Senior Applications Functional Specialist

Location: Pretoria, Gauteng
Job Type: Full-Time, Onsite
Annual Salary:  ZAR 1,100,000 gross

Overview

A leading organisation is seeking a Senior Applications Functional Specialist to drive and manage a team responsible for functional support, testing, analysis, configuration, and continuous improvement of business applications. This role involves leadership, client engagement, solution design, and end-to-end functional support.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead a team providing functional support for business applications, including testing, analysis, configuration, and system setup.

• Guide functional analysis initiatives and oversee cross-functional projects, including multi-year programs.

• Manage client engagements, ensuring strong relationship building and continuous communication.

• Collaborate with business owners to define requirements, identify optimisation opportunities, and propose solutions.

• Support architects in developing business architecture, frameworks, and implementation roadmaps.

• Manage change requirements, specifications, and user acceptance testing.

• Provide expert input to project management, systems development, quality management, and change management teams.

• Apply industry best practices to improve business processes and workflows.

• Identify and manage risks within assigned functional streams.

• Develop training manuals, training plans, and deliver training sessions for new initiatives.

• Configure advanced business processes within systems to enhance functionality and provide specialist support.

• Ensure quality assurance of all work produced by application functional specialists.

Requirements

• Honours degree (NQF 8) in Business Administration, Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field.

• 8-10 years of experience in application support, business analysis, project environments, or software implementation.

• Strong experience in functional and business analysis and supporting application implementations.

• Knowledge and skills in:

  • Business and industry awareness

  • Quality assurance

  • Continuous improvement

  • Business transformation and optimisation

  • Elicitation techniques

  • Business analysis methodologies and tools

  • Testing and realisation practices

  • IT domain management

Ideal Candidate Profile

• Strong leadership capabilities

• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills

• Confident communicator with stakeholder-management experience

• Ability to manage large, complex functional environments

• Highly organised, detail-oriented, and focused on quality