Senior Application Operations Engineer

at  Department for Work and Pensions

JOB SUMMARY

Do you want to apply and further develop your IT technical skills in an Organisation that makes a difference to UK citizens lives? If so, we have an Application Operations Engineering vacancy within the Centralised Application Support Services (CASS) that spans DWP Digital.

The primary role of CASS is to provide application operations that deliver continuity of service for our users across DWP Digital services. As part of this you will:

• Work collaboratively with teams across Digital Group to ensure smooth running of operational processes.
• Affectively utilise Incident, Problem and Change and Release Management. as well as automating and innovating via continuous improvement to enhance the services we provide for citizens.
• Be part of the DWP Estate transition from On Premise Hosting to the Cloud.
• Be part of an Organisation that takes career development seriously working alongside other functions such as DevOps, Site Reliability (SRE) and other Engineering disciplines.

Please note this role requires you to pass Security Check clearance. For further information, please see ‘Selection process details’.

JOB DESCRIPTION

As a Senior Application Operations Engineer, you will be responsible for the support, management, maintenance and improve initiatives for a single application or a suite of applications. These systems which could range in technology, from Linux to Windows servers, SQL and Non-SQL databases, Cloud and On-Premise based servers and various third-party software. You will be an escalation point on application issues and work with other business and technical teams to assist with the ongoing reliability, performance, and support of those applications. The duties include:

• You will share and follow IT Service Management best practice, using frameworks like ITIL 4, Agile and Scrum to ensure service and operational processes run smoothly and deliver value for the end user community.
• Working closely with Lead Application Operations Engineers and the Process Team.
• Develop and maintain strong working relationships with the Application Operations Engineers in your team and with other multi-disciplinary teams, including Service Owners; DevOps and Site Reliability Engineers; Architects; Testers; Business Analysts; Level 2 Service Owners; Process Owners; external partners and suppliers; other Government Departments and many others.
• Being an active member of Centralised Application Support Services function, taking a leading role on your team, sharing best practice and knowledge across the function.
• Leading and championing continual service improvement across your team and other DWP areas ensuring the success of both technical and process improvements.
• You will be responsible for ensuring that the on-call rota for your services is up to date and complete.
• Undertake a leading role in the transition of new services into our department ensuring that systems are onboarded smoothly with the appropriate knowledge transfer.
• Undertake a leading role in the onboarding of new starters into our department ensuring that they are welcomed and supported throughout this process.
• Providing technical expertise by having advanced technical skills which allows you to pick up new issues or unusual changes and effectively handle them. You will effectively deal with escalations either from fellow team members or other stakeholders.

There is a requirement for you to support your applications as part of a 24 hours a day, 7 days a week rota. This is on a week-by-week basis covering mornings, days and overnight.

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)

The primary role of CASS is to provide application operations that deliver continuity of service for our users across DWP Digital services. As part of this you will:

• Work collaboratively with teams across Digital Group to ensure smooth running of operational processes.
• Affectively utilise Incident, Problem and Change and Release Management. as well as automating and innovating via continuous improvement to enhance the services we provide for citizens.
• Be part of the DWP Estate transition from On Premise Hosting to the Cloud.
• Be part of an Organisation that takes career development seriously working alongside other functions such as DevOps, Site Reliability (SRE) and other Engineering disciplines

As a Senior Application Operations Engineer, you will be responsible for the support, management, maintenance and improve initiatives for a single application or a suite of applications. These systems which could range in technology, from Linux to Windows servers, SQL and Non-SQL databases, Cloud and On-Premise based servers and various third-party software. You will be an escalation point on application issues and work with other business and technical teams to assist with the ongoing reliability, performance, and support of those applications. The duties include:

• You will share and follow IT Service Management best practice, using frameworks like ITIL 4, Agile and Scrum to ensure service and operational processes run smoothly and deliver value for the end user community.
• Working closely with Lead Application Operations Engineers and the Process Team.
• Develop and maintain strong working relationships with the Application Operations Engineers in your team and with other multi-disciplinary teams, including Service Owners; DevOps and Site Reliability Engineers; Architects; Testers; Business Analysts; Level 2 Service Owners; Process Owners; external partners and suppliers; other Government Departments and many others.
• Being an active member of Centralised Application Support Services function, taking a leading role on your team, sharing best practice and knowledge across the function.
• Leading and championing continual service improvement across your team and other DWP areas ensuring the success of both technical and process improvements.
• You will be responsible for ensuring that the on-call rota for your services is up to date and complete.
• Undertake a leading role in the transition of new services into our department ensuring that systems are onboarded smoothly with the appropriate knowledge transfer.
• Undertake a leading role in the onboarding of new starters into our department ensuring that they are welcomed and supported throughout this process.
• Providing technical expertise by having advanced technical skills which allows you to pick up new issues or unusual changes and effectively handle them. You will effectively deal with escalations either from fellow team members or other stakeholders