8 months contract with local authority To provide lead technical expertise in a specialist technical area and/or manage a small team of ICT Engineer/Designers and ICT Technical Support Officers. As a Senior ICT Engineer/Designer, you will provide professional technical ICT Engineer/Designer expertise covering operational ICT support, implementation, and maintenance of ICT infrastructure and/or applications and services. As a Senior Solutions Designer, you will have significant experience in the design and build of solution components and be either growing into the Solution Architecture role or, as a practiced end-to-end designer, you will be increasingly taking overall accountability for some solutions. You will typically be mentoring or leading other Solutions Designers. Accountabilities/Responsibilities • To provide lead technical expertise in a specialist technical area and/or manage a small team of ICT Engineer/Designers and ICT Technical Support Officers. This will include, but not limited to, many of the following responsibilities: - Maintain an up-to-date, in-depth knowledge of ICT technical area(s). - Maintain an awareness of solution discipline/client sector trends and policies relating to ICT. - Seek advice and guidance from 'subject matter experts' in the industry on technical and operational issues as necessary. - Ensure the effective implementation of solutions, projects and programmes. - Technical authorship and ownership of solution designs to meet client requirements aligned with the strategic direction of ICT Services. - Undertake ICT problem diagnosis and resolution both 2nd line and 3rd line including on call emergency support where required; may be required to provide full 24-hour on call emergency support. - Technical support recovery activities following failure, including disaster recovery. - Implement ICT technical solutions. - Undertake design and analysis tasks. - Monitoring performance and propose and implement performance enhancing changes. - Helping to ensure that availability targets are met. - Understanding the key priorities and targets and the effectiveness of the service. - Producing and maintaining appropriate technical and operational documentation. - Monitor the work undertaken by ICT Engineer/Designerss. - To develop and maintain AskICT knowledge articles. - Maintaining an awareness of technology developments and their application. - Taking technical ownership with respect to solution design and referring to Solution Architects as necessary. - Interface with Platform Architects to take account of ICT service, support and operational impacts. - Ensure all design deliverables are delivered on time to the correct quality standards - Understand the key design parameters and governance required to deliver a successful design. - Defining tactical actions and strategic direction for the designated technical area, including improvements, road mapping and obsolescence, identifying and designing innovative service improvement initiatives with the Platform Architect. - Leading discussions with existing and new suppliers and exploring emerging technology options. - Assisting with the delivery of design methodology, processes and standards. - Identifying areas of opportunity to reduce costs where appropriate. - Mentor, support and provide guidance to ICT Engineer/Designers and ICT Technical Support Officers. - Provide immediate line management and supervision for the team in all matters relating to performance, conduct and attendance. - Manage and prioritise the workloads of the team against agreed targets and benchmark appropriately against other teams. • An ‘installation expert’ in a specific technical area of expertise including but not limited to many of the following: - Taking a lead role in problem diagnosis and resolution including on call emergency support where required; may be required to provide full 24-hour on call emergency support. - Taking a lead role in technical support recovery activities following failure, including disaster recovery. - Monitoring performance and propose and implement performance enhancing changes, - Ensuring that availability targets are met. - Producing and maintaining appropriate technical and operational documentation. - To develop and maintain knowledge articles. - End-to-end design responsibility. - Overall accountability for some solutions. - Covering for, and undertaking, architect tasks. • To ensure industry and local standards are adhered to. This includes but not limited to: - Governance and compliance to corporate policy and process. - Ensuring ITIL operational procedures are maintained. - To follow all documented AskICT processes including Incident, Knowledge, Change and Problem Management procedures. - Adherence to security standards and policies where applicable. • To provide lead ICT Engineer/Designer support and/or design lead in the following areas: - Proactive monitoring. - Capacity planning and management. - Availability monitoring and planning. - Effective roadmaps and obsolescence planning. - Patching policy and security patch management. - Evaluation, testing and installation. - Adherence to security standards and policies. - Disaster recovery. • Assist in the development of skills required to deliver ICT Services - Identifying training courses for ICT Engineer/Designers and ICT Technical Support Officers. - Supporting the development of ICT Engineer/Designers and ICT Technical Support Officers. • Provide effective communication within the service and between other services and customers • Ensure that the customer is at the heart of all of the services delivered. • Deliver a customer focused service to both internal and external customers. In addition to the skills knowledge and experience described above, you may be required to undertake a lower graded role as appropriate. Due to the changing nature of the business, this job description serves as a framework to outline the main areas of responsibility. It is not intended to be either prescriptive or exhaustive and will inevitably change. You may be required to undertake other activities of a similar nature that fall within the remit of your area of work, as directed by service management, and this may entail working from other locations