Job title: Lead Engineers (Applications)
Salary: PO4 £46,142 - £49,282
Hours: 37 hours per week
Contract: Full Time
Location: Hybrid Working both Home and Office Based Merrion House/Apex Centre as required.
Leeds City Council is transforming local public services by putting technology at the heart of the organisation.
The Integrated Digital Service works across Leeds City Council and the Integrated Care Board (Leeds) - opening up a number of exciting prospects to work within the health and care sector and local authority. The Integrated Digital Service is improving how services are delivered, using user research to inform technology solutions that are accessible, easy to use and reliable. We are innovating and changing services by investing in automation through technologies such as power platform and RPA. It is an exciting time to join the growing team within a city renowned for excellence in the digital sector. We hope to attract people who want to innovate and transform IT to help improve the services we provide and ultimately improve individual’s lives.
Integrated Digital Service (IDS) is seeking to appoint two Lead Engineers to work in one of its applications teams. The applications environment is a complex mix of new and legacy 3rd party applications as well as in-house developments. There is a range of on-premise to cloud-hosted offerings and the direction of travel is towards cloud solutions. Both candidates must have experience with Power Platform and RPA implementation, including governance within a local authority. As a Lead Engineer, you will have extensive application support knowledge as well as being an experienced line manager.
Leeds City Council is one of the largest employers in the region with over 14,000 employees. We seek to recruit and develop talented individuals who embody our council values and ambitions.
About you
As a Lead Applications Engineer you will bring to the role:
- Ensuring support call queues are effectively managed and issues resolved.
- Mentoring junior staff
- Managing staff in line with LCC policies
- Ensure work of the team is done in line with the “Core Service Offering” and templated approaches developed wherever possible.
- Ensuing that best practice and templated approach to delivery of core service offering is embedded.
- Lead / take responsibility on large scale/complex pieces of work.
- Inputting into the planning of major projects that require Application Engineering input.
About the role
This role is challenging and multifaceted with great potential to make it your own. In addition to the above you will provide essential support to the Principal Applications Manager, Product Manager and Delivery Lead to deliver the strategic vision for the Finance & Operations service.
You will not work alone but rather form part of a team of existing engineers, managers and technical experts who will help you on this journey. You will also foster strong working relationships with service users and managers with evergreen management of the product.
What we offer you
We take pride in offering the best employee experience, with benefits including:
- a competitive salary and annual leave entitlement plus statutory holidays
- membership of the West Yorkshire Pension Fund with generous employer contributions
- flexible and hybrid working arrangements subject to service requirements.
- a clear career pathway and continuing professional development opportunities.
- a range of staff benefits to help you boost your wellbeing and make your money go further
How to apply
Please upload your CV and complete a personal statement of no more than 500 words.
Read our guidancefor further advice on completing your application.
A Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check against the Children’s or Adults’ barred list as applicable will be carried out on preferred candidates. Read our recruitment of ex-offenders policy.
We welcome applications from everyone and actively seek a diverse range of applicants from all backgrounds and cultures. We particularly encourage applications from, but not limited to, women, carers, veterans as well as LGBT+, ethnically diverse, disabled and care experienced people.
This role is based in the UK. Home Office guidance states that candidates must evidence their right to work in the UK prior to commencing employment, either as a UK or Irish citizen, under the EU Settlement scheme or having secured any other relevant work visa.
If you do not have the right to work in the UK, you must consider your own eligibility for sponsorship for a particular role through the Skilled Worker visaroute before applying. To be eligible for sponsorship you'll usually need to be paid the standard salary rate of at least £41,700 per year or meet one of the other eligibility criteria. Please ensure you are eligible before applying.
Job Description
Job purpose The Lead Software Engineer will provide technical leadership and expertise in the design, development and delivery of solutions related to technologies in Leeds City Council. They will set development standards and ensure solutions are secure, scalable and aligned to business needs.
Responsibilities
- Supporting in house project activities
- Ensuring Remedy queues are effectively managed and issues resolved in line with SLAs
- Implementing complex workflows and system changes (may involve the production of new code)
- Lead, Manage and Mentor junior staff
- Monitoring and tracking supplier performance in line with Contract Management Plans
- Ensure embedding of best practice and templated approach to delivery of core service offering
- Lead / take responsibility on large scale/complex pieces of work
- Input into the planning of major projects that require Application Engineering input
- Assess both business as usual and project risk and present realistic options based on current/known information
- Provide estimates for all areas of application support (core offering and new functionality etc) based on known information and experience
- Support in converting business requirements into system roadmaps – identifying how system roadmaps can support business roadmaps
- High degree of independence
- The duties outlined are not meant as an exhaustive list and will also comprise any other duties within the spirit of the post commensurate with the job evaluation outcome for this post.
