Applications Specialist

Atomic Weapons Establishment; Reading; Hybrid; GBP 45,000 - 55,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

9-day fortnight

Pension 9-13%

Family leave policies

Professional development

Employee assistance

Life assurance 4x salary

Discounts

Volunteer leave

Job summary

Atomic Weapons Establishment in Reading area seeks an Applications Specialist to provide SME for enterprise applications, ensuring changes are defined, tested and transitioned to service. You will collaborate with business, technical teams, and suppliers to maintain fitness for purpose and data integrity.

The role supports continuous improvement, ensures adherence to security standards, and aligns changes with regulatory and enterprise requirements. Access to security clearance is required.

Qualifications

• The role requires IT/business systems knowledge and change management experience.
• Experience gathering business requirements and validating them.
• Ability to assess impacts of changes on security, data, and operations.

Responsibilities

• Capture and maintain business and functional requirements throughout the lifecycle.
• Ensure changes are fit-for-purpose, tested, documented, and transitioned to service.
• Audit quality and supplier deliverables against requirements and standards.
• Safeguard data integrity and manage operational readiness and risk.

Skills

Requirements gathering

Testing & QA

Stakeholder engagement

Risk mitigation

Problem solving

Attention to detail

Supplier coordination

Security awareness

Education

Degree or equivalent in IT/Business

Security clearance experience

Job description

Applications Specialist### Applications SpecialistApply: Hybrid: Reading area: Full time: Posted Today: End Date: November 24, 2026 (13 days left to apply): R31183**If you’d like to be considered for this opportunity we encourage you to apply promptly to avoid disappointment as if applications are high the role will close before the closing date given.****Role:** Applications Specialist **Location:** **RG7 4PR**, located between Reading and Basingstoke, with **free onsite parking**. **Package: Starting from £50,060p.a** (depending on your suitability, qualifications, and level of experience) **Working pattern:** AWE operates a 9-day working fortnight.We will consider **flexible working requests** so that your work may fit in with your lifestyle. Just let us know your preferred working pattern on your application. **Let us introduce the role:** The Applications Specialist provides subject matter expertise and quality assurance for assigned enterprise applications, ensuring application changes are effectively defined, governed, tested, implemented and transitioned into operational service. Reporting to the Domain Lead (Applications) and working closely with business stakeholders, technical teams, suppliers and operational support functions, the role is accountable for maintaining application fitness for purpose, supporting continuous improvement, safeguarding data integrity, and ensuring changes align with business objectives, enterprise standards, security requirements and operational needs. The role acts as a trusted advisor throughout the application lifecycle, supporting the successful delivery, adoption and ongoing optimisation of business-critical applications. **Key Accountabilities:** * Requirements Integrity: Accountable for ensuring business and functional requirements are accurately captured, validated, traceable and maintained throughout the change lifecycle.* Application Fitness for Purpose: Accountable for ensuring assigned applications continue to meet agreed business, operational and compliance requirements.* Solution Quality Assurance: Accountable for assuring that proposed application changes meet documented requirements, quality standards and acceptance criteria prior to release.* Data Integrity: Accountable for assessing and safeguarding the impact of application changes on data quality, master data, business reporting and downstream processes.* Operational Readiness: Accountable for ensuring application changes are fully documented, tested, supportable and successfully transitioned into operational service.* Supplier Assurance: Accountable for validating supplier deliverables against agreed requirements, security standards, operational acceptance criteria and quality expectations.* Standards and Compliance: Accountable for ensuring application changes align with enterprise architecture, cyber security, risk management, governance and regulatory requirements.* Benefits Realisation Support: Accountable for ensuring application changes support agreed business outcomes and intended operational benefits.* Application Lifecycle Management: Accountable for maintaining awareness of application lifecycle risks, technical debt, upgrade requirements and vendor roadmaps.* Risk and Issue Management: Accountable for identifying, assessing and escalating risks, issues and dependencies that may impact application service quality or change delivery. **Essential Criteria:** * Degree or equivalent experience in IT, business systems, technology, applications management or a related discipline.* Experience supporting enterprise application change, enhancement, upgrade or configuration activities.* Experience gathering and documenting business and functional requirements.* Experience supporting application testing, defect management and acceptance activities.* Experience working with third-party suppliers and service providers.* Experience assessing business process, operational and technical impacts of change.* Risk identification and mitigation skills.* Structured problem-solving and root cause analysis.* Ability to challenge assumptions and proposed solutions constructively.* Strong attention to detail and quality focus.* Ability to balance business needs, risk, compliance and operational considerations. **Work hard, be rewarded:****We ask a lot and set the bar high because our work truly matters. In return we offer balance, with award winning benefits including:*** **9-day working fortnight – meaning you get every other Friday off work, in addition to 270 hours of annual leave.*** **Market leading contributory pension scheme** (we will pay between 9% and 13% of your pensionable pay depending on your contributions).* **Family friendly policies:** Maternity Leave - 39 Weeks Full Pay and Paternity Leave - 4 Weeks Full Pay.* Opportunities for **Professional Career Development** including funding for annual membership of a relevant professional body.* **Employee Assistance Programme** and Occupational Health Services.* **Life Assurance** (4 x annual salary).* **Discounts** – access to savings on a wide range of everyday spending.* **Special Leave Policy** including paid time off for volunteering, public service (including reserve forces) and caring.**All candidates must be willing and able to obtain and maintain the appropriate security clearance for this role.****Next steps:**Everyone who works at AWE brings unique skills and perspectives to the table. We recognise that great people don’t always ‘tick every box’. That’s why we focus on your potential, your fit with our values, your transferable skills as well as your experience. Even if you don’t meet every point above, but you feel that this role and AWE are a great fit for you, please go ahead and apply, we’d love to receive your application.**Important things you need to know:*** We encourage you to apply promptly to avoid disappointment if applications are high and the role therefore closes.* You will need to obtain and maintain the necessary security clearance for the role. This will be funded by AWE. **The nature of our work does mean you need to be a British Citizen who has been resident in the UK for the past 5 years in order to apply for SC clearance and 10 years for DV.*** **We want you to feel comfortable and able to shine during our recruitment process. Please let us know on your application form if you need any adjustments/accommodations during the process.*** Our interviews typically take place over Teams and for most roles are a 1 stage process.Our ambition is to create workplaces where we recognise and celebrate differences, encourage diverse contributions and our employees feel able to be themselves at work. We strive to create a genuine culture of openness and inclusion and encourage diverse applicants. Any inclusion information you provide will be stored in accordance with GDPR and kept separate from your application form and CV, and the information will not be shared with anyone involved in interviewing or making hiring decisions.Please note that you must be a British Citizen to apply for a role with us.