INTERNAL ONLY VACANCY. This post is open to existing Leeds City Council employees only. Applications will not be considered from external candidates.

Job title: Application Support Senior Officer

Salary: PO2 £39,862 - £42,839

Hours: 37

Contract: Permanent

Location: Hybrid Working both Home and Office Based Merrion House/Apex Centre as required.

Leeds City Council is transforming local public services by putting technology at the heart of the organisation.
The Integrated Digital Service works across Leeds City Council and the Integrated Care Board (Leeds) - opening up a number of exciting prospects to work within the health and care sector and local authority. The Integrated Digital Service is improving how services are delivered, using user research to inform technology solutions that are accessible, easy to use and reliable. We are innovating and changing services by investing in automation through technologies such as power platform and RPA. It is an exciting time to join the growing team within a city renowned for excellence in the digital sector. We hope to attract people who want to innovate and transform IT to help improve the services we provide and ultimately improve individual’s lives.
Integrated Digital Service (IDS) is seeking to appoint three Application Support team members; x1 Application Support Senior Officer position and x 2 Application Support Officer positions. The applications environment is a complex mix of new and legacy 3rd party applications as well as in-house developments. There is a range of on-premise to cloud-hosted offerings and the direction of travel is towards cloud solutions. As an Application Support team member, you will be part of a team who are responsible for supporting, managing and maintaining a single application or a suite of applications. You’ll thrive on technical challenges, troubleshooting, supporting projects while researching and implementing new solutions.

Leeds City Council is one of the largest employers in the region with over 14,000 employees. We seek to recruit and develop talented individuals who embody our council values and ambitions.

About you

As an Application Support Senior Officer, you will:

Supports delivery of activities contained within the core Service Offering as well as delivery of agreed projects.
Support junior staff
Work with a high degree of independence
Produce and update support documentation
Ensure applications support process and templates are followed
Ensures items within ITSM queues are addressed in line with SLAs
Implement workflows and system changes (may involve the production of new code)
Monitoring and tracking supplier performance in line with Contract Management Plans
Assess both business-as-usual and project risk and present realistic options based on current/known information
Provision of estimates for all areas of application support (core offering and new functionality etc) based on known information and experience

About the role

The team and these positions are already focused on key projects that generate income or achieve cost savings. The primary activities include BAU efforts, some development and working on the Core Business Transformation programme. Further, the skills and knowledge associated with this role are instrumental in meeting the Target Operating Model requirements for the deployment and support of the future Dynamics platform.

What we offer you

We take pride in offering the best employee experience, with benefits including:

A competitive salary and annual leave entitlement plus statutory holidays
Membership of the West Yorkshire Pension Fund with generous employer contributions
Flexible and hybrid working arrangements subject to service requirements
A clear career pathway and continuing professional development opportunities
A range of staff benefits to help you boost your wellbeing and make your money go further

Job Description

Job Purpose: Are responsible for supporting, managing and maintaining a single application or a suite of applications. Application Support members make sure applications are available within service level agreements and are working to design. They maintain software levels and the security of the applications and carry out activities in incident, problem, change and configuration management and continual service improvement processes.

Application Support roles

There are 5 levels of Application Support roles in Application Operations:

Application Manager – PO6
Application Support Team Lead – PO4
Application Support Senior Officer – PO2
Application Support Officer – SO2
Application Support Assistant – C3

Each role has a set of essential and desirable technical skills associated with it alongside complimentary essential core competencies. The roles require a wide range of skills. The essential and desirable skills shown below demonstrate this, it is not expected for any one individual to have every skill at the identified level.

Responsibilities for Grade:

What an Application Support Senior Officer does

Supports delivery of activities contained within the core Service Offering as well as delivery of agreed projects.
Support junior staff
Work with a high degree of independence
Produce and update support documentation
Ensure applications support process and templates are followed
Ensures items within ITSM queues are addressed in line with SLAs
Implement workflows and system changes (may involve the production of new code)
Assess both business as usual and project risk and present realistic options based on current/known information
Support the provision of estimates for all areas of application support (core offering and new functionality etc) based on known information and experience

PERSONAL SPECIFICATION: Method of Assessment will be through one or more of the following Application Form, Test, Interview, and Certificate

ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS: It is essential that the Candidate should be able to demonstrate the following criteria for the post within the context of the specific role duties and responsibilities: Candidates will only be shortlisted for interview if they can demonstrate on the application form that they meet all the essential requirements

Systems Management – Extensive experience in undertaking effective systems management across multiple systems of varying degrees of size and complexity – covering Cloud and on-premise solutions
Compliance - Experienced in undertaking activities required to maintain system compliance
User Management – Proficient in the establishment and maintenance of role based access controls and the implementation of processes to support effective licence management
Change & Release Management – Extensive experience in progressing changes to systems through the formal IDS process
Environment Management – Experienced in ensuring all system environments are maintained in synch and all changes documented – full audit trail in place
Upgrades & Patching – Extensive experience in participating in and leading on system upgrades
Incident Management - Highly experienced in effectively managing / overseeing incidents to successful resolution. Putting in place measures to ensure lessons learnt
Testing Activities - Experience in undertaking system testing activities, documenting results and effectively managing any bugs / faults. Working with business resources to ensure UAT is completed and documented
Data Management - Extensive experience in data management activities ensuring systems supported are compliant in terms of retention and disposal rules
Supplier & Contract Management - Experience in undertaking supplier and contract management activities as defined in the Core Service Offering
Legal & Statutory - In depth understanding of legal and statutory requirements on systems that are supported and the processes that must be followed
Operational Integrity - Experience of undertaking Disaster Recovery activities, security assessments and implementation of remediation plans. Maintain documentation in relation to changes made to systems, incidents etc, as part of managing technical debt
Lifecycle Planning - Experience of inputting into system lifecycle plans and what activities are incorporated into lifecycle planning
Application Governance - Experience in delivery of the activities that constitute Application governance in the Core Service Offering

DESIRABLE REQUIREMENTS: It is desirable that the candidate should be able to demonstrate the following criteria for the post within the context of the specific role. Candidates are not required to meet all the Desirable requirements however these may be used to distinguish between acceptable candidates.

Project Management Concepts – Experienced in delivery of work in line with Project Management Concepts – Waterfall and Agile
Business Knowledge & Workflow Concepts - Experienced in the business processes behind supported systems and the impact of any changes made within the system on business processes. Understands in detail the system workflow capabilities and how these support business processes
Database Schemas – Oracle/SQL – Proficient in the analysing of database schemas to help identify underlying issue / understand the implications of applying patches / releases / changes
SQL Developer Tool - Extensive experience in the utilisation of the SQL Developer tool
File Formats - Proficient in appropriate use of different file formats
Integration Mechanisms - Understanding in implementing and maintaining system integrations / interfaces in line with DIS standards for integration
Non-.Net Languages – C#, HTML - Proficient in relevant programming languages and in the production and deployment of efficient code

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