Business Application Support/Developer (SharePoint) recruitment

Organisational overview

NEST Corporation is the trustee body responsible for overseeing NEST (National Employment Savings Trust).

NEST Corporation is a non-departmental public body (NDPB) that operates at arm's length from government and is accountable to Parliament through the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.

NEST is a new workplace pension scheme that’s been designed specifically to meet the needs of low-to-moderate earners and their employers.

Although NEST Corporation is an NDPB, it is independent of government and operates like any other trust-based pension scheme. The NEST Corporation has its own IT systems that are primarily managed by our service provider Northgate.

Departmental overview

Northgate manage and support the organisation’s IT for users in London (275) and Newcastle (20). A number of users regularly work on the road and at our primary suppliers sites in Peterborough and India so remote working (online and offline) is also supported. Northgate are responsible for all elements of IT hardware, such as printers, desktops, thin clients, laptops, Blackberrys and associated software. First line support to users is provided by an offsite specialist call centre in Belfast. Northgate supply a small number of onsite resources to deal with first line support queries that cannot be resolved remotely and to deliver projects or more complex changes.

The IT infrastructure is less than two years old and there is still a significant programme of work to manage over the next two years to ensure that the systems are robust, secure and can support the developing needs of the business. This includes a range of enhancements, the migration of legacy standalone systems, an office relocation and managing delivery in an environment where requirements are expected to change. 

The in house IT Team has a headcount of five so the Business Applications SupportDeveloper will be an integral part of the team and the need for adaptability and flexibility is crucial. The role has two areas of primary responsibility: being the go-to person for support and changes to our mainly Microsoft business applications and implementation and support of functionality within SharePoint such as automated workflow processes. The job holder will also be required to take an appropriate share of the operational daily activities and to contribute to the overall achievement of the team’s objectives.  

Role overview

This is a new role, reporting to and working closely with the Senior Business Analyst. The post-holder will be expected to hit the ground running, to be self starting and to be very flexible regarding the work that they do as part of the team.

The Business Application SupportDeveloper is responsible for administering, supporting and developing our range of business applications, principally Microsoft SharePoint 2010, CRM Dynamics 2011 and the Microsoft Office Suite. The current programme for 2012/13 includes a major SharePoint 2010 roll-out for document management and process automation, as well as upgrades to the latest versions of Office and Windows. Our vision for SharePoint sees it becoming our central business application solution and therefore advanced SharePoint skills are key for this post. The post-holder must be able to help us implement our SharePoint solution and be able to, and have a passion for, making it really sing.  

The role requires a significant amount of trouble-shooting and the post holder will need to be able to tackle challenging scenarios, consider options and explain and implement solutions. A key skill here will be the ability to translate business processes into easy to use on-line forms and workflows and assist in documentation for these.

Role deliverables

The successful candidate will have responsibility for the following key deliverables and activities:

• Working with the IT Team, external suppliers and internal users to support the delivery of enterprise class applications that address our business problems and opportunities

• Day to day administration and support of the applications

• Providing advice and guidance to users as the go-to person for business applications so that they can get the best out of the applications available to them and are using them in accordance with agreed protocols, standards and best practice

• Working with the Information Security Manager to ensure access, document management retention and marking requirements are correctly implemented.

• Assisting with more general IT support issues for VIP’s

Candidate requirements

Experience required

The successful candidate will be able to demonstrate a broad skills mix including:

• Experience with a relevant and comparable organisation in terms of technology used and size.

• Hands on experience implementing and maintaining SharePoint 2010 with advanced knowledge of workflows, InfoPath and SharePoint Designer.

• Experience of SharePoint Migrations for Intranet content and document management.

• Advanced knowledge of developing and maintaining content in SharePoint.

• Excellent knowledge of SharePoint security models.

• Expertise in HTML, style sheets,Themes and Master Pages in relation to SharePoint.

• Hands on experience implementing and maintaining 3rd party applications into SharePoint.

• Working knowledge of CRM Dynamics administration.

Personal attributes required

The successful candidate will have the following skills and education:

• A confident manner and excellent communication skills

• The ability to effectively engage with a wide range of stakeholders

• An ability to distil complex requirements and issues quickly into a form which can be understood and acted upon by others.

• A methodical and analytical approach.

Education/qualification requirements that would be an advantage

• A relevant degree or equivalent qualification

• MCITP, MCTS or MCPD Certifications in SharePoint Disciplines desirable

Conclusion

This role is unusual in that it offers a unique opportunity for the right applicant to join our organisation at a very exciting time and to have a tangible impact on how our IT applications are delivered. Expectations for delivery in this role are high and the environment is fast-paced. 

If you are ready for a very rewarding role in an organisation that is set to transform the pensions landscape we look forward to hearing from you.