Operations Applications Supervisor

Department: Charlotte Area Transit System Department

SUMMARY
The Operations Applications Supervisor provides technical leadership and supervisory oversight for mission-critical transit software and operational technology applications within the Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS). Primary responsibilities include Vontas OnRoute computer-aided dispatch and automatic vehicle location (CAD/AVL), GIRO HASTUS, fare collection technology, and related operational applications.

The position leads application administration, configuration, integration, production support, data management, vendor coordination, and application lifecycle management. The supervisor directs complex troubleshooting, recovery, upgrades, and modernization while coordinating with operational departments and technical teams to maintain reliable service in a 24/7 transit environment.

Working under general direction, this position combines staff supervision with active technical engagement, including evaluating application architecture, data flows, troubleshooting approaches, and proposed solutions.

Major Duties and Responsibilities

Staff Supervision and Team Leadership

• Supervise Application Administrators, Industrial Controls Technicians, and/or technical analysts supporting operations applications.

• Establish application ownership, primary and backup support assignments, priorities, and workloads; plan, assign, and review work.

• Provide technical direction during complex incidents; evaluate troubleshooting approaches, challenge technical conclusions, and review resolution activities.

• Mentor staff, provide performance feedback and evaluations, and support recruitment, onboarding, and development.

• Establish cross-training and technical training requirements to avoid dependence on a single resource; ensure staff follow application support, cybersecurity, incident, problem, change, and release procedures.

Vontas OnRoute and CAD AVL Application Oversight

• Lead OnRoute administration, configuration, monitoring, production support, and dispatch application support to maintain reliable daily bus and/or rail operations.

• Oversee application services, logs, performance, troubleshooting, patches, upgrades, releases, testing, and production validation.

• Manage application databases, interfaces, APIs, data dependencies, recovery procedures, and vendor escalation; support bus Mobile Data Terminals (MDTs).
• Serve as the senior escalation point for OnRoute software issues and coordinate with infrastructure, network, database, cybersecurity, data, and field technology teams.

GIRO HASTUS and Scheduling Application Oversight

• Lead HASTUS administration, configuration, transit planning and scheduling functionality, and service-change application support.

• Oversee upgrades, releases, testing, scheduling data management, validation, integrations, database and application troubleshooting, and vendor escalation.

• Partner with Planning and Scheduling teams to translate operational requirements into reliable application solutions.

• Ensure accurate exchange of scheduling, route, trip, block, run, operator, and related operational data with downstream systems.

Fare Technology and Onboard System Integration

• Provide technical and supervisory oversight for fare collection applications, with primary responsibility for integration with CAD/AVL and other onboard technologies.

• Oversee administration, configuration, monitoring, troubleshooting, testing, upgrades, and lifecycle management of fare applications and interfaces, including fareboxes, validators, and ticket vending machines that interact with CAD/AVL.

• Coordinate fare-system integration across bus, rail, paratransit, customer-facing, and back-office environments as required; support connections to scheduling, vehicle logic units, MDTs, financial systems, customer service, reporting, and data warehouses.

• Validate routes, trips, blocks, runs, stops, vehicle and operator assignments, fare products, rules, passes, transfers, concessions, and reduced-fare programs; synchronize approved fare changes and CAD/AVL configurations before deployment.

• Monitor device communications, application services, transaction processing and files, operational feeds, interfaces, synchronization, and exceptions; troubleshoot farebox, onboard hardware, vehicle communications, operator login, assignment, and GPS-related integration issues.

• Coordinate interface testing during upgrades, vehicle deployments, schedule and fare changes, hardware replacement, and modernization; confirm accurate operational data reaches fare equipment and transaction and operational information returns to central systems.

• Support complete and accurate fare revenue interfaces, reconciliation, transaction reporting, settlement data, and financial integrations; participate in modernization involving open and contactless payments, mobile ticketing, and account-based fare collection.

Application Integration and Data Management

• Ensure reliable integration and synchronized data exchange among HASTUS, OnRoute, fare collection, and other operational and enterprise applications.

• Support APIs, web services, database integrations, middleware, scheduled jobs, message interfaces, and file-based interfaces.

• Monitor and troubleshoot route, stop, trip, block, run, schedule, operator, fare, transaction, General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS), and GTFS-Realtime exchanges.

• Coordinate integration testing for changes affecting upstream or downstream systems; maintain application architecture, interface, configuration, dependency, and data-flow documentation.

Production Support and Operational Reliability

• Lead critical incident response affecting CAD/AVL, HASTUS, fare technology, software, configurations, interfaces, databases, transactions, and operational data.

• Analyze logs, services, configurations, databases, transaction processing, and system behavior; coordinate recovery and vendor escalation to restore operations, dispatch, scheduling, fare collection, customer information, and revenue processing.

