Manager Application Support

Who we are:

Our mission at FHLBank Chicago: To partner with our members in Illinois and Wisconsin to provide them competitively priced funding, a reasonable return on their investment, and support for their community investment activities.

Simply said, we're a bank for banks and other financial institutions, focused on being a strategic partner for our members and working together to reinvest in our communities, from urban centers to rural areas. Created by Congress in 1932, FHLBank Chicago is one of 11 Federal Home Loan Banks, government sponsored in support of mortgage lending and community investment.

What it’s like to work here

At FHLBank Chicago, we bring people together. We are committed to a high performing, engaged workforce, and to supporting the communities we serve across Illinois and Wisconsin. Our Buddy Program pairs new hires with tenured employees to guide their onboarding. Our professional development and training opportunities through upskilling, mentorship programs, and tuition reimbursement allow employees to grow their career with us. Our collaborative, in-office operating model brings teams together to foster innovation, connection, and shared success. To support balance and flexibility, employees are provided an allocation of remote days to use as needed throughout the year.

What you'll do

The Manager Application Support manages and leads both the Application Support team and the Database Administrators, providing direct supervisory responsibility and strategic direction for both groups. This role ensures the availability, reliability, and performance of the Bank’s critical business applications and batch workflows. The manager oversees 24/7 support operations and manages batch processing using enterprise scheduling tools. The Manager also provides leadership and oversight for Database Administrators, ensuring coordination between application and database support functions. The role applies strategic leadership, technical expertise, and operational rigor to guide the team, foster collaboration across business and technology stakeholders, and uphold compliance standards. It also includes oversight of critical operational, compliance, and strategic functions.

How you'll make an impact:

• Provide strategic leadership and operational stability for the Application Support team, ensuring consistency with enterprise risk objectives and compliance standards.

• Own and optimize Batch operations, driving improvements in metrics, reporting, and actionable insights while collaborating closely with key stakeholders to enhance risk alignment and operational resilience.

• Strengthen people leadership and team development, offering direct management to support growth, engagement, and performance within the Application Support team.

What can you expect:

• Manage and lead a high-performing team of Application Support Specialists and Database Administrators.

• Oversee 24/7 support operations, including on-call coverage, incident coordination, and alerting workflows using platforms such as xMatters.

• Lead efforts to map, analyze, and continuously improve overnight Batch workflows, applying structured problem-solving and root cause analysis to minimize failures and optimize performance.

• Partner with Risk and Operations to refine dashboards, develop actionable KPIs and KRIs, and ensure transparency and accountability in daily and long-term batch oversight.

• Serve as application owner for assigned systems and ensure the team fulfills ownership responsibilities across supported platforms, including lifecycle management, documentation, performance monitoring, and compliance.

• Drive continuous improvement in service delivery, job reliability, and performance using operational metrics and structured feedback.

• Participate in the Bank’s disaster recovery (DR) exercises in collaboration with other teams, ensuring supported applications and databases are prepared and aligned with organizational DR plans.

• Ensure real-time communication and stakeholder updates during overnight Batch incidents and lead post-incident reviews to drive learning and prevent recurrence.

• Manage change control processes for systems and applications supported by the team, ensuring proper approvals, documentation, and stakeholder engagement within the team’s area of responsibility.

• Support audit and regulatory compliance by maintaining controls, responding to inquiries, and ensuring documentation is complete and current.

• Administer and improve ticketing workflows using ServiceNow, applying ITIL principles.

• Participate in migration efforts to SaaS-based Control-M platforms (e.g., Helix ControlM), supporting functional testing and environment transitions.

• Promote a culture of accountability, quality, and service excellence across the support organization.

• Provide 24x7 on-call support coverage as needed.

What you'll bring:

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology or a related field, or at least three years of experience in a technology leadership role; technical certifications preferred.

• Minimum 7 years of experience in application support, batch operations, or database administration, including at least 1-3 years in a leadership or supervisory role with direct reports.

• Minimum 2 years of experience with workflow automation platforms, such as Control-M or Helix.

• Strong understanding of cloud platforms and services.

• Strong understanding of enterprise systems, batch processing workflows, and database support coordination.

• Proficiency in troubleshooting job failures, analyzing error logs, and implementing corrective actions.

• Experience managing alerts and escalations using tools such as xMatters, PagerDuty, or equivalent.

• Experience with ServiceNow or similar ITSM platforms, including ticketing workflow administration.

• Solid understanding and practical application of ITIL principles across incident, problem, and change management. ITIL Certification preferred.

• Experience with CI/CD pipelines is a plus.

• Experience with DevOps practices.

• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional teams and collaborate effectively with technical and business

• stakeholders.

• Excellent communication, documentation, and reporting skills.

• Strategic Leadership & Team Management: Ability to lead and develop high-performing teams, fostering accountability,

• collaboration, and service excellence across Application Support and Database Administration functions.

• Technical Expertise: Strong understanding of enterprise application support, batch processing workflows, workload

• automation tools (e.g., Control-M, Helix), and database coordination, with proficiency in troubleshooting job failures

• and analyzing error logs.

• Operational Rigor & Continuous Improvement: Skilled in optimizing batch operations, implementing KPIs/KRIs, and

• driving process improvements aligned with business priorities.

• Incident & Change Management: Practical application of ITIL principles for incident, problem, and change

• management; ability to manage alerts, escalations, and crisis situations effectively.

• Compliance & Risk Awareness: Knowledge of regulatory requirements, audit processes, and risk management

• practices; ability to maintain controls and ensure documentation accuracy.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Ability to partner with technical and business stakeholders, including Risk, Operations,

• and vendors, to achieve shared objectives and resolve complex issues.

• Communication & Documentation: Excellent written and verbal communication skills for documenting processes,

• procedures, and system configurations, and for conveying technical information to diverse audiences.

• Adaptability & Innovation: Capacity to stay current with emerging technologies, SaaS migrations, and DevOps

• practices, and to adapt strategies to evolving environments.

• Customer & Service Orientation: Commitment to delivering reliable, high-quality support and fostering a positive user

• experience.

• Professional Integrity & Growth: Ethical, compliant with company policies, and dedicated to continuous learning and

• professional development.

The Perks

At FHLBank Chicago, we believe in rewarding our high performing workforce. We offer a highly competitive compensation and bonus package, and access to a comprehensive benefits program designed to meet the needs of our employees. Our retirement program includes a 401(k) and pension plan. Our wellbeing program supports employees at work and in their personal lives: Our PTO plan provides five weeks of vacation for new employees and 11 paid holidays per year; our Lifestyle Spending Account provides an annual stipend for employees to support wellbeing activities; and our central downtown location at the Old Post Office provides easy access to public transportation and breathtaking views from our award-winning rooftop. Visit FHLBCbenefits.com for additional details about our benefits. Step into a brighter future with us.

Salary Range:

The above represents the expected salary range for this job requisition.  Ultimately, in determining your pay, we may also consider your experience, and other job-related factors. In addition to the base salary, we offer a comprehensive benefits package which can be found here: https://hrportal.ehr.com/fhlbc