Principal Application Support Engineer

This position is only open to Internal King County employees. Only current King County employees will be considered.

The King County Information Technology (KCIT) Custom and Cloud Applications Team is hiring a Principal Application Support Engineer to lead support activities for applications spanning various business domains of King County, particularly in Law-Safety-Justice, E-commerce and Accessor & Treasury applications. This specialist and technical lead position will focus on onboarding new systems through continuous integration & deployment pipelines, performing upgrades, building and monitoring system alerts and dashboards, resolving production issues, and managing application lifecycles both on-premises and cloud hosting environments mainly in Azure.

The successful candidate will apply software development and data management skills to support coding, scripting, system monitoring, process improvement, application security, and configuration management. They will troubleshoot complex issues across application and platform layers while collaborating closely with KCIT divisions managing Information & Cyber security, Network, Cloud infrastructure, Database & Operating Systems, Servers, Software Engineering, and Project Management teams. The ideal candidate will have deep expertise in production incident management, application troubleshooting, observability, and support operations, with a learning mindset for improving the reliability and operational maturity of critical applications.

About King County Department of Information Technology (KCIT)

King County is committed to being the best-run government in the nation, and King County Information Technology (KCIT) is helping lead that transformation. KCIT harnesses the power of technology to modernize operations, advance digital equity and social justice, and deliver innovative solutions that engage, empower, and serve our residents, businesses, and community partners.

Recognized by the National Association of Counties (NACo) for excellence in vision, strategy, innovation, and collaboration, KCIT is focused on delivering smart, secure, and customer-centered technology services that strengthen county operations and support thriving, resilient communities. As the technology business partner to all 18 County departments, KCIT provides the foundational systems and services that power many of the region’s most essential functions. We work side-by-side with our partners to design and deliver technology solutions that enhance customer experience and advance King County’s mission. Learn more about KCIT at: http://kingcounty.gov/depts/it.aspx. 

• Support complex and high-impact IT solutions to serve business partners.
• Support applications and other IT solutions hosted on premises and in the Cloud, especially in modern hosting platforms and keep up with emerging technologies.
• Troubleshoot, configure and implement applications and related components.  
• Operate and maintain applications in the team's support portfolio, including relevant data and IT processes.
• Oversee architectural designs as a technical lead role for new IT solutions to support evolving business needs.
• Lead day-to-day application issue resolutions, manage communications and provide after-hours application support.
• Act as the lead contact point for system support issues, explain business processes, resolve system issues, work with internal and external system users.

• Minimum of six (6) years of experience in supporting business software systems and applications.
• Experience in Azure application support, Kubernetes operations, container platforms, observability, performance troubleshooting, incident management and root cause analysis.
• Proficiency in coding environments tools such as Visual Studio, VS Code, Azure Dev Ops, SSMS, IIS.
• Proficiency in coding languages such as C#, JavaScript, PowerShell, SQL and experience with continuous integration and deployment process.
• Experience with Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, Application Insights, operational dashboards, telemetry strategy and alert tuning.
• Experience with Azure DevOps and/or GitHub Actions, automation and scripting experience using PowerShell or Bash.
• Knowledge of Kubernetes security, RBAC and policy controls.
• Familiarity with Azure platform services, including Virtual Networks, Load Balancers, Application Gateway, Key Vault, Storage Accounts, Azure AD / Entra ID, identity and access patterns.
• Experience to support and troubleshoot deployment and release issues in Azure DevOps and/or GitHub Actions.
• Experience working closely with development, DevOps, infrastructure, database, and security teams to oversee system enhancements & upgrades, resolve issues and improve supportability & reliability, reduce recurring incidents, and build operational maturity.
• Experience with change management processes to facilitate complex system changes; identify, analyze, and prioritize system change requests; assess potential impacts to applications from changes implemented by other IT teams.   Demonstrated change management competencies, collaborative leadership skills and personal accountability.
• Proficiency in Microsoft troubleshooting application issues involving servers, Azure, networking, information security; track, resolve, and document system problems and issues requiring a broad understanding of complex systems.
• Familiarity with troubleshooting Kubernetes issues involving pods, deployments, services, ingress, config maps, secrets, node pools, scaling and cluster health.
• Demonstrated competence with MS Windows operating systems and MS Office products (Teams, Excel, Word, Outlook, Visio).
• Ability to lead teams through all phases of project delivery lifecycle, and to work effectively with minimal supervision.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including presentation to non-technical audiences.
• High degree of general IT support maturity and demonstrated confidentiality and customer service orientation.
• Demonstrated technical writing skills to create end-user documentation including help files, diagnostics approach and results, gap analyses, system overview diagrams and flowcharts.
• Ability to work closely with key stakeholders to develop and maintain technical documentation, prepare training materials, and conduct training sessions for technical staff.

