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.

DBS has recently undertaken a review of its operational locations in the Northwest, and have consolidated all activities in Norcross, Blackpool. A further move, to the new Government Hub at Talbot Gateway in Blackpool, is scheduled to take place in 2026. 

Come and join the DBS community today! 

Job description

DBS has migrated their HR system to a Cloud based Oracle HCM platform.

An Oracle HCM Cloud Developer is responsible for completing configuration, testing and maintenance for the application. You will also analyse Oracle quarterly patches and present finding to DBS business areas. You will have line manager duties.
As a Oracle HCM Cloud Developer in the DBS you will be expected to work collaboratively and take the lead in a small multi-skilled team. The successful candidate will execute the design, build, configuration and customisation of technical solutions, based on the pre-determined functional and technical specifications and ensure these solutions meet quality & performance requirements.

The post involves engaging and work closely with the customer, subject matter experts and project managers to produce functional design documentation:

• Supports and performs configuration tasks within the system – Admin access and configuration tasks undertaken.
• Updates REMEDY tickets with resolutions.
• Provides tier 2/3 level functional support and serves as the escalation point for unresolved configuration issues from EC/Civ Pers.
• Work closely with the Functional Configuration colleagues and HR Product Owners to understand requirements within the system.
• Supports production of documentation of configuration tasks within the system.
• Undertakes unit testing before handing over to the HR Product Owners and testing team.
• Conduct upgrade assessments for review by HR Product Owners.
• Performs release tasks.
• Supports Service/Enhancement Request management with Oracle for bugs and responsible for escalation to Application Support Team Lead if required.
• Helps to maintains Oracle HCM Business Processes (break-fix, incidents and enhancements).
• Supports completion of special projects (e.g. year-end activities).

Person specification

The successful candidate will be expected to have knowledge and experience in:
Essential Skills:

1. Oracle HCM Knowledge
2. Oracle Support process knowledge
3. Knowledge of all Microsoft Office applications
4. Proven ability to communicate – both written and verbal
5. The ability to work as part of a small agile team, and across multiple teams
6. Highly motivated and resilient
7. Access or a driven desire to learn

Desirable Skills:

1. Application Support Service Delivery (Service Management)
2. Solution design and requirements gathering
3. Functional Design
4. Unit Testing Knowledge
5. REMEDY and ticket management expertise
6. Release Management 

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 your 

Primary: Experience - CV, Secondary: Experience - Personal statement. In this instance the remaining elements will be tested at interview. 

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

• CV - Including: Job History , Previous skills & Experience
• Personal Statement - In no more than 1000 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 interview you will be assessed against the following:
Behaviours:

• Making Effective Decisions
• Managing a Quality Service
• Delivering at Pace
• Communicating and Influencing
• Developing self and Others
• Changing and Improving   

Experience: 

• CV - Including: Job History , Previous skills & Experience

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 - CV
2. Behaviour - Making Effective Decisions
3. Behaviour - Managing a Quality Service
4. Behaviour - Delivering at Pace
5. Behaviour - Communicating and Influencing
6. Behaviour - Developing Self and Others
7. 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 is scheduled to take place on week commencing: 04/01/2024
Interviews are currently taking place remotely via Ms Teams and will be conducted on week commencing: 16/01/2024

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.

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. 
To assist with your application please find attached -  
DBS Candidate Information Guide - Working for Defence Business Services - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

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.