About the job

Job summary

Are you a dedicated person who is passionate about making a difference?

Would you like to work for the Ministry of Defence? 

Defence Business Services (DBS) is one of the largest shared service organisations in Europe that provides a wide range of corporate services, to over 1.2 million end users, including serving and past military and families, as well as MoD civil servants and industry. DBS delivers large scale administration and smaller specialist services to enable the wider MOD to focus on its core aims, maintaining the UK’s Defence and Security. Services include Human Resources, Pay, Veterans, Finance and Procurement. 
 
•    Our Vision - To support UK defence customers with outstanding service every time.

•    Our Mission – Together we will proudly support Defence, continuously improving and delivering flexible, timely, sustainable and value for money services that underpin the whole force and enhance operational capability. 

DBS is committed to creating a great place to work for all our colleagues. We are building an inclusive culture and respectful environment that reflects the diversity of the society. 

We want to maximise the potential of everyone who chooses to work for us through opportunities to develop your skills and experience. We also offer a range of flexible working patterns and support to make a fulfilling career accessible to you and offer a Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%. Where your role permits, we support a blended working approach alternatively known as hybrid working.

Where business needs allow, some roles may be suitable for a combination of office and home-based working.  This is a non-contractual arrangement where all office-based employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in office, subject to capacity and any required workplace adjustments.  Requirements to attend other locations for official business, or work in another MOD office, will also count towards this level of attendance. Applicants can request further information regarding how this may work in their team from the Vacancy Holder (see advert for contact details). Defence Business Services cannot respond to any questions about working arrangements.  

Come and join the DBS community today! 

Job description

As part of a team of APEX developers, the successful candidate will utilise Oracle development tools and integration tools (APEX) to design and build digital solutions to business requirements. Integrating where necessary with source data held on the internal and external systems. 

Working iteratively, providing prototypes and Minimum Viable Products and direct engagement with business stakeholders to obtain user acceptance, ensuring solutions are usable and accessible.

Live support and maintenance of the current APEX developed applications, liaising with colleagues in the DBS Digital, Information and Technology team, including other developers, infrastructure administrators and Information Assurance leads.

Once Apex developed applications are successfully deployed, they will be responsible for seeking continuous enhancement to extend the functionality and be responsible for identifying, analysing, and promoting further opportunities for exploitation in a wider capacity to meet business needs.

As SME for APEX developed tooling the post holder will be responsible for direct engagement with business leads at all levels and for coaching and mentoring other team members in the utilisation of the tooling. This will involve lead responsibility for managing the use of resources as the capability grows 

Detailed Responsibilities

•    Lead on the analysis, design, and planning for the delivery of the POC and FOC for identified APEX development opportunities; managing associated resources to ensure the successful rollout to meet business needs
•    Utilising Oracle Cloud development tools such as Application Express (APEX), Autonomous Database, REST Data Services (ORDS) and Visual Builder to build complex, practical, and resilient applications in response to a diverse range of business needs
•    Designing and implementing creative solutions that avoid customisation of the core Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) HR, Payroll and Expenses Oracle HCM Fusion application (“MyHR”), instead extending functionality of the tool through the design of modular applications and REST API integration, consistent with microservices architecture
•    Building applications through an iterative agile methodology, prioritising requirements, and developing prototypes or Minimum Viable Products (MVPs), working closely with business stakeholders to obtain user acceptance
•    Integrating with existing data sources to avoid duplication of data where possible, ensuring “one source of the truth” data quality, as part of a wider focus on data integrity and information security
•    Ensuring solutions are usable and accessible, complying with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1) and conforming to the Government Digital Service (GDS) design system and design principles
•    Live support and maintenance of the portfolio of OCI applications, including developing additional functionality as required and seeking opportunities for innovation
•    Liaising with colleagues in the DBS Digital, Information and Technology team, including other developers, infrastructure administrators and Information Assurance leads 
•    Direct engagement as a SME with stakeholders to maximise the exploitation of the tooling capabilities to improve business services
•    Coaching and mentoring others in the utilisation of the tooling as the capability grows