• Lead root cause analysis, address recurring issues, implement corrective actions, and document resolutions; establish monitoring and alerting requirements.

• Maintain and periodically validate application recovery, backup, failover, and business-continuity procedures.

• Coordinate staff and vendor resources during upgrades, service and fare changes, deployments, and critical incidents; prioritize work according to operational impacts.

Change Release and Application Lifecycle Management

• Oversee patches, upgrades, releases, configuration changes, testing, deployments, rollback planning, and post-deployment validation.

• Ensure changes follow established Incident, Problem, Change, and Release Management processes; coordinate testing across interconnected applications before major production changes.

• Track application versions, dependencies, vendor support, end-of-life dates, roadmaps, modernization, and rationalization; maintain lifecycle and modernization plans.

• Participate in technology evaluations, implementations, migrations, and replacement projects; identify improvements to workflows, performance, reliability, and application use.

Vendor Contract and Application Renewal Management

• Review contracts, software renewals, licensing, maintenance, support agreements, vendor pricing, renewal increases, quotes, and Statements of Work for supported applications and payment-processing services.

• Validate licensing, modules, transaction volumes, support levels, maintenance coverage, and contracted services before renewal; identify unnecessary licensing, maintenance, transaction, processing, or support costs.

• Coordinate with Procurement, Finance, Legal, vendors, and IT leadership; track renewal dates and allow sufficient time for procurement, budgeting, negotiations, and executive approval.

• Assist with annual application budgets and recommend renewal, expansion, consolidation, modernization, or replacement; monitor vendor performance and contractual service obligations.

• Assist with requests for proposals, technical specifications, vendor evaluations, Statements of Work, and technology procurements.

Stakeholder Engagement Governance and Compliance

• Coordinate application changes with Operations, Planning, Scheduling, Maintenance, Finance, Revenue, Customer Service, IT, Cybersecurity, and external vendors.

• Communicate planned outages, upgrades, service impacts, and incident progress; support operational training and user adoption.

• Ensure adherence to technology standards, configuration controls, data governance, cybersecurity principles, and applicable payment-processing requirements; maintain operational documentation and support reporting.

Core Competencies

Leadership and Supervision

Ability to lead technically capable staff in a service-oriented environment.

• Establishes clear ownership, support coverage, priorities, and accountability.
• Provides coaching, performance feedback, and technical direction.
• Builds cross-training and staff capability for critical applications.

Operational Service Management

Ability to maintain mission-critical applications supporting continuous transit operations.

• Prioritizes work according to service and revenue impacts.
• Coordinates timely incident response, restoration, and vendor escalation.
• Strengthens monitoring, recovery readiness, and operational reliability.

Technical Coordination

Ability to guide complex troubleshooting and integration across interconnected transit applications.

• Understands architecture, application dependencies, transaction processing, and data flows.
• Evaluates troubleshooting approaches and challenges unsupported technical conclusions.
• Coordinates testing and validates integrated system performance.

Communication and Stakeholder Engagement

Ability to communicate effectively with operational, technical, and business audiences.

• Builds productive partnerships across departments and with vendors.
• Communicates changes, incidents, operational impacts, and expectations clearly.
• Translates stakeholder requirements into coordinated application support.

Decision Making and Accountability

Ability to exercise independent supervisory judgment within established policies and objectives.

• Makes timely decisions and balances competing operational priorities.
• Ensures changes follow approved controls and escalates issues appropriately.
• Holds staff and vendors accountable for documented service outcomes.

Vendor and Resource Management

Ability to align vendor services and application spending with operational needs.

• Evaluates licensing, support coverage, renewal costs, and vendor performance.
• Anticipates procurement, budget, and contract approval requirements.
• Recommends cost-effective renewal, consolidation, and modernization options.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

Knowledge of:

• Vontas OnRoute or comparable CAD/AVL software, GIRO HASTUS or comparable scheduling/planning software, and transit application architecture.
• AFC, electronic fare payment technologies, transaction processing, and onboard system integration.
• SQL and relational databases; APIs, web services, middleware, interfaces, and data integration; GTFS and GTFS-Realtime.
• Application administration, configuration, monitoring, logging, troubleshooting, testing, patching, upgrades, and lifecycle management.
• Disaster recovery, backup, failover, business continuity, and ITIL-based Incident, Problem, Change, and Release Management.
• Cybersecurity principles for operational technology and payment environments, including applicable Payment Card Industry (PCI) requirements.
• Supervisory principles, software licensing, support contracts, procurement, renewals, and application budgeting.

Skill in:

• Supervising technical staff, assigning workloads, developing cross-training, and evaluating performance.
• Directing complex troubleshooting, root cause analysis, recovery, and vendor escalation.
• Evaluating application architecture, databases, interfaces, transact