3940 - Application Support Engineer (SharePoint)

Job summary

The Welsh Government delivers digital services to people and business across Wales. Led by our Chief Digital Officer, the Welsh Government is increasingly delivering more services online and has a vision (outlined in the Digital Strategy for Wales) of improving the lives of everyone through collaboration, innovation and better public services.

To achieve this vision, the Welsh Government needs specialist digital, data and technology skills across all departments in the organisation to improve the services and policies we develop for Welsh citizens.

For more information about the benefits of making a difference with us, please see the Employee Benefits Pack.

Team/Division Overview

With significant fresh investment and an appreciation for the difference that a strong development/support capability can make, we are looking to review and refresh our approach to the development of internal and public-facing applications, and we want to build momentum with teams focussed on delivering that capability.

At the same time, we’ve consolidated support for key corporate applications under the Chief Technology Officer and are designing a new Application Support function to ensure that we can support each platform effectively. This function includes resource focussed on SharePoint.

Job description

Job Role

This post is mapped to the Application operations engineer role in the DDaT Profession Capability Framework. Follow the link to understand the role and the required skills.

The Application Support Engineer (SharePoint) is responsible for the reliable operation, configuration and support of SharePoint Online and related Microsoft 365 collaboration services. The role provides technical advice, guidance and hands-on support to business users, ensuring SharePoint services are secure, performant, and meet organisational needs.

Working within Application Support you will manage day-to-day service activities, support change and continuous improvement, and act as a key interface between technical teams and business stakeholders.

We are looking for people who are:

• Customer focused with a commitment to delivering reliable, responsive services
• Proactive team players who are eager to learn, solve problems, and improve user experience
• Clear and confident communicators who can support a wide range of users

Person specification

Your main day to day responsibilities will include:

• Administer and support SharePoint Online, ensuring the service is secure, reliable, and performing in line with organisational standards
• Act as a key liaison with the 365 engineering team, coordinating support, escalation, and dependency management where SharePoint services interact.
• Provide 2nd/3rd line support, diagnosing and resolving incidents and service requests in line with ITIL practices.
• Monitor service health, performance and usage, proactively identifying and addressing issues.
• Manage permissions, access controls and site lifecycles including provisioning, ownership changes, archival, and decommissioning in accordance with security and information governance policies.
• Act as a technical adviser to business users, translating requirements into effective SharePoint solutions.
• Provide guidance on best practice use of SharePoint for collaboration, document management and information sharing.
• Support business-led changes, including new site requests, information architecture, and content management approaches.
• Produce and maintain clear technical and user-facing documentation, guidance and knowledge articles.
• Configure SharePoint features, templates, metadata, and integrations to meet operational and business needs.
• Support the implementation of changes, updates and improvements, including Microsoft 365 roadmap features.
• Contribute to service improvement initiatives, automating repeatable tasks where appropriate (e.g. using PowerShell).
• Ensure changes are assessed for impact, tested, documented and implemented safely.
• Apply security controls, retention policies and permissions aligned with organisational and regulatory requirements.
• Work closely with architects, developers, service managers and other operations engineers.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Working Together

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Continual service improvement - support specific activities to improve development processes.
• Ownership and initiative - own an issue until a new owner has been found or the problem has been mitigated or resolved

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £37,111, Welsh Government contributes £10,751 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).

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Things you need to know

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.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

Welsh Government, like all other Government Departments use Success Profiles when we recruit. For each role we consider what you will need to demonstrate to be successful. This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job. It raises performance and improves diversity and inclusivity.

The selection process and stages are:

Number of Stages:2 stage processStage 1Application FormStage 2Interview

A reserve list may be held for this opportunity. Any candidate who is successful in being offered a reserve status, will remain on the reserve list for 12 months.

Candidates who successfully demonstrate that they meet the minimum Criteria will be invited to interview. You will receive a technical scenario for you to prepare a response ready for your interview. The technical scenario and instructions will be emailed to you 5 days before your inter