Person specification

•    Database Design and Development: Knowledge of database concepts, design, and modelling, especially with Oracle databases. 
•    PL/SQL Experience: Since Oracle APEX uses PL/SQL, candidates should have a grasp of writing PL/SQL code.
•    Understanding of Oracle APEX Features: Knowledge of APEX features like Interactive Reports, Dynamic Actions, Plug-ins, and Page Designer.
•    UI/UX Design Principles: Experience or understanding of user interface and user experience design principles to create accessible, user-friendly applications.
•    Version Control: Familiarity with version control systems, such as Git, can be beneficial for collaborative development and maintaining code integrity.
•    Testing and Debugging: Experience with testing frameworks and debugging tools for APEX applications to ensure reliability and performance.
•    Knowledge of Web Services: Understanding of integrating web services (REST or SOAP) to enable interaction with other applications or third-party services via Postman.
•    Security Best Practices: Knowledge of web application security best practices and the ability to implement security measures within APEX applications to prevent vulnerabilities.
•    Responsive Design: Skills in creating applications that are responsive and accessible on various devices, using APEX themes or custom CSS.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £35,290, Ministry of Defence contributes £9,528 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

Please ensure that at the application and interview stages of the campaign you review the Success Profiles Framework to assist you in the demonstration of your skills and experience.

Your suitability for the role will be assessed using the Success Profile elements that have been chosen for this campaign. Each element will be scored accordingly, and the successful candidate will be appointed on merit.

Applications will be sifted on all Success Profile elements, but in the event of a high number of applications, an initial sift will be conducted on the following success profile elements:

Primary: Experience - CV

Secondary: Experience - Personal statement

In this instance the remaining elements will be tested at interview.

At the application stage you will be assessed against the following:

• Experience - CV
• Experience - Personal statement (500 words) - Please provide information of how you meet the criteria set out in the job description. You may wish to further include examples of how you have tackled similar tasks or demonstrated the skills outlines in the job advert. 

At the interview stage you will be assessed against the following:

• Behaviour - Leadership
• Behaviour - Changing and Improving
• Behaviour - Delivering at Pace
• Experience - Personal statement

In the rare case where individuals have exact matching scores, the order of merit will be determined based on the behaviour scores at interview in the following order:

• 1 - Experience - Personal statement
• 2 - Behaviour - Leadership
• 3 - Behaviour - Delivering at Pace
• 4 - Behaviour - Changing and Improving

If candidate scores are still exact, the merit order will then be determined on the sift score in the below order or priority:

• 1 - Experience - CV
• 2 - Experience - Personal statement

We want to offer opportunities to all who are successful at interview for our roles, but this isn’t always possible, so we do hold candidates on an active reserve list for 12 months. 

Application sifting to take place late March

Interviews are currently taking place via the following method: MS Teams (Preferred)

Interviews will be conducted early April.

A minimum of 2 full working days’ notice will be provided for interviews. We endeavour to stick to these dates, but these are subject to change around business needs.

To assist with your application please find attached below: 

DBS Candidate Information Guide - Working for Defence Business Services - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)  

(26) UK Ministry of Defence: Life , LinkedIn

Digital, Information and Technology (DIT)

Digital, Information, Technology - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

  

 

Disability Confident Scheme 

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity. There is a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.  

If you need to advise us that you need additional help or reasonable adjustments for the recruitment process, please contact: DBS-EnhancedRecruitmentTeam@mod.gov.uk  

MOD Recruitment Satisfaction Survey – we may contact you regarding your experience to help us improve our customer satisfaction. The survey is voluntary and anonymous. You may however be given the opportunity to provide additional information to help us improve our service which includes the collection of some personal data as defined by the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). The MOD Privacy Notice sets out how we will use your personal data and your rights.

As a result of the changes to the UK immigration rules which came into effect on 1 January 2021, the Ministry of Defence will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa under the points-based system, where a role has been deemed to be business critical. 
The role currently being advertised has not been assessed as business critical and is therefore NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points-based system. Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected, and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn. 

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). 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. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.