Main Responsibilities and Required Skills for an IT Operations Analyst

An IT Operations Analyst is a professional who plays a crucial role in ensuring the smooth and efficient functioning of an organization's IT infrastructure and operations. They are responsible for monitoring, analyzing, and maintaining various IT systems, networks, and applications. In this blog post, we describe the primary responsibilities and the most in-demand hard and soft skills for IT Operations Analysts.

Get market insights and compare skills for other jobs here.

Main Responsibilities of an IT Operations Analyst

The following list describes the typical responsibilities of an IT Operations Analyst:

Advocate

Advocate for the technology needs of international business groups with US Operations.

Analyze

Analyze data and generate reports of the performance of service operations functions.
Analyze data on customer environments to ensure consistency across platforms.
Analyze IT data and metrics to identify trends and areas for improvement.

Assess

Assess caller's knowledge and translate information when providing assistance.

Assist in

Assist in budgeting for hardware and software.
Assist in ensuring the Service Providers are adhering to our client's defined standards.
Assist in the evaluation and selection of IT vendors and solutions.
Assist in the implementation of IT governance and risk management frameworks.
Assist in the implementation of IT projects and initiatives.
Assist in the installation and configuration of IT hardware and software.
Assist in the preparation of bill of materials (BOMs) for proposal efforts.
Assist with development and maintenance of processes and procedures.
Assist with gap analyses highlighting current state, future state based on best practices.
Assist with streamlining internal processes as applicable.

Associate

Associate users or devices to collections using MS Configuration Manager.

Attend

Attend major incident calls.

Capture

Capture and analyzes customer needs and priorities and initiates delivery efforts.
Capture, specify and document key business functions, responsibilities and workflows.

Collaborate with

Collaborate and engages with the appropriate areas across the bank.
Collaborate with cross-functional teams to address IT-related challenges.
Collaborate with IT management to develop IT strategies and roadmaps.
Collaborate with vendors and suppliers for IT-related services and products.

Communicate

Communicate effectively within the team relative to service issues and scheduled changes.
Communicate international modernization status to stakeholders.

Conduct

Conduct capacity planning to ensure adequate resources for IT systems.
Conduct periodic audits for overall international solutions, planning and delivery functions.
Conduct quality assurance to validate working / viable software.
Conduct regular system checks and maintenance tasks.
Conduct user training and workshops on IT tools and applications.
Conduct vulnerability assessments and implement security patches.

Confirm

Confirm that Infrastructure Services supporting documentation is available and kept up-to-date.

Consult

Consult on industry technology / retail trends and capabilities.
Consult on ongoing data cleanliness and plan maintenance.

Coordinate

Coordinate closely with DevOps team to support continuous delivery.
Coordinate requests with IT support teams, identifying, tracking and resolving issues.
Coordinate with IT teams to troubleshoot and resolve complex problems.

Create

Create and maintain comprehensive system and site documentation.
Create and maintain reports related to application support.
Create, Implement, and Verify application and infrastructure changes.
Create Problem records for issues that require further follow-up / permanent fixes.

Deploy

Deploy base infrastructure components for all environments.

Detect

Detect, investigate, diagnose and recover anomalies across the production infrastructure.

Develop

Develop and maintain IT documentation and standard operating procedures.
Develop and maintain key team deliverables / dashboards / KPIs.
Develop and manage stakeholder relationships.
Develop or helps to develop the knowledge assets required for the operation.

Document

Document and publish required documentation for service operations.
Document business processes, defects, and application support resolutions.
Document, update and publish environment inventory, availability and schedule.

Draft

Draft appeals correspondence, custom letters, and participant communications.

Drive

Drive to provide legendary, front-line support.

Ensure

Ensure accurate reporting related to Service Provider performance.
Ensure change activities are performed on time, at minimal business risk.
Ensure compliance with IT policies and security protocols.
Ensure data integrity and quality in each environment.
Ensure effective communication throughout service issues and scheduled changes.
Ensure overall client satisfaction.
Ensure prompt and timely updates to service issues, and follow through on outstanding problems.
Ensure prompt service issue updates, achieve swift resolution.
Ensure proper testing, sign-off, monitoring.
Ensure the security and integrity of IT infrastructure and data.

