SPM Lead Application Operations Engineer (4761)

Job summary

Social Security Scotland is currently seeking a Lead Application Operations Engineer to join our Digital Services Branch, providing technical leadership and specialist expertise for our Case Management System (Cúram) and associated batch processing services.

As part of our Digital, Delivery and Change Division, you will lead a hybrid support team of in-house Application Operations Engineers and supplier System Business Analysts. Together, the team supports 17 benefit products delivered through the Case Management System, ensuring service availability, platform stability, integration processing, and the accurate generation of client payments.

As the senior operational lead and subject matter expert, you will drive incident triage and resolution across all priority levels, including complex and business-critical incidents. You will build and maintain technical capability within the team, lead problem resolution activities, and work closely with internal and external stakeholders to ensure reliable service delivery.

You will play a key role in improving service resilience, reliability and operational performance, while driving the maturity of monitoring, alerting, maintenance and support practices.

This is a highly visible leadership role with the opportunity to shape the future direction of Application Operations Engineering, influence team growth and capability, and drive continuous improvement across the wider profession.

We are looking for candidates with strong hands-on application support experience, proven technical leadership skills, and a track record of leading teams that deliver critical business services.

A Lead Application Operations Engineer defines the application strategy and the strategy for security administration.

At this role level, you will:

• liaise with leads within IT operations on how applications are performing and changes that need to be put in place
• potentially manage and maintain certain aspects of an application (depending on the complexity and size of a project, and the likely impact it will have on the business)

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

Responsibilities

• Maintain secure configuration and accurate information, including the management of Cúram security and licence assets, ensuring the security, integrity and consistency of system components and information.

• Manage service components to ensure they continue to meet business needs, performance targets and user outcomes.

• Deal with high-impact, complex change requests, providing technical expertise to support service delivery and continuous improvement.

• Lead the investigation, resolution and prevention of incidents and problems, taking ownership of issues, identifying trends and root causes, determining remedies and preventative measures, and supporting their implementation.

• Initiate and monitor actions to investigate patterns and trends, proactively addressing risks and driving long-term service improvements.

• Effectively engage and consult with specialists and stakeholders where required to support problem resolution and decision-making.

• Identify opportunities to optimise processes, contribute to the implementation of improvements, and support the development and adoption of best practices.

• Develop and maintain operational frameworks, procedures, standards and documentation to support effective, secure and consistent service management.

• Lead the planning and coordination of system, functional, non-functional and user acceptance testing activities, providing expert guidance on test strategy and planning.

• Collaborate with user researchers, stakeholders and subject matter experts to understand and champion user needs, distinguishing between incidents and service requirements.

• Prioritise and define approaches to understanding user journeys and user stories, guiding others in user-centred practices and recommending appropriate tools and methods to support research and service improvement.

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. Can communicate with stakeholders at all levels. Can convey the benefits, risks and strategic operational considerations of IT solutions and their technical design, to technical and non-technical senior stakeholders. This includes explaining the impact of any technical decisions on the sustainability of the solution.

2. Demonstrable experience of developing, supporting, coaching and leading others to achieve the organisation's strategic objectives.

3. Evidence of delivering continual service improvement; willing to challenge established practices, using evidence to deliver a better service to the business as a whole. This will include a vision for streamlining processes and reducing costs to ensure focus on delivering support for new business critical technologies. Demonstrable experience of the delivering large corporate scale Digital projects through the practical use of ITIL, Prince 2, Agile, or equivalent methodologies.

Behaviours

• Making Effective Decisions (Level 4)

You can find out more about Success Profiles Behaviours here.

Technical / Professional Skills:

This role is aligned to Lead Application Operations Engineer within the Government Digital and Data Profession.

Please review the following to understand the skill expectations: Lead 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 four 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 9th November
Interview – week commencing 23rd November
Location - In Person in either Dundee or Glasgow

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/jobs/how-to-make-a-great-application