Systems Analyst

About

The South African Revenue Service (SARS) is the nation's tax collecting authority. Established in terms of the South African Revenue Service Act 34 of 1997 as an autonomous agency, SARS is responsible for administering the South African tax system and customs service. Its main functions are to:

• Collect and administer all national taxes, duties and levies
• Collect revenue imposed under other legislation as agreed with organs of state or institutions entitled to the revenue
• Provide protection against illegal importation and exportation of goods
• Facilitate trade
• Advise the Minister of Finance on all revenue matters

Job Purpose

To identify, develop and implement effective technology solutions that address business needs by performing business analysis tasks. This involves understanding the business usage of IT, helping technology add value to the business, understanding technical architectures and platforms, IT capabilities, and applications delivering various capabilities to continuously enhance service delivery.

Education and Experience

• Relevant National Diploma / Advanced Certificate (NQF 6) AND 3-4 years' experience in Systems Analysis and Software Testing, with 1-2 years ideally at knowledge worker level.
• ALTERNATIVE: Senior Certificate (NQF 4) AND 6 years within Systems Analysis and Software Testing.
• Minimum of 4 years systems experience in Income Tax or third-party data types IT3s.

Responsibilities

• Accumulate information and provide reports with recommendations applicable to area of specialisation.
• Apply practical and applied knowledge and act authoritatively on methods, systems and procedures to identify trends and potential risks.
• Communicate situational interpretation and judgement of work outputs and queries in area of specialisation.
• Effectively plan and schedule own activities to continuously improve quality and service delivery.
• Execute process and procedural change, implement the change and provide guidelines and support related to new requirements.
• Use practical and applied knowledge and situational judgement to consider policy implications and arrive at decisions.
• Correctly apply applicable legislation, policies, procedures, and SOPs in work delivery.
• Take accountability for delivery of contracted work outputs within agreed parameters, quality standards and client service targets.
• Ensure completed work adheres to relevant policies, procedures, governance and legislative requirements and report deviations.
• Develop and maintain productive working relationships with peers and SARS role players.
• Assign and review incident inventory on incident management console.
• Investigate assigned query inventory to determine root cause and request additional information.
• Replicate defects in testing environment and find suitable workarounds.
• Compile User/Functional Requirements Specifications and prioritize production system change requests.
• Liaise with business partners, internal and external development partners.
• Log production system change requests on incident management console.
• Provide end-user education and training.
• Review and comment on business and functional requirements specifications for maintenance and projects.
• Attend and engage in project meetings and reviews contributing domain-specific knowledge.
• Provide exceptional customer service support to teams and operational areas within SARS.
• Maintain and support new and existing applications.
• Contribute towards refinement of policies, processes and procedures.
• Observe and escalate possible violations of procedures and standards of conduct.
• Undertake information gathering and data analysis within guidelines to report to business.
• Gather, plan and manage data for test automation purposes.
• Identify candidate business processes or scenarios for automated test cases.
• Comply with governance and compliance procedures and escalate risks.
• Develop and maintain productive working relationships with peers and team members.
• Adhere to organisational policies and procedures to ensure cost effectiveness.
• Contribute to a culture of service excellence, building positive relationships and providing feedback opportunities.
• Ensure understanding and adherence to customer service delivery and provide specialist support.
• Perform trend analysis related to incident management inventory.

Behavioural Competencies

• Accountability
• Analytical Thinking
• Attention to Detail
• Building Sustainability
• Commitment to Continuous Learning
• Conceptual Ability
• Fairness and Transparency
• Honesty and Integrity
• Organisational Awareness
• Respect
• Trust

Technical Competencies

• Business IT Systems
• Business Knowledge
• Computer Literacy
• Customer Relationship Management
• Efficiency Improvement
• Functional Policies and Procedures
• IT Business Analysis
• Relationship Building
• Reporting
• System Thinking