Escalate

Escalate and work with vendors to trouble-shoot and repair failed systems.

Evaluate

Evaluate and recommend improvements to IT processes and procedures.
Evaluate various manual processes and own the implementation of automation to replace them.

Facilitate

Facilitate audits of processes related to Infrastructure Services.

Focus

Focus on technology and the development of solutions and strategies.

Follow

Follow change management procedures.
Follow established procedures and standards.
Follow standards, policies and procedures, comply with disaster and business recovery plans.

Foster

Foster confidence as a trusted advisor to International IT and business areas.

Gather

Gather infrastructure services data on spending patterns for analysis and reporting.

Get

Get involved in business cases, RFI / RFP and service-level agreements.

Grow

Grow your career and help us to prioritize IT activities to support PLI business operations.

Help

Help drive resolution of operational and service-based issues, reviewing, analyzing and reporting.

Identify

Identify and resolve technical issues and incidents promptly.
Identify, resolve, escalate and communicate service delivery issues and / or complaints.
Identify, resolve, or escalate service delivery issues and / or complaints.
Identify root causes and implement targeted and controlled remediation plans.

Implement

Implement and maintain IT monitoring and alerting tools.
Implement automation scripts (SQL) for environment provisioning and deployment.

Interact with

Interact with technical team(s) to translate functional specifications into technology solutions.

Keep

Keep current with industry and / or business trends.

Lead

Lead and directs the work of others.

Maintain

Maintain a secure work environment, adhere to notification and escalation processes.
Maintain a secure work environment and ensure adherence to notification and escalation processes.
Maintain a solid understanding of the Service Providers' operational and service delivery.
Maintain the required inventory of tools for the practice.
Maintain / update Service Now Incident queues to manageable levels.

Manage

Manage and prioritize IT support tickets and service requests.
Manage communications to business partners for service impacting changes.
Manage program level activities by developing and executing against a strategic program charter.
Manage vendor relationships ensuring cost control and timely deliverables.

Monitor

Monitor and analyze the performance of IT systems and networks.
Monitor and assess the current software licensing position.
Monitor and manage IT asset inventory and licenses.
Monitor and manage IT service level agreements (SLAs).
Monitor, remediate and report on all of software distribution activities.
Monitor resources to ensure application / technology delivery.
Monitor resources to ensure availability associated with business applications and technology.
Monitor server space and proactively identifies server cleanup opportunities.
Monitor system life cycles, ensure specifications and functionality support business.

Negotiation

Negotiation and communication to ticket requestors as required.

Optimize

Optimize IT processes to enhance efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

Organize

Organize and synthesizes large amounts of information provided by stakeholders.

Participate

Participate in disaster recovery planning (Define, Review, Test).
Participate in IT audits and compliance assessments.
Participate in knowledge transfer within the team and business units.
Participate in team performance objectives.

Perform

Perform a variety of complicated tasks.
Perform first level technical support based on the Incident Management Framework.
Perform problem resolution and escalation triage.
Perform regression tests and participate in Integration Testing and User Acceptance Testing (UAT).
Perform system backups and disaster recovery procedures.
Perform technical problem resolution as applicable for each stage in the process.

Plan

Plan, monitor and escalate issues as required.
Plan parallel work streams when possible.

Prioritize

Prioritize activities to ensure time invested is appropriate to the availability impact.
Prioritize and manage own workload in order to deliver quality results and meet timelines.

Promote

Promote adherence to standards and industry best practices.

Protect

Protect TRS, plan sponsor and participants from compliance concerns.