Engineer – Application Operation roles
There are 5 levels of Engineer role in Application Operations:
- Principal Engineer – PO6
- Lead Engineer – PO4
- Senior Engineer – PO2
- Engineer – SO2
- Associate Engineer – C3
Each role has a set of essential and desirable technical skills associated with it alongside complimentary essential core competencies. The role requires a wide range a skills and knowledge. The essential and desirable skills shown below demonstrate this, it is not expected for any one individual to have every skill at the identified level.
Essential requirements Candidates will only be shortlisted if they can demonstrate that they meet all the following essential requirements.
Systems Management - Proficient in the design and implementation of processes that support effective systems management (A/I)
Compliance - In depth understanding of compliance legislation and its implementation on the systems in span of control (A/I)
User Management - Proficient in the establishment and maintenance of role based access controls and the implementation of processes to support effective licence management (A/I)
Change & Release Management - Highly experienced in the application of DIS and feedback on change management processes and actively working towards adopting it (A/I)
Environment Management - Extensive experience in the effective management of system environments and resolving any issues arising (A/I)
Upgrades & Patching - Extensive experience in participating in and leading on system upgrades
Incident Management. Highly experienced in effectively managing / overseeing incidents to successful resolution. Putting in place measures to ensure lessons learnt (A/I)
Testing Activities - In depth knowledge and experience of the approaches to testing undertaken for systems supported. Ensuring processes are in place, adopted and records maintained (A/I)
Data Management - Extensive experience in data management activities ensuring systems supported are compliant in terms of retention and disposal rules (A/I)
Supplier & Contract Management - Proficient in effective supplier and contract management – ensuring supplier delivering against SLA and contract and negotiating at contract renewal (A/I)
Legal & Statutory - In depth understanding of legal and statutory requirements on systems that are supported and the processes that must be followed (A/I)
Operational Integrity - Proficient in partaking in DR testing, security assessments and ensuring corrective actions are implemented as planned. Proficient in the capture and recording of technical debt for systems in span of control. (A/I)
Lifecycle Planning - Extensive experience in identifying and devising plans for the roadmap and plans for each system under span of control. Proficient in mapping supplier roadmaps with business roadmaps / outcomes.
Application Governance - Proficient in leading on undertaking impact assessments and validating / challenging proposed system changes. (A/I)
Essential Behavioural & other Characteristics
- Understand and embrace Leeds City Council Values and Behaviours and codes of conduct
- Committed to continuous improvement in all areas and work towards delivering the Best City Ambition of Health & Wellbeing, Inclusive Growth and Zero Carbon
- Able to understand and observe Leeds City Council policies and procedures.
- Carry out all duties having regard to an employee’s responsibility under Health, Safety and Wellbeing
- Willingness to actively participate in appraisal, training and development activities to ensure up, to date knowledge and skills.
- Flexible and adaptable to change to assist other services as required commensurate to grade.
- Be aware of and support difference and ensure equality for all working in an anti-discriminatory manner, upholding, equality & diversity of Leeds City Council.
- Recognise and appropriately challenge any incidents of racism, bullying, harassment, victimisation, and any form of abuse, reporting any concerns to the appropriate person
- The Council has adopted a flexibility protocol and the role will be expected to work within these parameters.
Desirable requirements Candidates are not required to meet all the following desirable requirements however these may be used to distinguish between candidates.
- Project Management Concepts - Experienced in planning and delivery of work in line with Project Management Concepts – Waterfall and Agile (A/I)
- Business Knowledge & Workflow Concepts - In depth understanding and experience of the business processes behind supported systems and the impact of any changes made within the system on business processes. Understand the system workflow capabilities and how these support business processes (A/I)
- Database Schemas – Oracle / SQL - Proficient in understanding and querying the schemas that underpin the systems supported with no impact to live operational services (A/
- SQL Developer Tools - In depth understanding and experience in the use of the SQL Developer tool (A/I)
- File Formats - In depth understanding and experience in the different file formats associated with each application (A/I)
- Integration Mechanisms - Extensive experience in implementing and maintain system integrations / interfaces in line with IDS standards for integration (A/I)
- Non-.Net Languages – C#, HTML - Proficient in relevant programming languages and in the production and deployment of efficient code (A/I)
