About the job

Job summary

This position is based nationally

Job description

We encourage applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that represents the wider society that we serve. We pride ourselves on being an employer of choice. We champion diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued and a sense of belonging. To find out more about how we do this visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/equality-and-diversity.

Grade: SEO

(MoJ candidates who are on a specialist grade, will be able to retain this grade on lateral transfer) 

Salary: National: £39,868 - £43,535 (which may include an allowance of up to

£2,057)

London: £45,824 - £50,039 (which may include an allowance of up to £2,251) 

Working pattern: Full time, Part time, flexible working.

-    Please note there will be on call weekend/Out of hours working required (on a rota basis), which will attract an on call allowance 

Contract Type: Permanent Vacancy number: 85806

*We offer a hybrid working model, allowing for a balance between remote work and

time spent in your local office. Office locations can be found ON THIS MAP 

The Role

We’re recruiting for a Senior Applications Operations Engineer here at Justice Digital, to be part of our warm and collaborative Prisons & Probation Digital team. 

This role aligns against the Senior Applications Operations Engineer from the Government Digital and Data Framework 

We’re looking for talented and tenacious people to join our digital team in Sheffield and/or London to support and maintain the services which underpin the justice system. We use cutting-edge agile software development approaches to make rapid but meaningful improvements to public services that live up to the unique challenges of MOJ's responsibility to society. 

Senior Application Operations Engineers support, manage and maintain a single application or a suite of applications. They ensure applications are available within service level agreements (SLAs) and are working to design. Working within a multi-disciplinary team, their role is to maintain service levels and the security of the applications and the data they manage and carry out activities in incident, problem, change and configuration management and continual Service Improvement (CSI) processes.

This role will be responsible for the maintenance of one or more of the legacy applications within HMPPS (HM Prison and Probation Services), which have large numbers of users (000’s) across the business estate. They include: 

• System for managing staff rosters overtime, leave and TOIL,
• System for managing reporting of incidents
• System for managing estates assets
• Systems integrating, connecting or linked to the
• System for offender and risk management 

To help picture your life at MoJ Justice Digital please take a look at our blog and our Digital and Technology strategy 2025 

Key Responsibilities:

• Maintaining application services and conducting user and security administration including provision of required licences (where needed). 

• Ensuring that all security requirements around access to the application, data, documentation, and configuration settings are maintained in line with the systems operation manual (SYOPS) and that all identified risks are reported to the security teams or line manager. 

• Monitoring and reporting by exception on the performance of applications against the design requirements and agreed service levels. 

• Ensuring that the latest application, operating systems and platform version releases are in place, where necessary for the effective operations of the application.

• Managing the use of service management tools for the recording and communication of incidents and take ownership of incidents until resolution. 

• Ensuring the severity of incidents is properly recorded, service levels are met and commensurate actions are taken to resolve problems. 

• Investigating and identifying solutions to problems and where appropriate resolving technical issues, through configuration, code or script changes, or managing resolution using development resources or third party suppliers. 

• Maintaining hardware and platforms necessary for the running of the live application, liaising with the problem or incident manager, web operations and third party suppliers.

• Advising product teams on options for continuous service improvement and assisting with the development and implementation of these, as appropriate. Deputising in the absence of the Application Product Owner. 

• Undertaking a key role in setting up and maintaining non-production testing environments and participating in Systems and User acceptance testing. 

• Working with others to ensure releases and upgrades and other changes to the platforms are subject to properly planned in depth and functional To ensure every system upgrade is fit for purpose and well documented. With minimal impact to the user community. 

• Liaising regularly with other colleagues and teams to ensure successful integration of products and platforms. 

• Participating in initiatives across the group to review lessons learned and identify areas of on-going operational and process improvements. 

• Ensuring that processes used comply with the departmental and government digital service standards. 

• Ensuring code, document, operational guidance, configuration and information libraries are kept up to date and accessible as required. 

• Contributing to meetings and forums relevant to the role and as requested by management from time to time 

If this feels like an exciting challenge, something you are enthusiastic about, and want to join our team please read on and apply! 

