We are looking for a Senior Operations Applications Engineer who will be responsible for configuring the existing and a new Civil Service Jobs Applicant Tracking System which is used to manage recruitment across the Civil Service. Government People Group (GPG) is a cross-government business unit within the Cabinet Office responsible for driving efficiencies and modernising the Civil Service.

GPG brings together the core services that support civil servants: pensions, recruitment, back office transactional services and the platforms and services used by civil servants. Alongside this, GPG has a real focus on value for money - firstly for the departments and organisations which use the services we deliver, and ultimately the taxpayer.

The role available sits within GPG Platforms, Data & Interoperability Directorate, responsible for the operation and modernisation of Civil Service digital and data platforms.

Our team:
We are a digital team made of Product and Delivery Managers, Business Analysts, Quality Assurance Testers and an Associate Operations Engineer, who will all support you in your work. We are also part of a wider digital community.

Civil Service Jobs enables the whole of government to recruit people more efficiently, without which the government could not deliver its work: hence our service brings far-reaching benefits for all citizens.

We also enjoy enabling people to find meaningful jobs, and teams to find great colleagues - contributing to a diverse culture that reflects the diversity in the UK.

What youll work on:

You will join our cross-functional agile delivery team focusing on continuous improvement of the live  Civil Service Jobs platform, and helping to redesign and deliver the future service.

Civil Service Jobs is used by over 3 million candidates per month to find and view vacancies across the Civil Service. Each year it handles over 2 million applications and advertises 140,000 posts. The live service is used by 211 organisations to advertise their vacancies and manage their recruitment processes. Currently, Civil Service Jobs is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) provision that has been configured and enhanced to meet Civil Service recruitment, digital and security standards.

Along with the live service, we are running a Recruitment Transformation programme, looking at what the future service should look like. Weve completed our Discovery and Alpha phases, where we did extensive user research and prototype design, to explore our user needs and potential solutions for the biggest areas of improvement.

Weve decided that our service needs to procure rather than building our own, so weve now moved into the Beta procurement phase, which will result in appointing a new technology platform provider by summer 2024, followed by a build and migration phase to be completed by the end of 2026.

The Department:

Government People Group (GPG) is a large business unit of the Cabinet Office with around 610 staff bringing together back office services across government. It supports the Civil Service with high-volume HR and finance processes, aligning with the Government's modernisation agenda. Established in August 2020, it covers Shared Services, Government Recruitment, Civil Service and Royal Mail Pensions, and the Platforms and Services to support these. GPG delivers services for around 480,000 civil servants across government, it supports 1.5m pension scheme members alongside Royal Mail and provides recruitment services for around 70% of all Civil Service recruitment.

Your role:

We'd expect the role to have a good understanding of the Government Digital Service Manual, the GDS Design System, and our Technology Code of Practice.

As a Senior Application Operations Engineer  you will:

• Deliver regular configuration changes to the existing Applicant Tracking platform
• Lead on the configuration of the new Applicant Tracking System as appropriate and maintain technical documentation
• Provide quality assurance of new configuration work, including testing and raising any bugs and issues and working closely with our Quality Assurance Tester(s)
• Implement release processes, ensuring all tasks are correctly completed
• Help identify and design solutions which meet user needs
• Provide technical expertise for incident management and customer enquiries
• Ensure configuration work complies with Accessibility standards, in particular WCGA 2.2
• Create rapid prototypes for new changes to the platform for user research
• Participate in Agile ceremonies including planning, retrospectives and presenting at Show and Tells

Essential criteria:

• Experience leading technical configuration of applicant tracking systems or ERP platforms.
• Experience developing rapid prototypes using GOV.UK prototyping kit and GOV.UK Design system
• Experience of web technologies, such as HTML,CSS and Javascript
• Agile delivery experience: experience working in agile teams and environments, working iteratively and collaboratively.
• Continual service improvement: identify process optimisation opportunities with guidance, and contribute to the implementation of proposed solutions
• Change Management: analyse and assess impact, and develop and document change requests, implement changes based on requests for change
• Incident Management: diagnose and prioritise incidents, investigate their causes and find resolutions
• Ownership and initiative:own an issue until a new owner has been found or the problem has been mitigated or resolved.
• Problem management: initiate and monitor actions to investigate patterns and trends to resolve problems, effectively consult specialists where required, determine the appropriate remedy and assist with its implementation, determine preventative measures.
• Technical specialism: use management system software and tools, use logical schemata to investigate problems, collect performance statistics and create reports, carry out the routine configuration, installation and reconfiguration of database and related products, optimise performance and forecast resource needs
• Testing: review requirements and specifications, and define test conditions, identify issues and risks associated with work,analyse and report test activities and results
• User focus:identify and engage with users or stakeholders to collate user needs evidence, understand and define research that fits user needs,use quantitative and qualitative data about users to turn user focus into outcomes.

Additional information:

A minimum 60% of your working time should be spent at your principal workplace. Although requirements to attend other locations for official business will also count towards this level of attendance.

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Changing and Improving
• Delivering at Pace
• Managing a Quality Service

There is an excellent pension scheme, with an average employer contribution of 27%. More information about pension provisions can be found at www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk

An environment with flexible working options, and a culture of inclusion and diversity.

25 days' paid leave per annum, with an incremental rise of 1 per year, to a maximum of 30 days after 5 years. In addition, full-time staff receive eight public holidays as well as competitive maternity, paternity, parental and adoption leave. Existing Civil Servants will retain their current terms, annual leave and privilege day entitlement.

A supportive learning and development environment with active communities and networks, such as the Business Analyst Community allowing its members to share ideas and collaborate. We also offer shadowing, coaching, mentoring and a sponsor when you first join.

As a civil servant you will also have access to a wide range of discounts, rewards and benefits, including the Cycle to Work scheme.

Job contact :

• Name : Jen Brierley
• Email : [email protected]

Recruitment team

• Email : [email protected]