Virtual School Associate Applications Engineer

As an Associate Applications Engineer you'll thrive on using both technical knowledge of systems and working with system users to maximise the user experience. It's not about an on-line learning service! Your role will be to manage our digital personal education planning (PEP) planning platform. You will ensure that the system holds accurate records for all our looked after children and that key contacts in the child's school and their social worker can access the system to record the details of each child's PEP. Whilst you won't be working directly with children and young people, you will be a key person in how we deliver better outcomes for the children in our care. You will be an enabler between education and social care, through the platform, bringing together the practice so that our children get better outcomes. 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., * User Management: maintenance of appropriate role-based access, effective management of system / user licences

• Compliance: maintaining compliance of systems against GDPR, PCI, PSN and Cloud Security Principles and assessing new and existing systems based on data sensitivity. Delivery of any remediation action plans for impacted systems.
• Data management: maintaining the integrity of the data within systems, undertaking cleansing activities, data management (retention & disposal)
• Supplier and Contract Management: managing the contract with system suppliers ensuring we understand roadmaps, SLAs are in place and being adhered to, issues are raised and tracked and plans in place for work being delivered by the supplier
• Documentation of Processes: Maintain accurate support documentation and ensures that agreed processes and templates are consistently followed.
• Maintaining Software Security: Ensure software is up to date and applications remain secure by carrying out tasks related to incident, problem, change, and configuration management, as well as engaging in ongoing service improvement initiatives.

About the role The Associate Applications Engineer plays an important role within the Virtual School Team, supporting the effective administration and maintenance of the digital Personal Education Plan (PEP) platform. The postholder will help ensure the system is secure, reliable and fit for purpose, with responsibility for managing user access, maintaining data quality, supporting schools and social care professionals to use the platform effectively, and working closely with suppliers and Integrated Digital Services (IDS) colleagues to resolve issues, implement system upgrades and support service delivery. The role is integral to our Virtual School team and you'll be working alongside skilled and knowledgeable practitioners with strong links to integrated digital systems teams. You'll help us deliver PEP improvements in quality and timeliness and build effective and helpful relationships across schools, settings and social care services. You'll report to an experienced Senior Data and Applications Officer and benefit from an inclusive team who work collaboratively together. You will need to be skilled at managing a high and variable workload where priorities can change on a daily basis and where being able to account for the difference you make is key. You will be doing more than managing user licenses - you will be contributing to better outcomes for our children and we want you to be as passionate about that as we are., What a C3 Application Operation - Associate Engineer does

• Work with colleagues in application support team, other IDS teams, business areas and & third-party suppliers to undertake application support activities as defined in the IDS Application Management Core Service Offering document
• Ensure support documentation is maintained
• Ensure applications support process and templates are followed, * Systems Management :This involves undertaking diagnostics & system monitoring to ensure systems are up and running and on required version and ensuring the agreed Service Level Agreement (SLA) is being adhered to.
• Compliance: Maintaining compliance of systems against GDPR, PCI, PSN and Cloud Security Principles and assessing new and existing systems based on data sensitivity. Delivery of any remediation action plans for impacted systems.
• User Management: Maintenance of appropriate role-based access, effective management of system / user licences
• Change & Release Management: Ensuring system changes and releases are managed in line with IDS processes e.g., ITIL
• Environment Management:Ensuring all environments are maintained and in line and on required version(s)
• Upgrades & Patching: Implementing all agreed upgrades / patches to ensure systems are up to date and on relevant compliant versions
• Incident Management: Working with other technical teams to ensure system issues are promptly resolved, underlying issues understood, and any remediation activities are undertaken
• Testing Activities: Undertaking agreed technical testing and co-ordinating the business to ensure UAT is successfully completed and documented
• Data Management: Maintaining the integrity of the data within systems, undertaking cleansing activities, data management (retention & disposal)
• Supplier & Contract Management: Managing the contract with system suppliers ensuring we understand roadmaps, SLAs are in place and being adhered to, issues are raised and tracked and plans in place for work being delivered by the supplier
• Legal & Statutory: Dealing with FOIs and SARS as well as ensuring the business can address any legislative and legal requirements (over and above upgrades and patches)
• Operational Integrity: Involvement in the running of at least an annual IT Disaster Recovery Test, Security Assessment - co-ordination of security assessment activities including oversight of any corrective action(s). Maintenance of Technical Debt and analysis and reporting on all incidents
• Lifecycle Planning: This is about ensuring that a plan is in place for how the application will be used during its lifecycle, that there is a roadmap and plan for what changes will happen during the life of the system
• Application Governance: Application governance is all about determining whether the Council is getting maximum value from its application estate and consolidate, retire or replace as appropriate

DESIRABLE REQUIREMENTS: It is desirable that the candidate should be able to demonstrate the following criteria for the post within the context of the specific role. Candidates are not required to meet all the Desirable requirements however these may be used to distinguish between acceptable candidates.

• Project Management Concepts: Covering concepts such as planning, risk management, stakeholder management, project governance and key project documentation
• Business Knowledge & Workflow Concepts:Understands the business processes that the application(s) being supported supports. Able to design and implement system workflows to support
• Database Schemas - Oracle / SQL: Understands how the underlying database(s) that support the application are set up and operate. Able to execute queries against the database with no impact to live service
• SQL Developer Tool: Understand how to use the integrated development environment tool for working with SQL in Oracle databases
• File Formats: Understands the different file formats associated with each application and when each type should be used
• Integration Mechanisms: Understands and maintains the integration mechanisms (in line with IDS best practice) for applications
• Non-.Net Languages - C#, HTML: Understands which programming languages are in use for the systems being supported

Do you have experience in SQL?, 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., Each role has a set of essential and desirable technical skills associated with it alongside complimentary essential core competencies. The roles require a wide range of skills. 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.

Pulled from the full job description

• Annual leave
• Company pension, * 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, 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 visa route 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. Ensure you are eligible before applying.