Application Operations Engineer

Application Operations Engineer

Salary: S4 £38,510 – £40,444 per annum

Hours: 37 per week

Location: Caernarfon

Purpose of the Post

• Responsible for providing, protecting, administering, operating, expanding and maintaining the Council’s central Information Technology systems.
• Maintain IT systems to ensure business continuity.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure systems security and data privacy, following government guidance, and accountable for ensuring that all data connections are secure and operating to envisaged levels, comply with relevant standards and proprietary solutions and improvements where necessary.
• Evaluating new technologies and making recommendations for system improvements, and offering innovative solutions that benefit Gwynedd Council’s services, and architecting and supporting those.
• Responsible for monitoring applications, databases and critical systems.
• Provide the necessary skills and develop, implement, maintain and support software solutions that meet business objectives.
• Reporting on the performance of central systems and gathering data and information to plan future IT provision.
• Providing advice and guidance during project planning phases.
• To ensure that the digital domain is supported in accordance with policies and procedures adopted by the Council and/or the Information Technology Service.
• For projects ensure that all achievable elements are delivered on time and within budget, adhere to safety standards in accordance with the details and comply with Gwynedd Council policies.
• When working as part of a team, identify where ICT can be used to create efficiency opportunities and savings and improved Customer Care.
• Be responsible for ensuring the continued operation of the Council’s corporate ICT systems.
• Ensuring that the people of Gwynedd are central to everything we do.

Special Circumstances

As the Council’s computer function operates on a 24/7 basis, non-social and weekend working hours will be required from time to time which will qualify for payment in accordance with the Council’s Terms and Conditions of Employment. Emergency calls will be the subject of specific discussion.

Gwynedd Council operates internally through the medium of Welsh, and offers all its services bilingually. The applicant will be required to reach the linguistic level noted as one of the essential skills in the Person Specification.

We encourage everyone who applies for a job with Gwynedd Council to submit job applications in Welsh or bilingually.

(Applications submitted in English only or Welsh only will always be treated equally, but we ask applicants to consider carefully what the linguistic requirements of the job in question is and if it would be more appropriate to submit an application in Welsh.)

For further information about this post please contact Bryn Goodman Jones on [email protected] or Aled Rhys Hughes on [email protected].

Closing Date: 10:00 AM, 23/10/2026.

Personal Characteristics – Essential

• Proactive in continuing to learn about the latest in a complex and rapidly changing industry.
• Being able to gain skills and continuously update as the industry progresses.
• Need to be independent and able to make decisions alone.

Personal Characteristics – Desirable

• Hold a full driving licence.

Qualifications and Relevant Training – Essential

• Have measurable experience relevant to the job.
• Current professional certification from the IT industry, such as Microsoft, Citrix, A+ or similar.

Qualifications and Relevant Training – Desirable

• Graduate in an IT discipline or similar.

Relevant Experience – Essential

• Is a technical authority / expert in a specific field.
• Experience of supporting, maintaining and administering corporate IT systems.
• Experience of supporting element(s) of MS 365 environment.

Relevant Experience – Desirable

• Experience of supporting some of the main central IT systems used by the Council.
• Experience of developing policies and procedures.

Skills and Specialist Knowledge – Essential

• Be aware of developments in the area of expertise.
• Be able to communicate in a technical and non-technical manner.
• Be able to solve problems logically.
• Sound recording skills, and the ability to document reports to a technical and/or non-technical audience.
• Detailed knowledge of, and ability to administer, configure and maintain: corporate e-mail systems (Exchange); operating systems; Active Directory; SaaS systems.
• Use/create scripts to configure, maintain and administer IT systems.

Skills and Specialist Knowledge – Desirable

• Expertise in support, administration, analysis and maintenance of: Microsoft 365 environment (including Exchange, Teams, SharePoint Online, Purview, ‘Conditional access’); virtual technology (VMware/Hyper-V); backup systems; Microsoft Windows Server (current versions); Exchange (on premise); SMTP; Azure; Entra; secure authentication technology (OAuth, SAML etc.); Active Directory; IIS (current versions).
• Knowledge of SQL management studio usage.
• Knowledge of the ITIL model.
• Control and monitoring systems.
• Information of relevant standards e.g. ISO27001.

Language Needs – Essential

• Listening and Speaking – Intermediate Level: Being able to have a conversational conversation on a number of different topics on a daily basis, and discuss cases relating to the field of work. Able to follow a discussion in Welsh, in clear Welsh, on familiar issues relating to the post. Be able to contribute to the conversation and answer questions.
• Reading and Understanding – Intermediate Level: Understanding everyday correspondence on familiar issues at work. Understand longer reports in clear Welsh and be able to raise the main points. (Help with vocabulary may be needed.)
• Writing – Intermediate Level: Be able to write purpose-driven letters, emails and short reports through the medium of Welsh and English using vocabulary and simple phrases familiar to the field of work. (They will need to be checked before sending them out.)