{"id":1999826,"url":"https://alion.io/job/ncl-senior-technical-application-support-lead","title":"Senior Technical Application Support Lead","company":{"id":20390,"name":"NCL","domain":"ncl.ac.uk","url":"https://alion.io/company/ncl","size_band":"501-1000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"SuccessFactors","truth_index":null},"role":"Support","role_family":"Support","seniority":"lead","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Newcastle, United Kingdom"],"countries":["GB"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":48337,"max":51258,"currency":"GBP","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":68003},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Azure","optional":false},{"name":"Incident Management","optional":false},{"name":"ITIL","optional":false},{"name":"Linux","optional":false},{"name":"MariaDB","optional":false},{"name":"MySQL","optional":false},{"name":"SQL","optional":false},{"name":"Unix","optional":false},{"name":"Windows","optional":false},{"name":"Windows Server","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-22T00:00:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-09-22","last_verified_at":"2026-10-18T01:04:35Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":26,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":26},"description":"Salary: £48,337 to £51,258 with progression to £57,666 per annum\nNewcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits. We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.\nClosing Date: 18 October 2026\nThe Role\nAs a senior technical leader in the Application Support Team, you will be the primary technical authority and a proactive driver of service excellence across our diverse application landscape. You will take end to end ownership of multi-platform systems, actively pinpointing areas for continuous improvement and setting technical standards. In addition to delivering resilient services and advising University stakeholders, you will lead new application hosting and mentor team members to build capability across the service.\nThe Application Support Team consists of 10 people with a broad set of skills, with diverse interests, and experiences. We support roughly 60 services, made up of about 80 applications across Windows, Linux, Azure and SaaS platforms. Our support ranges from building management systems to core teaching and learning services.\nTo succeed in this role, you should have experience in the following areas:\nMulti-Platform & Cloud Troubleshooting: Expert level root cause analysis and diagnosis across Windows Server, Linux (RHEL and other distributions), Azure, and SaaS environments hosting mission critical services\nDatabase Administration & Data Integrity: Advanced, hands-on database management skills across SQL Server, MySQL, and MariaDB, including query optimization, maintenance, data integrity, and disaster recovery\nITIL Frameworks & Service Governance: Strong discipline and complete comfort working within structured ITIL processes. Highly proactive with change management, problem management, incident escalation, and diligent ticket documentation\nMajor Incident & Technical Leadership: Proven ability to oversee high-priority incidents from a technical standpoint, coordinating resolver groups and guiding subject matter experts, with the hands-on capability to step in directly whenever necessary\nApplication Onboarding & Lifecycle Management: Extensive experience taking complex corporate applications from requirements and hosting architecture through to live production, support standards, and staff training\nAdaptive Mentoring & Team Development: Ability to tailor your coaching and leadership style to individual team members, instilling technical confidence, encouraging knowledge sharing, and building team capability\nHigh Capacity & Stakeholder Advisory: Strong ability to absorb vast amounts of system knowledge quickly, balance multiple operational priorities simultaneously, and communicate complex technical concepts clearly to non-technical stakeholders\nAbout you\n\nYou are a versatile, highly proactive problem solver with the presence to inspire confidence across the organization and the capacity to rapidly master a large, diverse application estate. You thrive in a demanding environment where you manage multiple complex priorities at once, rather than coasting on routine tasks. Colleagues look up to you as a trusted advisor for both long term technical discussions and high-stakes problem resolution. You bring high standards, an adaptable approach to mentoring different personalities, and total comfort operating within structured ITIL frameworks\nBenefits & Environment\n\nThe University is an exciting and dynamic place to work, dedicated to world-leading education and research. Benefits include excellent pension; flexible working options; 42 days holiday (including public holidays); discounted travel for the Metro and local bus services; and discounts for national retailers. You can find out more on our benefits web page.\nWe are committed to building and maintaining a fair and inclusive working environment and we would be happy to discuss arrangements for flexible working. The University and the Application Support team have adopted a blended working policy. While we offer flexibility, there is an expectation to be on site when required by the role, team, or department.\nHow to Apply\nInformal enquiries may be made to Ian Smith, Application Support Manager, at .\nThe post is full time, permanent.\nTo apply please upload your CV along with cover letter evidencing how your skills and experience align to the person criteria as outlined within person specification of the job description.