Description & Requirements
ABOUT SPARK
We are Spark, New Zealand’s largest multi-brand digital services company offering mobile, fixed-line and IT products and services to millions of New Zealand consumers and businesses.
Home to inspired, forward thinkers, Spark people are at the heart of our purpose, which is to get stuck in to enable New Zealanders to unleash their own incredible potential using the amazing technology and digital experiences we deliver. Our progressive, straight up approach to technology is evolving every day and we have a thirst for fresh, creative energy to join us in sparking New Zealand’s digital future.
Our principal brand Spark supports home, consumer mobile and small business customers, and Spark Digital powers government and business customers with strong cloud services, mobility, and ICT capabilities. Specialist and flanking brands include Skinny, CCL, Qrious, Entelar, MATTR, Spark Health, Adroit and Digital Island.
We live the agile life at Spark – the majority of our teams work in squads and use the Scrum framework to maximise the pace of delivery for our customers and bring the future faster to New Zealand.
ABOUT THE ROLE/TEAM
The Intelligent Operations Specialist role is part of our Data & Automation chapter area and sits within the Enterprise Automation domain. As well as leading operations for Data & Automation, the domain consists of software developers, application support engineers, testers and automation engineers, who work on a variety of projects, platform optimisation activities and automation initiatives.
This is a vital role; you’ll be acting as 2IC to the Operations Lead and assisting in the day-to-day hustle and bustle of a busy ops environment. You will also play in integral part in helping us transition our ops capability to supporting predominantly cloud hosted systems and solutions, and will be at the forefront of driving innovation in how we support our ever-evolving environment.
We’d be keen to talk to you if you can speak to previous experience that covers most of the areas listed below.
GENERAL CAPABILITIES
- You have a strong technical background that includes solid experience in operations, and you can articulate a clear vison for how ops should work on the cloud.
- Enjoy rolling your sleeves up and getting hands on with the tech, whilst being willing to share your knowledge with the wider team.
- You are comfortable being part of a 24x7 operational support team.
- Working knowledge of ITIL processes, with experience using ServiceNow to enable and automate operations a bonus.
- Solid cloud experience is a non-negotiable for this role. Azure experience is preferred, and experience with AWS would also be valued.
- As part of the team, you will be expected to understand and use the various Azure Admin roles, create/maintain Azure Data Factory Pipelines, be able to support Azure machine learning workloads, manage objects in Spark’s custom data feature repository, support Azure Log Analytics, Azure API Management (APIM) and Azure Kubernetes (AKS) Services, understand cloud-hybrid architecture, and understand the AWS suite of services.
- Ability to inform, influence and initiate solutions and platform architecture conversations and documentation.
- The role requires a fundamental understanding of security and privacy within the cloud as you will need to assist the Operations Lead with assessing new products within the domain.
- Experience writing SQL Views/Procs/Functions, preferably on Snowflake. Any Snowflake admin experience will be a bonus.
- Programming experience is essential, preferably Python, with experience in Low Code platforms such as Logic Apps and Power Platform a bonus.
- Experience designing and developing automated processes.
- Strong business acumen and stakeholder management capability, and excellent verbal and written communication skills.
- You enjoy being part of a diverse and inclusive agile team environment and can manage your time effectively to deliver squad priorities.
- You have experience in using software development and agile delivery toolsets such as Azure DevOps.
- Experience using ML/AI tools, products, and platforms, including Generative AI and LLM toolkits such as Azure OpenAI and Microsoft CoPilot to enhance and automate operational processes will be highly regarded.
NICE-TO-HAVES
- Cloud architecture and cloud-hybrid design experience.
- Container-based software development experience (Docker/Kubernetes).
- Web-apps development and/or web-application admin.
- Power BI and/or Power Platform development or admin.
- Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP experience.
- Relevant Azure certifications (AZ-400, AZ-204, AZ-104, AZ-305, AWS certs, etc).
CULTURE
People enjoy working in this team because the work is fast paced and technically challenging. We’re also a dedicated bunch and we’re passionate about agile delivery. We work hard, but also like to have fun! We’re also a truly diverse and inclusive company where everyone can relax and be themselves.
BENEFITS
- Spark aims to be the place where the smartest, most digitally savvy talent wants to work, in an inclusive, diverse workplace.
- We grow great teams, led by the best leaders at the top of their game, by enabling our people the freedom and scope to do their best work, and by offering opportunities to develop their talent.
- Benefits include career breaks, summer hours, extended annual leave purchasing, discounted health insurance, option to access great value holiday homes through Marram Trust, careers fairs, leadership development, training options and individual emphasis on corporate social responsibility and community involvement through the Spark Foundation (including volunteer days).
- Additionally, we offer a monthly Spark account credit (subject to credit criteria) across all our services, Spark Cover (free life and income protection insurance), access to our employee share scheme, as well as a wide range of discounted partner products and services among New Zealand’s most well-known retailers.