detail, and time management skills.
  • Service Excellence: Stakeholder-focused, anticipating needs, collaborating to reach solutions, and consistently meeting expectations to improve customer experience and productivity.
  • Teamwork: Ability to establish rapport, interact comfortably, and work well with coworkers, including cooperation, support, and sharing information.

Physical Requirements

• Primarily a desk position; regularly required to sit, occasionally stand and walk.
• Frequent and repetitive use of hands and fingers to operate computers, keyboards, and office equipment.
• Ability to lift up to 10 pounds regularly.
• Close visual acuity and ability to adjust focus.
• Ability to communicate verbally and exchange information over the phone and in person.

Work Environment

Office-based, non-manual work with minimal exposure to adverse environmental conditions. On-call work is required, including evenings, weekends, and holidays.