Infrastructure Services Senior Analyst

West Midlands Police; Birmingham; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A regional police force in Birmingham is seeking an Infrastructure Services Senior Analyst to manage and optimize their database infrastructure. This role involves providing technical expertise, managing database performance, and influencing strategic decisions within the IT & Digital department. Ideal candidates will possess strong experience in Azure technologies and a record of supporting complex database environments. The position offers a comprehensive benefits package and the chance to contribute meaningfully to the organization.

Benefits

Competitive pension scheme

Enhanced annual leave

Wellbeing package including 24/7 support

Discounts on travel and leisure activities

Qualifications

• Experience in Azure SQL and Azure Arc.
• Demonstrable experience in Enterprise Database management.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.

Responsibilities

• Provide specialist technical skills and knowledge for the Database Infrastructure.
• Assist in the strategic database architecture across platforms.
• Lead database initiatives and define best practices.

Job description

Prospective officers and staff must be held to a higher standard of behaviour and accountability than members of the public, and therefore their right to privacy can be fettered in certain circumstances. This is to ensure that members of the police are fully aware and accountable for the unique powers entrusted to them and the standards of professional behaviour they swear to uphold.

The IT & Digital department is responsible for the force's adoption and use of information and digital technology.

The department consists of three core functions as follows:

• Architecture Management (responsible for identifying and selecting the right technologies for the force)
• Delivery Management (responsible for delivering and implementing the right technologies for the force)
• Service Management (responsible for managing and maintaining all live, operational technology for the force)

The Service Management function within IT & Digital is responsible for the effective operation, support and maintenance of existing, operational technology systems, including but not limited to all Force applications, technology infrastructure (e.g. servers, databases, networks) and end‑user devices (e.g. desktop PCs, smartphones, tablets, Airwave terminals). This function manages, and has responsibility for, the security, capability, availability, and performance of all operational technology in the 'live' environment whether it is delivered via internal resources or by external suppliers. This function is also responsible for ensuring existing technology remains fit‑for‑purpose and reflects continuously evolving requirements from the force.

The Infrastructure Services team within Service Management is responsible for managing the force's Server, Storage and Software infrastructure within the live operational environment. This infrastructure includes:

• The force Data Centres
• Hardware
  • Server Technology
  • Storage Technology (e.g. SAN, NAS, DAS)
  • Backup Media (e.g. Tape, Disk, Cloud)
• Software
  • Active Directory
  • Corporate Backup Software (Vertias)
  • Application Delivery Software
  • Anti‑virus software
  • PKI Infrastructure

all of which are required to deliver and support properly engineered IT services and products essential to meeting the needs of the force.

The Infrastructure Services Senior Analyst will be responsible for providing specialist technical skills and knowledge to ensure the Infrastructure Services Team is able to carry out its specific responsibilities and deliver ongoing demonstrable value to the organisation.

The post holder will report directly into the Infrastructure Services Team Manager.

The Infrastructure Services Senior Analyst will have responsibility for the security, capability, availability, and performance of the following key areas:

• The Force's Database Infrastructure – including proactive monitoring, patching, lifecycle management.
• Assist in the strategic database architecture across platforms and environments.
• Lead database initiatives.
• Defines best practices and governance for data modelling, security, DR, and compliance.
• Adheres to and helps refine standards in security, backup, and performance tuning.
• Acts as final escalation point for complex performance, availability, and integrity issues.
• Plans and monitors capacity and maintenance at the application or departmental level.
• Engages in knowledge sharing internally, including documentation and technical briefings.