• Six (6) years of work experience in software development support, preferably related to cloud hosting environments.
• Certification or equivalent experience in systems engineering.
• Experience in managing servers, networks and cloud resources.
• Azure / Kubernetes certifications or equivalent experience

Hybrid Work: KCIT works in a hybrid model, with days in the office as well as telecommuting. The ratio of remote to onsite work will be dependent on business needs and is subject to change. The primary onsite location is the Chinook Building, 401 5th Ave, Seattle, WA 98104.

Employees must reside in Washington state and within a reasonable distance to their King County worksite to respond to workplace reporting requirements.

King County has a robust collection of tools and resources to support working remotely. The individual selected for this opportunity will join an innovative and progressive team that is redefining how we work as we transition to the department's hybrid environment. Employees will be provided with a County-issued laptop and must maintain a home workspace with an internet connection where they can reliably perform work and remain available and responsive during scheduled work hours.

Work Schedule: The normal workweek for this position is Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Alternative schedules may be considered by your manager. This position will participate on the After-Hours Support (AHS) team (24x7, 7-day rotation Monday-Sunday).

FLSA Status:  This position is FLSA Exempt and is not eligible for overtime pay.

Classification: IT Production Engineer-Principal (Job code: 741701)

Union: This position is represented by Protec17: Information Technology.

Who May Apply: This recruitment is open to internal King County employees. We value diversity, diverse perspectives and life experience and encourage people of all backgrounds to apply.

Are you ready to make a difference? Come join the team dedicated to serving one of the nation's best places to live, work and play.

Application Process

Applicants must complete the online application to include:

1. Employment history going back at least seven years if possible (or more to include all relevant experience). 
2. A resume including all relevant experience.
3. A cover letter detailing how your experience and qualifications make you a fit for this position.

If you are interested in pursuing this position and supporting King County’s vision for unified, equitable, and high-performing government, please follow the application instructions carefully. Provide us with your work history as applicable, ensuring that you provide details that highlight your ability to fulfill the requirements for this position.

If you need this announcement in an alternate language or format, or you would like to request accommodation or assistance in the application or assessment process, please contact Angelia Remolana at [email protected] 

King County's Vision, Mission, and ACTIVATE Values unite us.

King County serves residents with a relentless sense of urgency, delivering on commitments with transparency and accountability. We are action-oriented, creative problem solvers who collaborate across roles, engage directly with communities, and challenge the status quo to achieve meaningful impact. As a unified team, we uphold high ethical and stewardship standards, embrace change, stay curious, and continuously improve. Across all interactions, we listen first, act quickly, and stay aligned as a team to earn and sustain public trust. Learn more about our Vision, Mission, and ACTIVATE Values here and visit our Why work at King County page here.

King County is an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Employer

No person is unlawfully excluded from employment opportunities based on sex, race, color, national origin, ethnicity, religious affiliation, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age except by minimum age and retirement provisions, pregnancy, status as a family caregiver, parental status, marital status, military status or status as a veteran who was honorably discharged or who was discharged solely as a result of the person's sexual orientation or gender identity or expression, citizenship or immigration status, genetic information, or other protected class. However, to the extent that distinction or differential treatment on the basis of citizenship or immigration status is authorized by either federal or state law, regulation, or government contract, it is not an unfair practice.

Our EEO policy applies to all employment actions, including but not limited to recruitment, hiring, selection for training, promotion, transfer, demotion, layoff, termination, rates of pay or other forms of compensation.