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Senior Systems Specialist

Job description

Senior Systems Specialist – Outside IR35 Contract £400 - £500 per day

All potential candidates should read through the following details of this job with care before making an application.

Our client is all about learning and striving within education and wants to be at the forefront of digital learning and digital books whilst also offering professionals online courses globally.

JOB PURPOSE

To manage use and development of systems involved in marking and results determination exam processes; and to contribute to the culture of the team.

PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTABILITIES

  • Providing input to large-scale technology build and business change projects as a subject matter expert on user experience, operational process, and data engineering. This includes:
  • Using SQL to explore databases and systems to understand their role in current marking and results determination processes.
  • Reviewing systems architecture and dataflow diagrams to identify issues, highlight risks and understand implications for operational processes.
  • Evaluating third-party systems involved in marking and results determination to establish their suitability.
  • Supporting the integration of third-party systems by coordinating software engineering, testing and business change activities.
  • Analysing proposed operational models to understand the impact on technical systems.
  • Communicating with technology teams to explain the purpose of assessment processes and ensuring that systems are compatible with these aims.
  • Making recommendations to business analysts and architects about the design of relevant systems.
  • Monitoring the design and development of systems to ensure they function as intended.
  • Contributing to roadmaps of marking and results determination capabilities by owning areas dependent on operational IT systems.
  • Exploring system developments with potential to improve processes. Conducting cost-benefit analyses to establish feasibility, and where suitable, planning and initiating projects to deliver benefits.
  • Ensuring that teams across the business have a high degree of understanding of the systems, APIs

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & EXPERIENCE

 

Qualifications

A degree in a technical field (e.g., computer science; engineering; statistics; mathematics), or equivalent knowledge gained through industry experience

Skills

  • Extensive knowledge of the principals and processes of software and process engineering (specification, design, implementation, testing, etc.)
  • A knowledge of database design and the ability to code in SQL; the ability or potential to code in SAS and Python is a plus.
  • Adept at uncovering root needs and issues       
  • Ability to communicate effectively and to work as part of an interdisciplinary team including co-design and delegation of work.
  • The ability to prioritise and time-manage tasks and larger scale projects.
  • Highly numerate, with the potential to develop conceptual understanding of statistical approaches used in marking and results determination (e.g. item response theory, test equating, many-facet rasch analysis)

Experience

  • Working extensively (depth and breadth) with core systems with complex databases and dataflows, ideally those involved in exams processing (e.g., item banks; on-screen marking platforms; results determination engines; virtual learning environments). Integrating bespoke data processing steps into processes managed by core systems.
  • Reviewing systems architecture, dataflow diagrams and API specifications to identify issues, highlight risks and understand implications for operational processes.
  • Evaluating third-party systems to establish their suitability for integration with core systems and operational processes.
  • Acting as a subject matter expert in large-scale technology build and business change projects.
  • Preparing functional requirements, including taking the user experience of colleagues into consideration.
  • Writing test cases for user acceptance testing and managing a testing programme.
  • Applying agile principles and working practices to projects.
  • Working with highly qualified researchers and technical experts.

For more information, please apply or contact me at maroof@socode.co.uk