Application Specialist

 

 

 

Job ID:  523895

CRH's Americas Materials division is the leading integrated supplier of aggregates, asphalt, ready mixed concrete and paving and construction services in North America. Our operations span North America with over 29,000 employees at close to 1,660 locations in 45 US States and 2 Canadian provinces.

 

Position Overview

The goal of an Application Specialist is to maximize the business value delivered by IT applications. They do this by influencing product roadmaps, executing projects, driving adoption, leading continuous improvement efforts, and delivering excellent customer service. An Application Specialist ensures solutions are fit for use and fit for purpose by optimizing system design and configuration, defining efficient workflows and processes, and developing data standards that enable business intelligence and analytics.

 

They guide end users through change management and training to ensure they get the most out of the system.  An Application Specialist will coordinate maintenance, upgrade and enhancement efforts, and find ways to ensure that solutions are reliable, scalable, and aligned with business needs.  They serve as the escalation point for complex support issues beyond the capabilities of Field Service and Service Desk personnel, resolving them efficiently while identifying opportunities to prevent recurrence and expand first-line support coverage over time.

 

Key Responsibilities (Essential Duties and Functions)

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily.

Product & Roadmap Management

• Actively engage with customers, business leaders, and vendors to understand needs, define requirements, and prioritize initiatives maximizing business value.
• Participate in product roadmap and backlog grooming activities with designated product managers, and contributing insights from system usage, user feedback, and business trends.
• Identify opportunities for continuous improvement and recommend enhancements improving system reliability, scalability, and alignment with business needs.
• Develop and maintain data standards enabling business intelligence and analytics across supported applications.

Project & Enhancement Execution

• Lead and execute deployment, upgrade, and enhancement projects from initiation through delivery.
• Collaborate with Business Analysts and Solutions Engineers to create implementation and deployment plans which are simple, repeatable, and minimize future support requirements.
• Complete system configurations and prepare site-specific documentation.
• Identify and communicate risks which may impact timeline, scope, cost, or resource requirements.
• Provide post-deployment warranty support to ensure successful adoption and issue resolution.

Solution Design & Optimization

• Ensure solutions are fit for purpose and fit for use by optimizing system design, configuration, and workflows.
• Define efficient processes and data standards supporting operational needs and enabling reporting and analytics.
• Ensure application availability, data integrity, and adherence to enterprise standards.

Change Management and Enablement

• Guide end users through change management and training to ensure effective adoption and utilization of systems.

Escalated Support

• Train Application Specialists, Field Services, and embedded IT resources to support deployments and expand overall team capability.
• Identify opportunities to improve Service Desk first-call resolution through training, documentation, and standard operating procedures.
• Serve as the escalation point for complex support issues beyond the capabilities of Field Service and Service Desk personnel.
• Actively participate in major incident resolution, including troubleshooting and root cause analysis.
• Identify chronic or systemic application errors, document resolutions, and collaborate with development and Quality Assurance (QA) teams to ensure closed-loop corrective action.
• Ensure compliance with Service Level Agreements (SLA) and Operational Level Agreements (OLA).

Stakeholder Communication

• Provide timely status updates to key stakeholders and IT management on projects, incidents, and initiatives.
• Prepare and distribute end user communications regarding major incidents, scheduled downtime, and system changes.
• Other duties as assigned.

 

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