Overview
This role will provide business, science, and people leadership driving transformative change, innovation, and science excellence for APHA. If so, we would love to hear from you!
The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) is an executive agency of the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, and works on behalf of the Scottish Government and Welsh Government. Our diverse teams of over 3,000 skilled and committed professionals come together to provide research, advice and support to UK Government for safeguarding animal, public and plant health for benefit of the environment and economy.
APHA is a brilliant place to work where our people feel valued, have a voice and can be their authentic selves. We value difference and diversity, because it helps us be more innovative and make better decisions.
We are dedicated to being an inclusive employer, offering equitable opportunities for all individuals. Our goal is to build a diverse workforce, and we hope to attract applications from all backgrounds and underrepresented groups.
The Data Systems Group (DSG) is a workgroup within the Department of Epidemiological Sciences. The group undertakes the data management function within the Department and wider Science Directorate. It has systems development, data management and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) capability. DSG has experience of the data associated with a wide range of animal health disease areas e.g. bovine tuberculosis (bTB) and Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSEs) and liaises widely with Epidemiologists, Modellers and Statisticians both internally and externally (e.g. University research groups) over their analysis requirements.
You will work as a part of a team building and maintaining bespoke infrastructure and software applications spanning multiple high impact areas including disease management databases, simulation models to inform disease control policy, and specialist scientific computing infrastructure for scientists across the Defra group. Managing delivery on a range of technical science projects by negotiating scope; planning and monitoring delivery; quality assuring outputs; ensuring appropriate maintenance; and supporting effective resource allocation. You will specialise in the development of business applications for the collection and management of corporate data assets but also supporting software development and IT engineering activities of the wider team.
This is a specialised senior role requiring both team and project management skills, software development experience, and understanding of IT systems within the scientific domain. The outputs from this work will support important capabilities concerning animal disease control in the UK.
You will work as part of a small team within the Data Systems Group (DSG) responsible for IT systems hosted on the corporate (Windows) environment. Technical focus will be on the design, development, delivery and on-going maintenance of data capture solutions both new and existing. You will have a track record of deploying web-form based solutions written in C# or VB.net and SQL database skills. As the senior developer you will provide an Intelligent Customer Function while liaising with Stakeholders (both internal e.g. Defra and external e.g. University research depts.) Drawing on experience you will advise stakeholder and take a prominent role in leading on aspects relating to product design, typically this will include the capture of data from disparate sets and the automation of current paper-based systems. An important element of this role will be to provide consultancy on the data capture and processing; ensuring reliability, consistency and quality are maintained to ISO9001 standards. A key element of the design process will be the creation and maintenance of all documentation for systems they are responsible for, including meta-data. Meeting customer goals will include the timely delivery of all data outputs either through the automation of existing reporting processes or on an ad-hoc basis to meet specific customer needs. This may require the use of data interrogation tools such as PowerBI, SSRS or SQL queries. There will be an expectation of active involvement in the wider initiatives that are of relevance or may impact your work e.g. contributing to the APHA response to the Livestock Information Project (LIP), software and infrastructure modernisation initiatives. Line management responsibilities of staff.
Responsibilities include:
* Successful design and delivery of IT systems.
* Management of existing systems.
* Management of guidance documents, risks and issues.
* Provide technical assistance, support data capture, reporting and systems development.
* Utilise your strong interpersonal skills, to establish good working relationships with colleagues, both internal and external customers, and wider stakeholders.
* Assisting in the personal development of less experienced junior developers through sharing of previous work or educational experiences.
* Communicate work outputs via excellent written and oral communication skills.
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