Chief Executive Gavin Boyd SYSTEMS ANALYST (INTEGRATION & DEVELOPMENT) BASED IN C2K CENTRE, BELFAST (Required until 31 March 2016 with possible extension to a maximum of 12 months duration) Disclosure of Criminal Background If you have applied for a post that involves regulated activity under the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups (NI) Order 2007, the Board will be required to undertake an Enhanced Disclosure of Criminal Background. Please note that due to proposals set out in the Department of Education s Budget, you WILL be expected to meet the cost of an Enhanced Disclosure Certificate, which is currently 33. Further details in relation to legislative requirements can be accessed on www.nidirect.gov.uk/vetting or www.accessni.org.uk. Job Purpose The postholder is responsible for managing the ongoing technical feasibility and acceptability of a range of C2k services being delivered in conjunction with a range of public and provide sector partners. This includes the delivery of effective integration across the constituent parts of the service as well as integration with external agencies and suppliers to achieve seamless management of data. The postholder is expected to keep pace with ICT trends and developments and advise C2k senior management through the Configuration Management Group (CMG) on the applicability and potential for delivering enhanced service benefits. The postholder will be expected to manage and participate in the delivery of ICT support services and provide ICT consultancy to senior management, schools, educational bodies and other C2k colleagues, both technical and nontechnical. Project management duties include leadership of a team of skilled Technical Support Officers (TSOs) to include management of these staff as required in their day-to-day duties. Supervision of contractual workers on an ad-hoc basis is required when commissioning, sign off and acceptance testing of new Management Information Systems (MIS)/C2k systems. The postholder is responsible for the preparation and delivery of technical training and support to schools and C2k staff. The postholder contributes to the overall implementation and service delivery and development strategy of C2k. The postholder is expected to be proactive in the management of all technical issues in a dynamic environment, ensuring that the demands and prioritization or technical helpdesk calls, upgrade targets and quality thresholds are met within tight deadlines. Main Duties Support 1 Be responsible for the technical integrity and security of school systems;
2 Supervise and contribute to the installation, technical maintenance and upgrade of LAN and WAN services within C2k guidelines and standards; 3 Supervise and contribute to the installation, technical maintenance and upgrade of business critical software within C2k guidelines and standards. This includes MIS which is central to the effective and efficient administration and management of schools in areas relating to pupils and staff eg exam entries, attendance records, timetabling, administration, financial management, pupil assessment and annual census return software. The MIS also includes additional third party software, eg payroll software and library management software which must be installed and maintained; 4 Deliver effective training to school and C2k staff on technical issues within C2k guidelines and standards; 5 Provide remote and on-site support to schools, including management of technical helpdesk services and infrastructure consultancy where appropriate; 6 Manage technical helpdesk calls as required by C2k. Provide first line support to skilled TSOs for problem solving, diagnosis and support; 7 Provide customisation of systems within guidelines established by C2k; 8 Provide technical support to C2k colleagues as required. Research and Development 9 Develop and manage the mechanisms for ongoing design concept testing including procurement and pre-commissioning testing; 10 Develop, test and quality assure software upgrades required by C2k; 11 Research network and data faults reported by schools and deal with these appropriately; 12 Develop innovative solutions to problems and provide first line expert help to a team of skilled TSOs and provide second line help to schools; 13 Research and source software, hardware and consumables from suppliers to assist with the effective and efficient delivery of the service; 14 Plan the introduction of pilot schemes and identify suitable parties to undertake such pilots. Liaise regularly with participants in any pilot to ensure that implementation problems and issues are reported and resolved as quickly as possible; 15 Develop, implement, maintain and support C2k administration and training systems; 16 Contribute to the development and support of the Northern Ireland Wide Area Network infrastructure linking some 380,000 users in 1220 schools across Northern Ireland; 17 Contribute to the development and support of the C2k corporate communications infrastructure linking all C2k centres; 18 Develop training materials as required by C2k and schools. Supervisory Management 19 Direct and supervise the work of a team of technical support officers operating out of a variety of locations; 20 Prioritise workloads, setting benchmarks for monitoring work in progress to meet tight deadlines as required by C2k;
