Application Support Specialist

Back Lane, Royston, Melbourn SG8 6DP, GB

Full-time

About us

We believe in the power of ingenuity to build a positive human future in a technology-driven world.

As strategies, technologies and innovation collide, we create opportunity from complexity.

Our diverse teams of experts combine innovative thinking and breakthrough use of technologies to progress further, faster. Our clients adapt and transform, and together we achieve enduring results.

An innovation and transformation consultancy, we are 3,300 specialists in consumer and manufacturing, defence and security, energy and utilities, financial services, government and public services, health and life sciences, and transport. Our people are strategists, innovators, designers, consultants, digital experts, scientists, engineers and technologists. We operate globally from offices across the UK, US, Netherlands and Nordics.

Our hybrid way of working is designed to help you plan your work and your life. We want decisions about ‘where to work’ to be governed by ‘the work we need to do’ – whether that’s at client sites, offices/labs/studios, or remotely from home.

We have five principles which will help us balance both creating a high-performance culture that delivers for our clients and the firm, and being understanding and inclusive to individuals, and the teams in which we all work. Our principles are: we put your safety first; we trust PA people; we respect difference; we are responsive to clients and we are responsive to individuals and teams.

PA. Bringing Ingenuity to Life.

Become part of the Application Support Team

Join us and be part of our Technology and Operations team to support our core applications across PA. We support the major business processes that deal with the firm's people, finances, sales, project management, knowledge, business intelligence and communications.

Based in our Melbourn office near Cambridge, our team has a flexible hybrid approach to working. PA’s technology is based on evergreen platforms, including SharePoint Online, O365, Dynamics 365, Power Platforms and Azure Data Factories. We strive to review and improve how to get the best out of these technologies. This will ensure that this role stays current and in demand!

We manage the IT application services to deliver a consistently excellent customer experience whilst also ensuring they meet our high bar of policy and compliance requirements. We continually review how the system design, processes and data can be optimised to improve service. Where possible and appropriate, our ambition is to move problem resolution and other activities as close as possible to the end user.

The Application Support Specialist role focuses on maintenance, support and delivery across a wide range of applications, providing resolution to support calls logged with our service desk. This is a customer-facing role requiring excellent verbal and written communication skills with the ability to speak to users of varying technical levels. We are looking for an enthusiasm to learn technologies with the ability to grasp an understanding of the business need, along with problem-solving skills and the ability to analyse existing solutions to understand and resolve live issues. There will be the opportunity to liaise with external service providers and build vendor relationships to help support some of our critical applications.

Working alongside business analysts, project managers, developers and testers you will be a key member of the team adhering to the change management process. Sharing knowledge and understanding through documentation and working with the team to ensure your solutions are widely understood and supportable.

Access will be provided to our training platforms so team members can enhance and develop their skills as they progress.

Whilst a recognised IT qualification would be preferred, we will consider any applicant where equivalent knowledge and expertise have been obtained via experience of ideally 2+ years in an IT/application support role.

Required Qualities and Experience:

• An enthusiasm for the following: Problem Solving, Business & Technological Change, Process Management
• An open-minded approach with an understanding and knowledge of the software project lifecycle
• The ability to follow formal methodologies and processes with the ability to prioritise, work to deadlines and have attention to detail
• A high level of understanding and experience in any of the following software
  • MS SharePoint Online and/or MS Dynamics 365 Sales
  • Power Automate, Excel
• Experience in Power Apps or other Power Platform suites is desirable but not essential

Benefits

• Private medical insurance
• 25 days annual leave with the opportunity to buy 5 additional days
• Company pension scheme
• Annual performance-based bonus
• Life and Income protection insurance
• Tax efficient benefits (cycle to work, give as you earn)
• Additional optional benefits (dental, critical illness, spouse/partner life assurance)

Diversity

Our approach to Inclusion and Diversity is a key enabler to our purpose - ‘Bringing Ingenuity to Life’. At PA, we are committed to creating a supportive culture where our people can thrive. To bring ingenuity to life for our clients we need people with different perspectives who think innovatively. We are on a journey to create an ever more inclusive place to work, where we all feel supported and can be ourselves.

We want our people to experience a working environment that promotes dignity, equality and respect for all. In terms of recruitment, we believe diversity makes us a stronger firm and we look to employ people with different ideas, styles and skillsets. This diversity stimulates a rich, creative environment – one in which our people develop, and our clients enjoy enduring results. We’re committed to recruiting, promoting and rewarding our people solely based on their ability to contribute to PA’s goals, without regard to their sex, race, disability, religion, national origin, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age or marital status.

* Please note you must already have the unconditional right to live and work in the UK. We welcome international applications, but we are unable to offer sponsorship for work permits, so you will need to have the full right to live and work in the UK. Unfortunately, your application will be automatically rejected if you do not have these rights.