Defence Business Services (DBS) Senior Developer - MoD - SEO

Location

Tomlinson House, Norcross, Blackpool, Lancashire, Abbey Wood North, Stoke Gifford, Bristol, South West, Kentigern House - Glasgow

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 28.97%. 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 North West, 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 2027.

Come and join the DBS community today! 

Job description

Within DBS, the Digital, Information & Technology (DIT) team is responsible for management, support and delivery of the DBS information technology systems and the provision of accurate and timely management information to our customers. DIT support, deliver and maintain a wide range of on premise, Software as a Service (SAAS), Platform as a Service (PASS) and robotic products for defence.  

In this role you will be required to support the Ministry of Defence's existing  Contracting, Purchasing and Finance (CP&F) system on our on-premise Oracle instance and working towards the new SaaS offering being designed and developed under the Corporate Services Modernisation Portfolio, utilising Oracle Fusion.

DIT’s products support thousands of users across defence and a significant number of key defence activities, ranging from: 

Oracle EBusiness Suite for our Finance and Commercial activities 

Oracle Fusion (SAAS) for our Civilian Personal HR, Payroll and Expenses activities  

Oracle (PAAS) for our Apex and Webservices 

Remedy for DBS’ core change, case and incident management 

Solution Interfacing & API connectivity deliver timely and secure data 

As a Senior Software Developer (SEO) you will be responsible for, but not limited to: 

Supporting live services, actioning all relevant and ever-greening activities and implementing all associated change. 

Operating at a practitioner level, you will be required to support live systems (incident management and resolution), delivery minor change (Urgent fix, business or Oracle driven) and support projects across a single service line. 

You will be required to manage user and stakeholder relationships, lead on the investigation and resolution of issues/concerns escalating where necessary, providing timely system related advice. 

Develop software to meet user needs, unit test and following best practice release management protocols. 

Understand the system and taking responsibility for teaching this to others. 

Create and review system designs using the appropriate standards, tools and methods. 

A senior developer delivers and integrates software to form a complete service. At this role level, you will:

• plan and lead development on sets of related stories.
• have an understanding of the whole system and take responsibility for teaching this to others.
• Work with other disciplines to understand what needs to be built.
• Coach and mentor more junior colleagues.
• Operate the production services you build.
• Find ways to improve system robustness, resilience and stability.

You will need the following skills for this role:

• Availability and capacity management. You can define, analyse, plan, forecast, measure, maintain and improve all aspects of the availability of services, including power. You can control and manage service availability to meet business needs cost-effectively, including managing the capability, functionality and sustainability of service components (such as hardware, software, network resources, and software or infrastructure as a service).
• Development process optimisation. You can identify opportunities for improving the development process, make these improvements and evaluate their success. You can work with others to select and implement tools and practices to build confidence and reduce risk in each stage of the software development life cycle (from planning and prioritisation through to build, test, deployment and monitoring)
• Information security. You can maintain the security, confidentiality and integrity of information systems through compliance with relevant legislation and regulations. You can design, implement and operate controls and management strategies to allow this.
• Modern standards approach. You can apply a modern standards approach throughout automation and testing. ·
• Programming and build (software engineering). You can use agreed security standards and specifications to design, create, test and document new or amended software.
• You can apply technical knowledge and experience to create or design workable prototypes, both programs and physical outputs. You can understand parameters, restrictions and synergies.
• Service support. You can maintain and support services.
• Systems design. You can create the specification and design of systems to meet defined business needs. You can work with business and technology stakeholders to translate business problems into technical designs. You can visualise the ideal user service and come up with design ideas and possible design approaches. You can effectively explore different approaches to solving problems.
• Systems integration. You can identify integration points between systems and processes, designing data contracts and communication between the components. You can make use of modern design patterns that reduce risk and complexity where possible. You can perform integration tests as part of the development process, drawing on suitable testing frameworks and methodologies.

User focus. You can understand users and identify who they are and what their needs are, based on evidence. You can translate user stories and propose design approaches or services to meet these needs. You can engage in meaningful interactions and relationships with users. You can show that you put users first and can manage competing priorities

Person specification

Essential Criteria:
Proven track record of software support (incident/service management) and new capability development and delivery in one of the following areas; HCM Oracle, IBM Cognos, API, Remedy, Webservices and APEX.

 
Desirable Criteria:
Functional Design Experience
Knowledge of Oracle products and support process
Application Support Service Delivery (Service Management)
Solution design and requirement assessment
Unit Testing
Incident management process knowledge (Remedy and ticket management expertise)
Release Management
Please note: Occasional travel will be required to other DBS sites and Head Office.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing
• Changing and Improving
• Making Effective Decisions

We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:

• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Government Digital & Data (DDaT)