Applications Support Senior Analyst

The Senior Application Support Analyst provides advanced technical and functional support for critical business applications and systems, ensuring their availability, stability, and optimal performance. This role combines in-depth technical expertise with a strong understanding of business processes to troubleshoot, resolve, and proactively manage incidents and issues that impact live production environments. Serving as a key liaison between IT and business units, the Senior Analyst is responsible for delivering timely solutions, maintaining service continuity, and communicating effectively with stakeholders at all levels. This position requires sound judgment, excellent problem‑solving abilities, and a commitment to providing high-quality support in a fast‑paced, deadline‑driven environment. Responsibilities Maintain an up-to-date application inventory, including architecture diagrams, support documentation, and knowledge base content. Document and manage application roadmaps and related business processes to ensure alignment with evolving organizational needs. Serve as a liaison between business units, IT support teams, and external vendors to coordinate issue resolution, enhancements, and system integrations. Provide advanced technical support for applications, operating systems, and associated hardware/software components used across the organization. Manage and monitor ticketing systems to ensure timely, accurate logging, resolution, and tracking of user‑reported issues and service requests. Analyze, troubleshoot, and resolve complex technical problems, escalating to business and IT peers and owners as necessary to ensure service continuity. Maintain and update system documentation, user guides, support procedures, training documents, and operational runbooks. Support application and infrastructure assessments to ensure systems availability, meet performance, security, and scalability requirements. Collaborate with business and IT stakeholders and vendor partners to support and implement system integrations and process improvements. Coordinate application upgrades, patches, and maintenance schedules in partnership with vendors, business stakeholders, and technical teams. Effectively manage changes to applications and services by supporting and enforcing IT change management processes and protocols. Deliver customized training and support sessions to business users, ensuring effective application utilization and licensing compliance. Generate reports and performance metrics to support analysis, forecasting, and decision‑making across departments. Recommend and implement strategies and procedures that optimize application performance, enhance workflow efficiency, and improve user satisfaction. Support data security practices by maintaining secure user access and data protection protocols. Facilitate the onboarding of new hardware and software, including installation, configuration, and user training. Manage vendor relationships to ensure licensing compliance, version control, and timely resolution of application‑related issues. Coordinate application support efforts across onshore and offshore teams to ensure consistent support services delivery. Requirements A Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Business Information Systems, or a related field is required. 7+ years of experience in application support, including experience with Editorial systems, subscription‑based systems, and/or SaaS environments. Experience managing, analyzing, and optimizing data related to recurring billing, customer subscriptions, and revenue streams—particularly in media or e‑commerce industries. Strong understanding of business processes across departments such as Circulation/Distribution, Marketing, Finance, Operations, and Production Operations. Proven ability to review, interpret, and analyze complex financial and subscriber data sets. Proficient in troubleshooting, root cause analysis, and complex problem‑solving for diagnosing and resolving application and user issues. Experience supporting system integrations and working with APIs, middleware, and cross‑platform solutions. Proficient knowledge of relational databases, including SQL and Python; and basic network configuration. Proficiency with business intelligence tools such as Power BI, Looker, or similar. Strong technical aptitude to learn vendor proprietary or employer‑specific applications. Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to convey technical concepts to non‑technical stakeholders and produce clear documentation and training materials. Ability to manage multiple priorities and deadlines in a fast‑paced environment. Ability to fill multiple roles as needed to maintain IT system integrity and performance. Media industry experience, certifications, or professional memberships are a plus. Preferred Qualifications Strategic thinking skills Technical expertise Detail oriented Ability to drive strategic direction The L.A. Times is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes all qualified applicants regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We actively work to create an inclusive environment where all of our employees can thrive. #J-18808-Ljbffr