\n** Strictly No Agencies **\n\nKey Accountabilities\nDesign, Integrate, administrate, and manage enterprise level, cloud, SaaS, hybrid and server-based applications on Windows/UNIX/UNIX like operating systems\nDesign, administrate and manage application databases to ensure continued integrity of the data and efficiency of the related systems\nDesign and development of new applications and of new functionality to enhance and augment existing applications using a mixture of development tools and methodologies\nLead business analysis and consultation phase prior to any tendering process or product purchase\nGather requirements from stakeholders and design, implement and maintain IT solutions to meet those requirements. Ensure all systems are resilient and highly available. Perform regular disaster recovery testing of critical systems and report to University audit committee\nEnsure working knowledge of all systems and services provided by the application support team is maintained to perform incident management, root cause analysis of problems, and continual service improvement\nMaintain awareness of current cyber security threats and implement technologies to strengthen the University’s cyber security posture\nAct as a senior application support SME and use this knowledge to deliver excellence in operational support, project and change delivery and help in defining the future strategy and assist the team manager in delivering the overall service\nAct as a deputy to the team manager if so required and take responsibility for management of tasks and activities allocated to them by their manager\nAct as a coach and mentor to other members of the team, share their knowledge and help to build up the capability of the team overall\nEngage with stakeholders across NUIT and the University to build and maintain good working relationships and ensure there is a clear understanding of university requirements within the team\nAct as a trusted advisor, building robust and collaborative relationships with other IT and University leaders to develop a clear understanding of business needs\nLead on any project or change related activity as part of wider NUIT or NU project teams\nBe responsible for developing best-practise policies, standards, procedures and guidelines, guided by NUIT standards and other stakeholders\nAny other reasonable duties that fall within the scope of the post, as allocated by the line manager\nThe Person\nKnowledge, Skills and Experience\nExtensive Technical background in our core technologies including physical, virtualised, SaaS and hybrid application delivery, Windows, UNIX/UNIX like, Azure cloud services, SQL database management, Windows and UNIX/UNIX like user administration\nExperience of supporting and delivering application support in a similar sized, complex and geographically diverse organisation\nExperience of working with third party vendors and delivering an effective Platforms & Services service using their services\nInterest in identifying and implementing new and innovative technologies to support customer needs, drive up quality and improve value\nExperience of working with multiple support and resolver groups across a wide variety of technologies\nAble to demonstrate focus on customer needs\nExperience of working with Information Security teams and other governance groups to ensure that University assets are protected from internal and external attacks. A working knowledge of Cybersecurity processes and practices is essential\nAttributes and Behaviour\nTeam Working\nBuilds both formal and informal professional networks, and extends these networks within, across and external to organizational boundaries\nEncourages and facilitates collaboration, cooperation and results\nInspires, motivates and guides more junior team members\nEmbracing Change\nSupports organizational change agents to improve maturity and practices, in support of University goals and strategy\nMobilizes others within and outside of their team to support and enable change efforts\nFinding Solutions\nSupports Analyses situations quickly and effectively to determine the best way to deliver the required result\nKeeps their technical knowledge up to date and has a wider understanding of the technology landscape inside and outside their area\nDelivering Services\nSets and accomplishes challenging goals\nDefines standards in terms of doing what is appropriate and doing it well\nLeads by example in delivering high quality outcomes that they take responsibility for\nQualifications\nA bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience\nA relevant technical qualification or equivalent technical experience\nNewcastle University is a global University where everyone is treated with dignity and respect. As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution.\nWe are committed to being a fully inclusive university which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society. We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all of our employees and the communities they represent. We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams, we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and experiences reflect the diversity of our university and student population.\nAt Newcastle University we hold a GoldAthena Swan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality. We also hold a Race Equality Charter Bronze award in recognition of our work towards tackling race inequality in higher education REC. We are a Disability Confident employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role as part of the offer and interview scheme.\nIn addition, we are a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe.\nRequisition ID: 29750\n\n#LI-SS1","description_format":"text","description_chars":10514,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Flexible schedule"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Design & Creative","Education","Higher Education","Information Security"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-07T10:41:41Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":27,"band":"fade","label":"Fading","p_open":1,"p_active":0.607,"p_room":0.45,"age_days":25,"expected_fill_days":16,"reasons":["conf:28","win:tail"],"computed_at":"2026-10-17T05:46:00Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":68003,"is_top_pay":false},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/ncl-senior-technical-application-support-lead","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/ncl-senior-technical-application-support-lead.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-18T03:48:34Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":5965,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-19T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":20390},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=20390"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fncl-senior-technical-application-support-lead"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fncl-senior-technical-application-support-lead"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fncl-senior-technical-application-support-lead"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/ncl-senior-technical-application-support-lead\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fncl-senior-technical-application-support-lead"}]}