System Development Officer

Canterbury City Council; Canterbury; Hybrid; GBP 36,000 - 40,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid working

Annual leave and holidays

LGPS pension

Training and membership support

Cycle-to-work & park & ride

Job summary

Canterbury City Council is seeking a System Development Officer to join its Digital Services team in Canterbury. The role focuses on NEC Housing/Northgate and Idox suite, administering and improving complex corporate systems to support council services.

You will work with colleagues to understand requirements, resolve problems and deliver practical improvements. Hybrid working and a strong emphasis on technical governance are key.

Qualifications

• Experience administering, supporting or improving large corporate systems.
• Understanding of software-design principles and web security is essential.

Responsibilities

• Administer, support and improve complex corporate systems.
• Translate business requirements into secure, accessible and maintainable solutions.
• Configure, maintain and troubleshoot corporate systems and digital applications.
• Plan and support system testing and user acceptance testing.
• Investigate defects and support system upgrades and releases.
• Monitor data quality and system integrity.

Skills

Digital systems

Web security

Databases

DevOps

Agile

Accessibility (WCAG)

Programming basics

Education

Undergraduate degree or equivalent

Tools

NEC Housing/Northgate

Idox suite

Job description

Canterbury City Council is looking for a System Development Officer to join its Digital Services team.

Are you experienced in supporting, administering or improving complex corporate systems?

This is an opportunity to join a multidisciplinary digital team that supports essential council services. You will help administer and improve the systems used by colleagues across the council, translating business requirements into secure, accessible and maintainable solutions.

The role will initially have a strong focus on NEC Housing, formerly known as Northgate Housing, alongside applications within the Idox suite. NEC Housing is a critical council system supporting areas including rents, billing, assets and tenancy information.

Experience of NEC Housing/Northgate or similar housing-management software would be particularly valuable.

What’s in it for you?

• A salary of £36,291.51 to £39,990.41 per annum
• Cost-of-living pay award negotiated annually as a salary increase
• Flexible, hybrid working. We understand the importance of a good work-life balance
• A generous annual leave entitlement, which increases with service, plus bank holidays and three additional days usually used while our main offices are closed over Christmas
• The option to buy additional annual leave
• A local government pension scheme
• Training and development opportunities, including support with professional membership fees where these are essential to the role
• Employee benefits, including retailer and lifestyle discounts
• Free use of Canterbury’s Park and Ride, flexi-bus tickets and a cycle-to-work scheme
• Access to free counselling, advice and webinars through our employee assistance programme, as well as contributions towards the cost of flu vaccinations

About this job

You will work within the Digital Services team to administer, support and improve complex corporate systems.

A significant part of the role will involve supporting NEC Housing/Northgate, including system configuration, access and security, testing, reporting and data quality. You may also support systems within the Idox suite and other corporate applications as service priorities change.

You will work with colleagues across the council to understand their requirements, resolve problems and deliver practical improvements that make services easier to manage and use.

Here’s what you’ll get up to

• Supporting system administration, including user accounts, reports, dashboards, security settings and access profiles
• Translating business and user requirements into secure, accessible and maintainable solutions
• Configuring, maintaining and troubleshooting corporate systems and digital applications
• Developing and maintaining system processes, technical guidance and training materials
• Planning and supporting system testing and User Acceptance Testing
• Investigating defects and supporting the implementation of system upgrades and new releases
• Monitoring and improving data quality, system integrity and user adoption
• Working with colleagues, suppliers and technical specialists to coordinate system changes and improvement work

Working pattern

• Monday to Friday, excluding bank holidays
• Full-time, 37 hours a week
• Permanent contract
• The team operates a flexible hybrid-working model. Normally, you will be expected to work on site at least once a fortnight. This may vary and could be more frequent depending on the systems, projects and service needs you are supporting
• We recognise the benefits of smarter working practices that enable us to maximise productivity

About you

Your knowledge

You will have:

• A practical working knowledge of digital systems and their implementation
• A good understanding of software-design principles and web security
• An awareness of the technologies used to support web applications, including databases, backups and operating systems
• An understanding of version control, continuous integration and DevOps principles
• An understanding of Agile working
• A good understanding of digital accessibility and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
• Some knowledge of programming, scripting or database technologies, although knowledge of a particular programming language is not essential

Your experience

You will have experience of:

• Administering, supporting or improving large corporate systems
• Communicating with users and stakeholders to understand requirements and explain technical solutions
• Managing competing requests and delivering work to agreed deadlines
• Working with technical colleagues to deliver maintainable and scalable solutions
• Maintaining or improving customer relationship management or other complex business systems

Experience of NEC Housing/Northgate or a comparable housing-management system would be particularly valuable. Experience of supporting applications within the Idox suite would also be useful.

You will be able to:

• Configure, administer, support and improve complex corporate systems
• Analyse business and user requirements and translate them into technical solutions
• Maintain and troubleshoot digital applications using suitable database, programming and web technologies
• Plan and support testing, investigate defects and implement system changesExplain technical information clearly to technical and non-technical audiences
• Organise competing priorities and work effectively with colleagues from different professional disciplines
• An undergraduate degree or equivalent relevant experience

Due to the nature of this role, the successful applicant will be required to undertake a basic DBS check as part of their pre-employment checks.

For an informal discussion about the position or what it is like to work in Canterbury City Council’s Digital Services team, please contact Stu Collett, Senior Digital Services Manager, at [e-mail]

Equality, diversity and inclusion at Canterbury City Council

We are committed to promoting equality and diversity in everything we do. We provide a safe and welcoming environment where everyone is valued, included and respected.

Our diversity strengthens our ability to serve the diverse communities we support through our work.

To demonstrate this through our actions, all applications are anonymised for the shortlisting panel, allowing applicants to be assessed on merit alone.