Senior Application Operations Engineer (5320)

Job summary

Social Security Scotland is looking for a Senior Application Operations Engineer to join our Digital Services Branch. In this role, you will support and improve a portfolio of enterprise applications that are critical to the delivery of benefits and services to the people of Scotland.

Working within a complex enterprise environment, you will be responsible for the day-to-day operation of business-critical applications, acting as a technical subject matter expert for assigned services. You will lead incident and problem resolution activities, coordinating support teams, technology specialists and suppliers to ensure issues are investigated and resolved within agreed service levels. Through effective troubleshooting and root cause analysis, you will help ensure systems remain secure, reliable and resilient.

You will develop a detailed understanding of the applications you support, their underlying technology stacks and their dependencies across the wider digital estate. Using this knowledge, you will investigate complex technical issues, identify factors affecting application availability and performance, and support the delivery of effective solutions.

As well as supporting live services, you will proactively review application performance and capacity to ensure services continue to meet business needs. You will identify opportunities to improve reliability, availability, security and operational efficiency, working with colleagues and suppliers to deliver improvements and maintain application roadmaps. You will also contribute to the assessment of application changes and support the introduction of new or enhanced services into live operation.

The role includes working closely with architects, engineers, suppliers, business owners and end users to resolve issues, improve service performance and ensure applications continue to meet organisational standards. You will support application patching, certification and compliance activities, working with Information Security colleagues and suppliers to ensure services remain aligned with technology, security and governance requirements.

This is an opportunity to work across a diverse and evolving application landscape, helping to deliver trusted and effective digital services that support the people of Scotland.

GDD Pay Supplement
This post is part of the Government Digital and Data (GDD) profession and currently attracts a £3,000 annual GDD pay supplement, which is paid monthly. Pay supplements are reviewed regularly.

Job description

• Manage application services and components to ensure they meet business requirements, service levels and performance targets.
• Assess, document and implement change requests, evaluating impacts and ensuring effective change management.
• Identify opportunities to improve processes, contributing to the design and delivery of optimisation initiatives.
• Diagnose, prioritise and resolve incidents, taking ownership through to resolution, mitigation or handover.
• Investigate recurring issues, monitor trends and implement preventative measures to reduce future incidents.
• Collaborate with technical specialists and stakeholders to determine and implement appropriate solutions.
• Translate technical and business requirements into practical, scalable frameworks and solutions.
• Utilise management systems (such as JIRA), monitoring tools (such as Kibana) and logical data models to investigate issues, analyse performance and produce reports.
• Install, configure, maintain and reconfigure application platforms and related technologies.
• Monitor, optimise and forecast application performance, capacity and resource requirements.
• Understand core technical concepts related to this role and apply them with guidance
• Review requirements and specifications, define test conditions, identify risks, and analyse and report testing outcomes.
• Engage users and stakeholders to gather requirements, conduct user-focused research, and use qualitative and quantitative insights to deliver user-centred outcomes.

Person specification

Success Profiles
We use an assessment framework called ‘Success Profiles’ which lists the elements we test and provides detailed descriptions of each. Find out more about the framework here.

For this post, the following Success Profile elements will be assessed:

Experience

1. Demonstrable experience of configuring, supporting and maintaining applications and platforms within a complex enterprise environment. This must include hands-on experience carrying out complex incident and root cause investigations and taking ownership of incidents through to resolution.
   
2. The post holder should have proven analytical, planning, organizational and project management skills, including the ability to balance competing and shifting priorities to meet tight deadlines. Ability to work on own initiative and without close supervision.

Behaviours

• Communicating and Influencing (Level 3)
• Leadership (Level 3)

You can find out more about Success Profiles Behaviours here.

Technical / Professional Skills
This role is aligned to Senior Application Operations Engineerwithin the Government Digital and Data Profession.

Please review the following to understand the skill expectations: Application Operations Engineer - Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework

These skills will be tested during the Technical Assessment if you are successful at sift stage. They will not be assessed at application stage.

Benefits

Annual Leave - You will receive 25 days annual leave on joining us. This will increase to 30 days after two full years of service. You will also have 11.5 public and privilege days of leave every year. We also offer Flexi-time. Any extra hours you've worked can be taken as leave when suitable.

A Civil Service Pension - This job comes with a Civil Service pension. New joiners to the Civil Service will join a career average pension scheme as standard. Read more here - www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk.

Healthy work life balance - We can offer the possibility of full-time, part-time, term-time, and job shares. We also encourage flexible working.

Discounts - You can enjoy a vast range of retail, travel and lifestyle discounts through our benefit scheme.

Personal support for you - Our Employee Assistance Programme gives you confidential, independent information and guidance 24/7.

Volunteering special leave - Up to six days paid special leave a year for volunteering. We support our staff to help causes important to them.

Great locations - Our bright and modern offices in the heart of Dundee and Glasgow have been designed with staff in mind. Both locations are ideal for public transport.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

Expected Timeline (subject to change)
Sift – week commencing 16th November 2026
Interview – week commencing 30th November 2026
Location – In Person in either Dundee or Glasgow

To apply please submit an application form by clicking on the ‘Apply at Advertisers Site’ button.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) criminal record check.People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

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)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Resourcing Team
• Email : recruitment@socialsecurity.gov.scot
• Telephone : 08001577194

Recruitment team

• Email : Recruitment@socialsecurity.gov.scot

Further information

https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/working-with-us/help-with-your-application