Provide

Provide expertise to other functional areas (technology, trends and processes).
Provide immediate response to production program or system problems.
Provide information on spending for company cost allocation and metric reporting.
Provide initial triage, investigation and resolution of incidents.
Provide leadership, mentoring, and coaching for International IT team members.
Provide Level 3 operational support for third party applications.
Provide network support to include LAN, WAN, and VPN in largely a Cisco Meraki environment.
Provide on-call support and handle IT emergencies when necessary.
Provide quality service and solutions consistent with objectives and client requirements.
Provide reporting and analysis on service, usage, and availability.
Provide reporting on upcoming and ongoing efforts.
Provide seamless activity and process integration, recognizing system interdependencies.
Provide seamless integration of activities and processes, recognizing system interdependencies.
Provide technical support and assistance to end-users.

Recognize

Recognize repeated problems or trends, and troubleshoot and solve for the root cause.

Recommend

Recommend improvements and enhancements to internal departmental processes.
Recommend internal, departmental process improvements.

Report

Report discrepancies, escalations and potential process failures to management.

Resolve

Resolve or escalate issues related to operations in a timely manner.

Review

Review monthly / annual forecast of expenses for the IT Budget, and analyzes and report.

Setup

Setup and configure new remote offices as needed.

Set-up

Set-up and manage collections as per defined standards.

Share ideas to enhance revenue, customer experience, reduce costs.

Stay updated on

Stay updated on emerging technologies and industry best practices.

Support

Support coordination efforts with other project teams and vendors.
Support deployment activities, managing implementation issues to resolution.

Think

Think creatively and propose new solutions.

Troubleshoot

Troubleshoot and resolve network connectivity issues.

Understand

Understand ITSM technical and functional design requirements.
Understand the Transamerica Retirement Services (TRS) model and secure TRS interests.

Use

Use meaningful metrics to monitor environment's performance.

Verify

Verify the quality of problem resolution, changes and enhancements, and monitor trends.

Work with

Work closely with the IT Support Services to resolve Service Provider related issues and to help.
Work with application vendors to address issues.
Work with various leads in simplifying and standardizing of our processes.

Most In-demand Hard Skills

The following list describes the most required technical skills of an IT Operations Analyst:

Proficiency in IT system and network monitoring tools.
Knowledge of ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) principles.
Familiarity with IT service management (ITSM) frameworks.
Understanding of IT security principles and best practices.
Experience with incident management and problem-solving techniques.
Knowledge of network protocols and configurations (TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, etc.).
Proficiency in using IT automation and scripting tools (e.g., PowerShell).
Experience with cloud computing platforms and services.
Knowledge of virtualization technologies (VMware, Hyper-V, etc.).
Familiarity with server and storage management technologies.
Proficiency in using IT ticketing and support systems.
Understanding of database management systems (e.g., SQL Server, Oracle).
Experience with configuration management tools (e.g., Puppet, Ansible).
Knowledge of IT performance monitoring and optimization.
Proficiency in Microsoft Windows and Linux operating systems.
Experience with network security and firewall configurations.
Familiarity with IT project management methodologies.
Knowledge of backup and recovery solutions.
Understanding of IT compliance and regulatory requirements.
Proficiency in data analysis and reporting using IT tools.

Most In-demand Soft Skills

The following list describes the most required soft skills of an IT Operations Analyst:

Excellent problem-solving and analytical abilities.
Strong communication and interpersonal skills.
Adaptability and ability to work in a dynamic IT environment.
Team player and collaboration with cross-functional teams.
Time management and ability to prioritize tasks effectively.
Attention to detail and accuracy in IT tasks and documentation.
Customer service orientation and focus on end-user satisfaction.
Effective decision-making skills, especially in high-pressure situations.
Continuous learning and staying updated on IT trends and advancements.
Positive attitude and a proactive approach to IT challenges.

Conclusion

As an IT Operations Analyst, mastering both the hard skills and soft skills is essential for effectively managing IT operations and ensuring the reliability and security of an organization's IT infrastructure. With their expertise and dedication, IT Operations Analysts contribute significantly to the overall efficiency and success of businesses in the digital age.