- Closing date
- 21 Jul 2017
- Salary
- Up to £57,000
- Location
- Cheltenham
- Full-time or part-time
- Full-time
- Department
- Technology
About the Technology department
Technology delivers digital products and services used by applicants, providers, advisers, and commercial partners, while ensuring UCAS has a ‘digital by default’ infrastructure. UCAS is currently in a phase of digital acceleration – our approach is responsive, agile, and customer-focused.
The Technology department is divided into four primary functions – Technology Development, Technology Experience, Service Management, and Enterprise Architecture. As we develop our services, our teams work seamlessly in a digital ecosystem that balances the needs of learners and education providers, and ultimately adds value to the learner journey.
If you have a thirst to be at the cutting edge of technology and thrive off a fast-paced technical environment, we’d love to hear from you.
About the role
The Senior Software Engineer reports to the Technical Team Leader. They will:
- administrate and manage our AWS accounts, ensuring best practices are in place and progress continues to be made in the AWS Well-Architected Framework
- act as a subject matter expert (SME) for AWS
- maintain a detailed knowledge of existing UCAS applications and systems
- work alongside the Technical Assurance Lead to ensure compliance with UCAS’ coding and design standards
Key duties and responsibilities:
- Provide technical leadership and innovation using advanced technical skills. Accountable for the development of quality solutions based on technical requirements.
- Coach and mentor other team members in key technologies and developments to improve general skill set of team and increase knowledge of solutions.
- Code/configure and document complex solutions from supplied specifications using agreed standards and tools, and conduct reviews with others as appropriate.
- Define and maintain coding and best practice standards and documentation guidelines.
- Develop and maintain specialist knowledge of cloud technologies, design principles, architectures, and software.
- Analyse data requirements to establish, modify, and maintain object/data models.
- Act as an SME for related technologies and understand the interactions between the systems.
- Work closely in collaboration with solution architects to produce systems analysis documentation for the implementation of new projects and system changes.
- Work with the Change and Release Management Team to ensure a smooth transition/transfer of new systems and developments into the run area.
- Support Core IT Partner (CITP) with release deployment and configuration duties.
- Provide accurate estimates for development activity as part of a request for change deliverable (either standalone or as part of a project).
- Maintain interoperability of all development work to ensure applications can work with other products or systems, present or future, without any restricted access or implementation.
- Develop user stories, working with product owners and SMEs; develop sprint goals, translate business requirements into technical specifications, and assist in maintaining product backlogs as needed.
- Validate technical requirements and prioritisation in line with product roadmap.
- Test evidence to satisfy criteria for delivering a release, using end-to-end business process testing as per agile methods.
- Support new releases for the agreed early life support period and ensure high quality handover information before discontinuing support, including secondments to support where appropriate.
- Support end-of-life planning for applications and ensure compliance with quality management, risk management, and security policies and procedures.
- Provide technical input into long-term continuous improvement activities carried out by CITP.
Stakeholders:
Internal:
- Solution Development Lead
- Solution architects
- Senior Software Engineer/Software Engineer/Agile Test Engineer
- All non-IT business units
- Service/product development CoE
- PCD CoE
- EA CoE
External:
- Application development partners
- Core IT Partner (CITP)
Package
Up to £57,000 with 30 days annual leave, voluntary flexible benefits, paid volunteering days, and a contributory stakeholder pension. It’s not just about the financial benefits that UCAS offers – on-site you can also benefit from our restaurant, affordable gym membership, free parking, unlimited tea and coffee, and many other perks. You’ll enjoy an exciting, agile working environment, with a vibrant culture and flexible approach to work, all of which reflects our teamwork and innovative spirit.
How to apply
Please see the 
role profile (298.35 KB) and our 
application form (1.18 MB). Please fill in the form and email it to the Recruitment Team at careers@ucas.ac.uk, along with your CV.
You will receive an email confirming that your application has reached us. We endeavour to contact all candidates before or soon after the closing date. However, due to high volumes of applications, we may not be able to contact all candidates. If you do not hear from us, please assume your application has been unsuccessful on this occasion.
All information you send to us will be kept in line with the Data Protection Act 1998. UCAS is committed to equality and values diversity in our workforce. We welcome and encourage applications from all candidates in line with the Equality Act 2010.
We reserve the right to close this job vacancy prior to the advertised closing date, if we feel we have found a suitable candidate