Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
Senior Application Operations Engineer
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This role may be located in one of the following locations; Blackpool or Newcastle.
Please find further information on the Corporate hub locations here.
Please note that for candidates requesting to work in Newcastle, the role will initially be based at Benton Park View. It will then move to 1 Pilgrim Place in Newcastle city centre by the end of 2027.
On Call requirement: There will be a contractual requirement to join an on-call rota providing overnight cover, such as 17:00pm – 08:00am on weekdays, and 24 hours for weekends and bank holidays. The cover is shared around the team and would normally equate to being on-call for a week, every other week.'
Job Summary
Please note this role requires you to pass Security Check clearance. For further information, please see 'Selection process details'.
Are you experienced in live service IT Service Management?
Do you want to help shape an emerging function in one of UK government’s largest IT environments?
Do you pride yourself in having the technical ability to fix complex issues and continuously improve systems?
The primary role of Centralised Application Support Services (CASS) is to provide application operations which deliver continuity of service for our users across DWP Digital services.
As a Senior Application Operations Engineer, You Will Be:
- Working collaboratively with teams across Digital Group to ensure smooth running of operational processes.
- Providing service management expertise and technical skills to ensure service availability and the appropriate response when issues occur.
- Affectively utilise Incident, Problem and Change and Release Management as well as automating and innovating via continuous improvement to enhance the services we provide for citizens.
If this is something that interests you, apply today!
Job Description
As a Senior Application Operations Engineer, you will play a key role in ensuring the reliability, stability and continuous improvement of business-critical applications. Working across a range of technologies, including cloud and on premises platforms, databases and third party software, you will lead operational support activities, manage service performance, and drive improvements that enhance the user experience.
You will act as a technical escalation point, working closely with engineers, service owners and stakeholders to maintain high quality services and resolve complex issues. You'll also help shape operational practices, champion continual improvement and support the development of colleagues across the team.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead the support, maintenance and continuous improvement of one or more applications and services.
- Act as an escalation point for technical issues, ensuring incidents, problems and changes are managed effectively and lessons learned are implemented.
- Drive service reliability and performance through proactive monitoring, automation and continual service improvement.
- Manage risks, identify opportunities for improvement and work collaboratively with stakeholders to deliver positive outcomes.
- Provide technical leadership, coaching and knowledge sharing across the team, supporting less experienced engineers and contributing to a culture of continuous learning.
- Support the onboarding of new services and colleagues, ensuring effective knowledge transfer and smooth transitions into support.
- Work closely with multidisciplinary teams, suppliers and business stakeholders to ensure services remain secure, resilient and aligned to user needs.
- Participate in an out of hours on call rota to support critical services when required.
Person specification
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See selection process for further details.
If you would like to learn more about the role, please contact richard.hanley@dwp.gov.uk.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Changing and Improving
- Communicating and Influencing
- Managing a Quality Service
- Working Together
Technical skills
We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:
- Technical Leadership
Alongside your salary of £44,447, Department for Work and Pensions contributes £12,876 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).
We also have a broad benefits package built around your work-life balance which includes:
- Working patterns to support work/life balance such as job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours.
- Generous annual leave – at least 25 days on entry, increasing up to 30 days over time (pro–rata for part time employees), plus 9 days public and privilege leave.
- Support for financial wellbeing, including interest-free season ticket loans for travel, a cycle to work scheme and an employee discount scheme.
- Health and wellbeing support including our Employee Assistance Programme for specialist advice and counselling and the opportunity to join HASSRA a first-class programme of competitions, activities and benefits for its members (subscription payable monthly).
- Family friendly policies including enhanced maternity and shared parental leave pay after 1 year’s continuous service.
- Funded learning and development to support progress in your role and career. This includes industry recognised qualifications and accreditations, coaching, mentoring and talent development programmes.
- An inclusive and diverse environment with opportunities to join professional and interpersonal networks including Women’s Network, National Race Network, National Disability Network (THRIVE) and many more.
Hybrid Working
This role may be suitable for hybrid working, which is where an employee works part of the week in their DWP office and part of the week from home. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement and your office will be your contractual place of work.
If a hybrid working arrangement is suitable for the role and for you, you will normally be required to spend a minimum of 60% of your contracted working hours from your DWP office.
If you have a disability, caring responsibilities, or other circumstances that may affect your ability to meet the minimum office attendance requirement, please discuss this with us using the contact details in this advert.
Salary Information
New entrants to the Civil Service will join on band minimum.
Existing Civil Servants who secure a new role on lateral transfer will maintain their current substantive salary.
Existing Civil Servants who gain promotion will move to the bottom of the grade pay scale or receive a 10% increase applied to their current substantive salary, whichever is greater.
Any temporary allowances that you are currently in receipt of will not form part of the calculation to determine your pay. Any allowances that are in payment will cease when you move into your new role.
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.
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Selection process details
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.
Stage 1: Application
Your Application Will Consist Of Four Parts:
- A Personal Details application form.
- Employment history - this should contain your work experience and any skills, qualifications and accomplishments relevant to the jobs you have completed.
- Personal statement - up to 750 words. This statement should be used to provide examples of how you meet the essential criteria below:
- Ownership and initiative – Evidence of working with other stakeholders to ensure service outcomes are achieved.
- User Focused - Evidence of managing multiple competing priorities and the techniques used to ensure customer outcomes are met.
- Service Focused - Ability to take a holistic view of applications, their interfaces and dependencies to diagnose issues and coordinate resolution activities across multiple services.
- Technical statement (up to 250 words). The following statement is aligned to the required technical skill of Technical Leadership. This statement should be used to provide example(s) of how you meet the criterion below:
- Previous experience of managing the technical application support of services focusing on your implementation of improvement initiatives to deliver a quality service.
Ensure that all examples provided in your statements are taken directly from your own experience and that you describe the examples in your own words. If you choose to use gen-AI to support your statements, you must follow the guidelines outlined in the Artificial intelligence and recruitment guide.
The sift panel will use the information in your employment history, personal statement, and technical statement to assess your experience, skills and knowledge.
An initial sift will be conducted using the technical statement. Candidates who pass the initial sift will be progressed to a full sift.
If you do progress to a full sift, you will be provided with one combined overall assessment score for both your employment history and Personal Statement.
For Hints and Tips on completing your application visit Applying for jobs at DWP Digital.
Important Information
- You will be asked to complete your employment history. Any information that you would customarily share on a CV should therefore be entered onto the application form.
- Personal details that could be used to identify you including your name, contact details and address must be removed for your application to be considered.
- If your employment history, personal statement or technical statement contain any personal details your application will be withdrawn.
Stage 2: Interview
If You’re Successful At Sift Stage You Will Be Invited To a Video Interview Via Microsoft Teams. There, You Will Be Assessed Against The Following Behaviours:
- Changing and Improving
- Communicating and Influencing
- Managing a Quality Service
- Working Together
Interviews will take place from late October/early November 2026. Interview dates to be confirmed.
To help you prepare and settle into the interview you will be sent the interview questions in advance of the interview, at least 5 days prior to your interview. These questions should be treated as confidential and should not be shared. The interview panel may ask you other questions which will not be shared in advance, including follow
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