Job Vacancy Lead Applications Operations Engineer

We're looking for an exceptional Lead Applications Operations Engineer to help us make a difference to our planet.

As our Lead Applications Operations Engineer, the job may be suitable for hybrid working, which is where an employee works part of the week in the office and part of the week from home. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement and the location advertised will be your contractual place of work.

Our opportunity is full time, 37 hours per week. Our people are at the heart of what we do and we'll do our best to agree a working pattern that works for everyone.

World changing work

From science to technology, from meteorology to management, and from planning to communication, our expertise helps us stand out as the authority on weather accuracy and climate prediction. We help individuals, industries and government to make better decisions to stay safe and thrive. This is the Met Office. This is who we are.

• We're a force for good - focusing on our environmental and social impact
• We're experts by nature - always learning and developing to do things better
• We live and breathe it - putting our purpose at the heart of decision-making
• We're better together - understanding partnerships and inclusivity make us greater
• We keep evolving - pushing boundaries to make tomorrow better for our customers

Your world of expertise

This is an exciting opportunity to step into a newly created post and make it your own. We are looking for someone with leadership and management skills that can empower a team to support SaaS products and services for our Directorate Stakeholders. You will form good working relationships with internal Stakeholders and Vendors of these services and put in a place a full lifecycle care package, including support, advice, continuous improvement, integration, adoption and governance.

Your key duties

• Manage a Team of Application/EUC Engineers and Analysts to support our Business facing applications and provide a specialist SME advisory service for our suite of Microsoft & Power Platform Apps. To develop the team to optimise their performance and deliver great customer service.
• Manage and handle the investigation and resolution of incidents, issues and advisory requests that occur and be proactive in achieving excellent user outcomes. Initiate and monitor actions to investigate patterns and trends to resolve problems, consult specialists where required, determine the appropriate remedy, and assist with its implementation where applicable.
• Manage relationships with Vendors, Business Owners and IT colleagues to assure the ROI and effectiveness of the SaaS products supported. Assist with the negotiation of licensing requirements.
• Adhere to Service Management principles. Manage your SaaS lifecycles by building a collaborative evaluation process to identify performance information, adoption and plan for updates and renewals. Demonstrate knowledge of the lifecycle/capability elements of ITIL.
• Foster a culture of effective communication approaches and collaboration with your stakeholders and colleagues across Technology and be adept at interacting at all levels.

Why join us

Our work is life-changing, often life-saving and always life-enhancing. The Met Office is Great Place to Work UK certified. We are also featured on their 'Best Workplaces in Tech' 2023 and 2024 lists, as well as their '54 Best Workplaces for Women' 2023 list.

As our Lead Applications Operations Engineer, your total reward package will be up to £63,719 annually, which includes:

• £41,725 base pay
• An outstanding Civil Service pension, with an average employer contribution of 27%
• Recruitment Retention Allowance (RRA) you will be paid £5,300 per annum as a market supplement to reflect the demand for your skills. Whilst in post, you will be paid this market driven allowance from April 2024 until September 2025 in your monthly pay
• Annual Leave starting at 27.5 days (plus Bank Holidays) rising to 32.5 days (plus Bank Holidays) after 5 years and option to buy or sell up to 5 days per year of annual leave

Essential Criteria, skills and experience:

1. Experience of managing a multi-skilled and agile team, demonstrating how it is developed and well maintained. (We're better together)
2. Demonstrable experience and breadth of understanding of supporting and advising on SaaS Business Applications in Technology. Demonstrate accomplished troubleshooting and problem fixing skills. (We're experts by nature)
3. Show experience and capability in managing relationships with Vendors and Met Office Stakeholders. Providing evidence of real world situations resolving live issues. (We keep evolving)
4. Excellent communication and documentation skills, showing planning, evaluation, and governance of best practices for SaaS usage and adoption.
5. Demonstrate knowledge of the lifecycle/capability elements of ITIL and how to apply this to the services supported by your team. Specifically in the areas of continuous improvement for SaaS products.

Desirable Criteria:

We encourage you to apply if you believe you meet our essential criteria, but we're also keen to discover if you have:

1. Experience working with SaaS products ie: HR Systems, Dynamics 365 CRM & F&O, Microsoft suite of applications.
2. Experience of Microsoft Power Platform suite

How to apply

If you share our values, we'd love to hear from you! Click apply to begin your application. Please complete your career history and provide evidence against each of the essential criteria in the supporting statement questionnaire. We recommend candidates use the CARL method (Context, Action, Result and Learning) for presenting evidence of experience and skills.

Closing date 05/01/2025 at 23:59 with first stage interviews commencing from 20/01/2025. You will hear from us once the closing date has passed.

How we can help

If you have any questions or would like to discuss this opportunity further, please contact us at .

If you're considering applying and need support to do so, please get in touch. You can request adjustments either within your application or by contacting us. Should you be offered an interview, please be aware there may be a selection exercise which could include a presentation, written test or a scenario-based activity. You can select in your application to be considered under the Disability Confident Scheme. To be invited to interview/assessment under this scheme, your application must meet the essential criteria for the role.

We understand that great minds don't always think alike and as an equal opportunities employer we welcome applications from those with all protected characteristics. We recruit on merit, fairness, and open competition in line with the Civil Service Code.

We can only accept applications from those eligible to live and work in the UK - please refer to GOV.UK for information. We require Security clearance, for which you need to have resided in the UK for at least 3 of the last 5 years to be eligible. You will need to achieve full security clearance within your first 6 months with us.