21 Implement Induction plans for new colleagues and provide on-going professional evaluation and development; 22 Carry out skills audit and share best practice where applicable on a regular basis; 23 Assess resources required to meet agreed targets as soon as the need becomes apparent, and manage any extra staffing resources, which may become available from time to time, reporting to the Support Manager and the Service Delivery Manager; 24 Ensure that all technical Helpdesk calls have been assigned to the appropriate TSO and that all TSOs are aware of their responsibilities regarding urgent helpdesk calls; 25 Ensure adequate and timely provision of information for the hardware and software inventory as required. Quality Assurance 26 Monitor and provide quality assurance to ensure the effective delivery of the service provider s installation, network security, acceptance testing and benchmarking services; 27 Develop and review the relevance and appropriateness of security, anti-virus and backup policies and ensure that these are implemented in accordance with best practice; 28 Ensure that the delivery of software upgrade planning, design testing, quality assurance and implementation is progressed effectively. Through CMG, ensure that software version control is enhanced; 29 Produce and share best practice procedures ensuring a consistent approach to C2k systems and training solutions. Cross Project Activities 30 Liaise with external agencies and third party service providers; 31 Provide technical representation on the cross project meetings; 32 Provide advice and guidance to cross C2k groups involved in the development of appropriate training materials for use in schools and for in-house C2k training courses. Customer Care 33 Manage technical resources to ensure that targets and quality thresholds are met, thus enabling the effective day-to-day running of C2k systems within schools and maintaining a high level of satisfaction by C2k s customers; 34 Liaise with schools, other educational bodies and third parties to ensure a high quality of support and allow continuity of service to schools; 35 Manage any technical complaints raised by schools or TSOs. Investigate complaints and report as appropriate to the Support Manager. Project Management 36 Develop in consultation with the Support Manager the planning, sequencing, timetabling and delivery of the C2k service; 37 Deploy technical staff in line with the C2k high level plan; 38 Co-ordinate and supervise the work of a team of multi-skilled TSOs.
General 39 By undertaking any other duties, which may from time to time be required by C2k. Qualifications and Experience Applicants must have: 1(a) OR 1(b) a Degree in an information systems related subject or other related subject or other relevant equivalent professional computer industry qualification in information systems and have at least 3 years experience working with computerised systems in a diversified organisation; a minimum of 5 years experience working with computerised systems in a diversified organisation. Preference may be given to applicants who have: experience of supervisory management of technical support staff; experience of Project Management; experience in the development of Quality Assurance and best practice procedures ensuring effective service delivery. Applicants must have access to transport in order to fulfil the requirements of the post. The Selection Panel reserves the right to enhance the shortlisting criteria in order to facilitate a manageable shortlist. Please note the onus is on candidates to provide sufficient detailed information on their application forms in order to demonstrate how they meet each of the criteria. Failure to do so may result in a candidate not being shortlisted since Selection Panels cannot make assumptions in the absence of essential information. Terms and Conditions of Employment The main terms and conditions of employment are those for Systems Analysts as laid down by the Joint Negotiating Council (NI) and are drawn mainly from the conditions of service of the National Joint Council for Local Authorities staff. Salary Scale The salary scale for the post is NJC Points 33 36-28,746-30,978 per annum Hours of Work The hours of work will not normally be less than 36 per week required until 31 March 2016 with possible extension of 12 months duration. Annual Leave Entitlement Entitlement to annual leave is 23 days in a full holiday year in addition to 12 public and extra statutory holidays. Entitlement to leave in the first year of employment is pro-rata to the number of months completed. General Conditions of Appointment Appointments are subject to: (a) the Contracts of Employment and Redundancy Acts 1975 as amended and in particular the statutory provisions relating to termination of employment and the period of notice;
(b) (c) (d) (e) the provisions of the Local Government Superannuation Act (NI) for the time being in force; satisfactory completion of all pre-employment checks; probationary period of six months. the condition that no other employment is entered into during the period of employment by the Education Authority and that no employment by or in the service of another person or body should be undertaken except with express approval of the Education Authority. Canvassing and Referees Canvassing directly or indirectly will entail disqualification. Referees should not include any officer or member of the Recruitment and Selection Panel. Posts involving work in educational institutions are subject to the provisions of the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups (NI) Order 2007 OCTOBER 2015