Defence Business Services (DBS) DDaT APEX Developer Lead

at  Ministry of Defence

JOB SUMMARY

Are you a dedicated person who is passionate about making a difference?
Would you like to work for the Ministry of Defence?

Defence Business Services (DBS) is one of the largest shared service organisations in Europe that provides a wide range of corporate services, to over 1.2 million end users, including serving and past military and families, as well as MoD civil servants and industry. DBS delivers large scale administration and smaller specialist services to enable the wider MOD to focus on its core aims, maintaining the UK’s Defence and Security. Services include Human Resources, Pay, Veterans, Finance and Procurement.

• Our Vision - To support UK defence customers with outstanding service every time.
• Our Mission – Together we will proudly support Defence, continuously improving and delivering flexible, timely, sustainable and value for money services that underpin the whole force and enhance operational capability.

DBS is committed to creating a great place to work for all our colleagues. We are building an inclusive culture and respectful environment that reflects the diversity of the society.
We want to maximise the potential of everyone who chooses to work for us through opportunities to develop your skills and experience. We also offer a range of flexible working patterns and support to make a fulfilling career accessible to you and offer a Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%. Where your role permits, we support a blended working approach alternatively known as hybrid working.
Where business needs allow, some roles may be suitable for a combination of office and home-based working. This is a non-contractual arrangement where all office-based employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in office, subject to capacity and any required workplace adjustments.
Requirements to attend other locations for official business, or work in another MOD office, will also count towards this level of attendance. Applicants can request further information regarding how this may work in their team from the Vacancy Holder (see advert for contact details). Defence Business Services cannot respond to any questions about working arrangements.
Come and join the DBS community today!

JOB DESCRIPTION

The Oracle Application Express (APEX) Lead is responsible and accountable for the development and delivery of DBS APEX Applications within Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) using Autonomous Databases and related Product sets.
This role is specifically responsible for:
Leading APEX Application Solution Development and Delivery.
Leading Live Support to ensure BAU Services are maintained.
Leading the APEX Development team - Line management of 3 x HEO staff.
Setting the direction of team and leading development of APEX Applications in meeting corporate standards and customer needs while achieving VFM where possible.
Building relationships with stakeholders across the business to deliver required services and enable effective exploitation of the capability.
Collaborating with APEX Application Consumers to drive and enable best practice.
Drive service enhancements through design, development and test through to delivery.
Leading the team to manage, monitor, maintain and continuously improve APEX Application performance.

TECHNICAL SKILLS

We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Information security
• Programming and build (software engineering)
• Systems design
• User focus

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £43,080, Ministry of Defence contributes £11,631 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• An environment with flexible working options Monday-Friday
• 25 days paid annual leave rising (1 day per year) to 30 days upon completion of 5 years’ service (pro rata). In addition to 8 public holidays per year, you will also receive leave for HM The King’s birthday
• Hybrid working where role permits
• An opportunity to be considered for Reward & Recognition- £250-£5000 per year.
• Family-friendly policies including- parental leave and adoption leave
• Learning and development tailored to your role
• Professional and personal development of skills
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• Minimum of 15 days special leave in a rolling 12 month period for volunteer reserve commitments
• Special paid leave to volunteer up to 6 days per year

THIS POST IS ELIGIBLE FOR A DIGITAL SKILLS ALLOWANCE OF UP TO [£11,400] PER ANNUM. ELIGIBILITY FOR THIS ALLOWANCE WILL BE ASSESSED AT INTERVIEW AGAINST THE 4 CORE TECHNICAL SKILLS ONLY AND REVIEWED ANNUALLY IN LINE WITH DEPARTMENTAL POLICY.

The post does not offer relocation expenses.
Please be advised that the Department is conducting a review of all pay related allowances which could impact on those allowances that the post currently being advertised attracts.
External recruits who join the MOD who are new to the Civil Service will be subject to a six-month probation period.
This position is advertised at 37 hours per week.
Things you need to know

SELECTION PROCESS DETAILS

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.
Please ensure that at the application and interview stages of the campaign you review the Success Profiles Framework to assist you in the demonstration of your skills and experience.
Your suitability for the role will be assessed using the Success Profile elements that have been chosen for this campaign. Each element will be scored accordingly, and the successful candidate will be appointed on merit.
Applications will be sifted on all Success Profile elements, but in the event of a high number of applications, an initial sift will be conducted on the following success profile elements:
Experience; CV
In this instance the remaining elements will be tested at interview.

At the application stage you will be assessed against the following:

• Experience - CV
• Experience - Personal Statement - In no more than 1000 words, please provide evidence of how you meet the criteria set out in the job description. You may wish to include examples of how you have tackled similar tasks or demonstrated the skills outlined in the job advert.

At the interview stage you will be assessed against the following:

• Technical - Senior Software Developer - Information security
• Technical - Senior Software Developer - Programming and build (software engineering)
• Technical - Senior Software Developer - Systems design
• Technical - Senior Software Developer - User focus
• Behaviour - Leadership
• Behaviour - Delivering at Pace

In the rare case where individuals have exact matching scores, the order of merit will be determined based on the behaviour scores at interview in the following order:

• 1 - Technical - Senior Software Developer - Information security
• 2 - Technical - Senior Software Developer - Programming and build (software engineering)
• 3 - Technical - Senior Software Developer - Systems design
• 4 - Technical - Senior Software Developer - User focus
• 5 - Behaviour - Leadership
• 6 - Behaviour - Delivering at Pace

If candidate scores are still exact, the merit order will then be determined on the sift score in the following order:

• 1 - Experience - CV
• 2 - Experience - Personal statement

We want to offer opportunities to all who are successful at interview for our roles, but this isn’t always possible, so we do hold candidates on an active reserve list for 12 months.
Application sifting to take place on: Early October
Interviews are currently taking place via the following method: MS Teams
Interviews will be conducted week commencing: Early - Mid October.
A minimum of 2 full working days’ notice will be provided for interviews.
We endeavour to stick to these dates, but these are subject to change around business needs.
The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity. There is a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
If you need to advise us that you need additional help or reasonable adjustments for the recruitment process, please contact: DBS-EnhancedRecruitmentTeam@mod.gov.uk
MOD Recruitment Satisfaction Survey – we may contact you regarding your experience to help us improve our customer satisfaction. The survey is voluntary and anonymous. You may however be given the opportunity to provide additional information to help us improve our service which includes the collection of some personal data as defined by the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). The MOD Privacy Notice sets out how we will use your personal data and your rights.
As a result of the changes to the UK immigration rules which came into effect on 1 January 2021, the Ministry of Defence will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa under the points-based system, where a role has been deemed to be business critical.
The role currently being advertised has not been assessed as business critical and is therefore NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points-based system. Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected, and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn.
When choosing your Behaviour examples, please make sure you use real life scenarios that relate to your own experiences. Whilst technology may help to enhance your written submission, presenting the ideas of others or those generated by technology, could result in your application being rejected.
To assist with your application please find attached -
DBS Candidate Information Guide - Working for Defence Business Services - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
(26) UK Ministry of Defence: Life , LinkedIn
Defence Business Services (DBS) - Digital, Information and Technology (DIT) -
Digital, Information, Technology - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
https://ddat-capability-framework.service.gov.uk/index.html
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

NATIONALITY REQUIREMENTS

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

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