Benefits

• 37 hours per week and flexible working options including working from home, working part-time, job sharing, or working compressed hours.
• A £1k per person learning budget is in place to support all our people, with access to best in class conferences and seminars, accreditation with professional bodies, fully funded vocational programmes and e-learning platforms
• Staff have 10% time to dedicate to develop & grow
• Generous civil service pension based on defined benefit scheme, with employer contributions of 97% from April 1st 2024 (Contribution Rates)
• 25 days leave (plus bank holidays) and 1 privilege day usually taken around the Kings’ 5 additional days of leave once you have reached 5 years of service.

• Compassionate maternity, adoption, and shared parental leave policies, with up to 26 weeks leave at full pay, 13 weeks with partial pay, and 13 weeks further leave. And maternity support/paternity leave at full pay for 2 weeks, too!
• Wellbeing support including access to the Calm
• Nurturing professional and interpersonal networks including those for Carers & Childcare, Gender Equality, PROUD and SPIRIT
• Bike loans up to £2500 and secure bike parking (subject to availability and location)
• Season ticket loans, childcare vouchers and eye-care
• 5 days volunteering paid
• Free membership to BCS, the Chartered Institute for
• Some offices may have a subsidised onsite 

Person Specification 

Essential 

• Maintaining inter-service reference data to ensure data quality across multiple systems 

• Overall OASys Knowledge 

• The ability to utilise query languages in order to undertake forensic analysis of incidents, maintain data quality and achieve GDPR compliance. 

• Proactively monitoring proper completion of batch processes and other automated procedures. 

• Investigating and identifying solutions to problems and where appropriate resolving technical issues, through configuration, code, or script changes, or managing resolution using development resources or third-party suppliers. 

• Working with others to ensure releases and upgrades and other changes to the platforms are subject to properly planned in depth and functional testing. To ensure every system upgrade is fit for purpose and well With minimal impact to the user community. 

• Providing a  means  by  which  legacy  and  emerging  technology inter-dependencies are maintained. 

Willingness to be assessed against the requirements for SC clearance

We welcome the unique contribution diverse applicants bring and do not discriminate based on culture, ethnicity, race, nationality or national origin, age, sex, gender identity or expression, religion or belief, disability status, sexual orientation, educational or social background or any other factor. 

Our values are Purpose, Humanity Openness and Together. Find out more here about how we celebrate diversity and an inclusive culture in our workplace. 

Person specification

Please refer to attached Job Description

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £39,868, Ministry of Justice contributes £10,804 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

Candidates must submit CV + Statement of suitability (750 words max) which describes how you meet the requirements set out in the Person Specification above. Failure to provide both documents will result in a rejection of your application. Also, if the statement is too long, we won’t read past the first 750 words. 

The statement of suitability should outline your experience, against the following points of the essential criteria list above, under ’Person Specification’ 

• The ability to utilise query languages in order to undertake forensic analysis of incidents, maintain data quality and achieve GDPR compliance.
• Investigating and identifying solutions to problems and where appropriate resolving technical issues, through configuration, code, or script changes, or managing resolution using development resources or third-party suppliers. 

In Justice Digital, we recruit using a combination of the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability and Success Profiles Frameworks. We will assess your Experience, Technical Skills and the following Behaviours during the assessment process: 

• Working together
• Managing a quality service

A diverse panel will review your application against the Person Specification above. Successful candidates who meet the required standard will then be invited to a

1-hour panel interview held via video conference. 

Should we receive a high volume of applications, a pre-sift based on ‘Overall OASys Knowledge’ will be conducted before the sift. 

Should you be unsuccessful in the role that you have applied for but demonstrate the capability for a role at a lower level, we reserve the right to discuss this opportunity with you and offer you the position without needing a further application.

A reserve list may be held for up to 12 months, from which further appointments may be made. 

Terms & Conditions

Please review our Terms & Conditions which set out how we recruit and provide further information related to the role and salary arrangements. 

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact recruitment@digital.justice.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.