Engages with senior leadership (e.g., Senior Leadership Team, Enterprise Architects) to influence platform strategy and budgeting. The post holder is responsible to the Infrastructure Services Team Manager but will be expected to work without direct supervision and will be required to make decisions using their own initiative and experience.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide specialist technical skills and knowledge that facilitate the security, integrity, availability and performance of the Force's Database Infrastructure.
• Analyses and recommends best practice steps to prevent potential database issues, such as performance degradation or potential loss of service and well as recommend actions to fix issues when database problems do occur (outages or potential errors).
• Provides input into complex decisions as they relate to data architecture, infrastructure and/or administration.
• Analyses and recommends upgrades to database software and components based on security requirements, new technology, or evolving application system requirements.
• Reviews database environments to ensure they meet security controls and audit requirements.
• Supports management on enterprise wide and departmental goals and objectives.
• Provides operational support to all WMP Database platforms across the enterprise.
• Works on multiple projects as a team member or sometimes as a technical lead.
• Supports multiple databases of medium to high complexity (complexity defined by database size, technology used, and system feeds and interfaces) with multiple concurrent users, ensuring control, integrity and accessibility of the data.
• Assist with departmental roadmaps, product goals, and development strategies.
• Create and modify maintenance plans, performance tuning, advise developers on improving schemas.
• Provide specialist technical skills and knowledge that facilitate the relevant incident, configuration, availability, capacity, continuity and release management in line with the ITIL framework.
• Provide and disseminate specialist/technical advice on issues relating to the department, interpreting or assessing customer needs and exercising judgment to make decisions when solutions are not obvious.
• Assist with the monitoring and management of the performance of third‑party suppliers.
• Assist the Infrastructure Services Team Manager in formulating strategic direction for the team.
• To represent the force at local, regional and national conferences as required.
• Negotiate with partner agencies, suppliers and contractors in order to achieve desirable outcomes.
• Plan and organise individual or team activity with an appreciation of longer term issues.
• Provide specialist technical assistance to projects which are complex and significant in terms of time and financial resources coordinate the provision of assigned services within the department to ensure they meet the required quality levels.
• Provide specialist information and/or advice to assist and influence senior colleagues/customers to make decisions relating to significant business issues.
• Interpret statistical data and advise management of trends.
• Assist with the negotiation of supply contracts.
• Revise or develop procedure and policy for approval and contribute to their successful implementation in order to deliver appropriate benefits and ensure external (e.g. legislative) requirements are met.
• Maintain a good working environment for all team members.
• Monitoring Health and Safety issues and raise issues where appropriate.
• Ensure adequate checks and controls are in place to maintain and protect live operational environments.

Essential Skills

• Manage and support a variety of Infrastructure Technology.
• Demonstrate experience in Azure SQL and Azure Arc.
• Delegate work to others.
• Develop the knowledge and skills of team members.
• Demonstrable experience in Enterprise Database management both proactive and reactive.
• Demonstrate experience in data storage services, servers, back‑ups and the management of data centres.
• Demonstrable experience of directly communicating with senior managers from a customer service perspective using written and oral methods.
• Participate in, and chair, meetings.
• Promote equality, diversity and Human Rights in working practices.
• Maintain standards for security of information.
• Comprehensive skills in database and backup technologies on premises and within the cloud.
• Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to confidently interact and empathise with all levels of staff.
• Excellent presentation skills.
• Flexibility to use a variety of supporting technologies and to be innovative.
• The ability to work under pressure and be capable of balancing competing demands and priorities.
• Proven track record in understanding the need of customers/users.
• Good communication skills in order to work effectively throughout the organisation and with external contractors and suppliers.
• An understanding of the ITIL processes as they apply to the team and to the department as a whole.
• Excellent organisational skills.
• Ability to produce management reports, policy documents and comprehensive working papers including recommendations and implementation of documents.
• Ability to chair or take a lead role on local, regional and national conferences.

Desirable Skills

• An extensive knowledge of infrastructure database technology.
• An extensive knowledge of capacity and lifecycle management.
• Knowledge of backup technologies.
• Knowledge of Cloud Technologies relating to the Azure Stack, including but not limited to: Subscriptions, Scale Sets, Virtual Machines, Storage, Sentinel and Backups.
• Understanding of ITIL framework.
• Knowledge of Health and Safety issues relevant to the post.
• Knowledge of internal financial processes.

Benefit Statement

By choosing to join West Midlands Police you will receive an enhanced benefits package including:

• Fair remuneration with progression opportunities and access to a very competitive pension scheme.
• Enhanced annual leave in addition to public holiday entitlements.
• Discounts across travel, parking, daily costs of living and leisure activities.
• A comprehensive wellbeing package including 24/7 support, free eye tests and flu jabs.
• Comprehensive benefits including pension, Blue Light Card, and employee assistance programme.

Vetting

Successful applicants will be required to pass Management Vetting and Security Clearance scrutiny prior to commencing their role, this will include a full background & financial disclosure as part of the vetting process.

Medical

Successful applicants will be subject to a medical assessment which may include a drug or hearing test.

Interview

TBC

Hours/Location

Contact

For further information email [e-mail]

West Midlands Police is a Disability Confident Leader - the highest level an organisation can achieve under the scheme run by the Department of Work and Pensions. As part of our commitment we operate a 'Disability Confident Interview Scheme' - all candidates who declare a disability and meet the essential criteria for the role will be offered an interview.

It is important to note that there may be occasions where it is not practicable or appropriate to interview all disabled people who meet the essential criteria for the job. For example: in certain recruitment situations such as high‑volume, seasonal and high‑peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non‑disabled people. In these circumstances, the employer could select the candidates who best meet the essential criteria for the job, as they would do for non‑disabled applicants.

"Diversity and Inclusion Vision: Maximise the potential of people from all backgrounds through a culture of fairness and inclusion to deliver the best service for our communities"

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