Business Application Specialist II

The City of Virginia Beach is hiring for a Business Application Specialist II (BAS) in the Housing and Neighborhood Preservation Department (HNP). The BAS will be a member of a joint technology services team providing primary technology support for the department. The department’s primary goal is to connect people to resources, helping them maintain or sustain housing in vibrant, well-maintained neighborhoods. The team’s purpose will be to support that work by managing the department’s business applications in use now and in the future and providing general technology support for the department’s staff.

The team, known as the Housing Tech Team, will operate under a Federated Support model, where the Information Technology (IT) department will oversee the team and the work required to successfully enhance, support, maintain, upgrade, and replace technology solutions and services for the department. HNP will set and approve departmental priorities for the team to execute and assist in developing the work plans.

Responsibilities

The Business Application Specialist II is the applications specialist for Housing and Neighborhood Preservation. The primary responsibilities for the position are:

• Housing technology and application user support and project team support
• Support and follow the direction of the System Analyst II, the lead for the Housing Tech Team
• Control user access to systems; add and delete users and assign passwords as required
• Serve as first-line troubleshooting of any system issues for assigned application(s) of division; enter and resolve technology tickets for incidents and service
• Manage and solve incident, problem, and change items for assigned division(s), including hardware, software, network access, and business applications
• Review, evaluate, and analyze existing applications to define problems and information processing requirements
• Analyze user requests for new or improved computer information systems
• Modify existing software to improve operations, consolidate programs, reduce complexity, or otherwise improve information system operations
• Test and verify changing technology solutions or services
• Assist in process documentation
• Prepare and review new hardware and software requests
• Maintain inventory of hardware and software
• Attend in-service training and technical or professional classes, seminars, or conferences to improve technical or professional skills
• Serve on committees and boards engaged in computer information systems activities
• Provide system and network administration and security
• Serve as the department’s SME for assigned business application processes
• Liaise with Information Technology (IT) and/or vendors to resolve software and/or hardware issues
• Assess the department’s strategic technology needs and opportunities for growth
• Research the capability of new vendor systems and new releases of current systems
• Work closely with and coordinate department activities with IT during system installations, deployments, and other related processes

This position manages the department’s current and future business application systems including Accela Automation, Accela Mobile Application, the Certificate of Compliance Inspection Process, the Housing Rehabilitation Database, Housing Pro (HAPPY Software), and the Housing Locator Application. The position will assist department staff in assessing, documenting, training, and user support for government information databases and related processes. The position will identify business needs and process improvements, analyze business operations, conduct studies, and research effective methods to streamline work processes.

This position should have knowledge and experience working with Java scripting; experience extracting data from automated business application programs; ability to create and update custom reports (ad hoc and/or SQL); experience training others in new software, hardware, database, and web-based applications and developing technical and/or non-technical documents/training materials/manuals; experience analyzing/streamlining work processes/procedures for automation; experience testing software implementations, deployments and upgrades; experience leading or participating on technology project teams; experience managing logistics of tracking devices, licenses, equipment; ability to work with minimal supervision and function well under pressure; experience with end-user support (maintenance and troubleshooting software and hardware); and experience providing customer support and performing basic level hardware troubleshooting.

The City offers a generous benefits package, which includes health, dental and life insurance, retirement and savings plans, maternity/paternity and parental leave, holidays and Paid-Time-Off. In addition, the BAS position is eligible for hybrid work arrangements, after a training period.

The starting salary of this position depends on the qualifications of the selected candidate.

This recruitment is open until filled. Applications will be reviewed regularly and the recruitment will close to applicants once a candidate is selected.