Principal application operations engineer

Band 8b · Application operations engineer · 600 job evaluation points

UK GDaD PCF level: Principal application operations engineer

Most often performed at Civil Service grade G6.

A principal application operations engineer owns the application strategy and leads on resourcing, learning and development for their team.
At this role level, you will:
have expert technical understanding
be accountable for vendor and supplier management
potentially manage and maintain certain aspects of an application (depending on the complexity and size of a project, and the likely impact it will have on the business)

Contains public sector information from the UK Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework (https://understand-digital-data-roles-skills.service.gov.uk/), licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. © Crown copyright.

Responsibilities

Own the application operations strategy across the organisation's clinical and corporate applications.
Manage strategic suppliers of clinical applications, including service levels, contract performance, and supplier changes.
Advise senior leaders on application risks, such as unsupported software, single points of failure, and resilience against ransomware.
Make sure the organisation can keep caring for patients safely during prolonged application downtime.
Lead resourcing, learning, and development for application operations teams.

Skills

Skill	Expected level	What this level means
Asset and configuration managementUK GDaD PCF	Practitioner (3)	You can: manage configuration items and related information manage service compliance and risk
Availability and capacity managementUK GDaD PCF	Practitioner (3)	You can: ensure the correct implementation of availability and capacity management standards and procedures identify capacity issues and implement the required changes initiate remedial action
Change managementUK GDaD PCF	Practitioner (3)	You can: manage high impact, complex change requests ensure that release policies, procedures and processes are applied
Continual service improvementUK GDaD PCF	Practitioner (3)	You can: analyse current processes, and identify and implement opportunities to optimise them lead and develop a team of experts to deliver service improvements help to evaluate and establish requirements for the implementation of changes by setting policy and standards
Incident managementUK GDaD PCF	Practitioner (3)	You can: lead the investigation and resolution of incidents
Ownership and initiativeUK GDaD PCF	Practitioner (3)	You can: take accountability for issues that occur and be proactive in searching for potential problems achieve excellent user outcomes
Problem managementUK GDaD PCF	Practitioner (3)	You can: ensure that the right actions are taken to investigate, resolve and anticipate problems co-ordinate the team to investigate problems, implement solutions and take preventive measures
Service focusUK GDaD PCF	Practitioner (3)	You can: see the bigger picture by taking groups of services and investigating how to get the best of underlying services
Service management framework knowledgeUK GDaD PCF	Practitioner (3)	You can: show you have an expert certificate in the service management framework qualification
Technical specialismUK GDaD PCF	Expert (4)	You can: understand the direction of future technologies deliver a model to support and maintain those future technologies and any databases that coexist in the current environment
Technical understandingUK GDaD PCF	Practitioner (3)	You can: show a thorough understanding of the technical concepts required for the role, and can explain how these fit into the wider technical landscape
TestingUK GDaD PCF	Expert (4)	You can: manage testing activities within development or integration activities manage risks and take preventative action when risks become unacceptable manage customer relations
User focusUK GDaD PCF	Practitioner (3)	You can: collaborate with user researchers and can represent users internally explain the difference between user needs and the desires of the user champion user research to focus on all users prioritise and define approaches to understand the user story, guiding others in doing so offer recommendations on the best tools and methods to use
Understanding health and care servicesThis reference	Practitioner (3)	You can: analyse how a service fits into care pathways across organisations work with clinicians, care staff, and patients to shape digital services explain the effect of digital decisions on care, safety, and staff workload
Information governance and data protectionThis reference	Practitioner (3)	You can: lead data protection impact assessments and information sharing agreements advise teams on lawful basis, consent, confidentiality, and retention investigate incidents and recommend improvements
Identity and access managementThis reference	Practitioner (3)	You can: design and run identity and access services review access regularly and fix problems
Clinical risk managementThis reference	Practitioner (3)	You can: lead hazard identification and risk assessment for a product or change write and maintain hazard logs and clinical safety case reports agree risk controls with product teams and check that they work advise teams on applying clinical risk management standards
Health data interoperabilityThis reference	Working (2)	You can: read and use FHIR resources, profiles, and APIs build or test simple integrations under guidance check messages against a specification
Medical device software regulationThis reference	Working (2)	You can: follow a software life cycle process that meets medical device standards produce the records that such a process requires
Organisational risk managementThis reference	Practitioner (3)	You can: run the risk process for a directorate or programme assess risks against the risk appetite and escalate them report on risks to committees
People managementThis reference	Practitioner (3)	You can: line manage a team, setting objectives and running appraisals support wellbeing and manage attendance, performance, and conduct plan the team's development and succession
Budget managementThis reference	Working (2)	You can: track spending against a small budget and raise variances authorise spending within your limit

Typical qualifications and experience

Extensive experience of leading application operations for a large organisation.

Band 8b outline

Knowledge: Expert knowledge across several disciplines or a large service.
Autonomy: Shapes policy and strategy for a large area.
Scope: Several services or teams, or a principal-level discipline.
Leadership: Manages managers, or is the principal authority in a discipline.
Accountability: Several services, their staff, and their budgets.

Job evaluation (illustrative)

Factor	Level	Level summary	Points
Communication and relationship skills	5	Gives highly complex or contentious information needing developed persuasion and negotiation, presents to large groups, or communicates where there are significant barriers to acceptance.	45
Knowledge, training, and experience	7	Highly developed specialist knowledge across the range of the specialism (master's level or equivalent).	196
Analytical and judgemental skills	5	Judgements on highly complex facts or situations needing analysis, interpretation, and comparison of options.	60
Planning and organisational skills	5	Forms long-term strategic plans, with uncertainty and effects across the organisation.	60
Physical skills	2	Skills gained through practice, such as standard keyboard use or driving.	15
Responsibility for patient and client care	1	Helps patients, clients, or relatives during incidental contact.	4
Responsibility for policy and service development	4	Implements policy and develops policy or services for a service or several areas.	32
Responsibility for financial and physical resources	4	Holds or sets the budget for a department or service, or buys or maintains its assets.	32
Responsibility for people	4	Line manages a function or department, designs training programmes as a main duty, or delivers a full range of HR services.	32
Responsibility for information resources	5	Designs and develops major information systems, or runs information systems for several services as the main duty.	34
Responsibility for research and development	2	Regularly does research, development, trials, or equipment and system testing as part of the job.	12
Freedom to act	5	Works within general policies, and in most cases decides how to interpret them.	45
Physical effort	1	Sitting, standing, and walking, with little physical effort.	3
Mental effort	4	Frequent prolonged concentration, or occasional intense concentration.	18
Emotional effort	1	Rare exposure, or occasional indirect exposure, to distressing circumstances.	5
Working conditions	2	Occasional unpleasant conditions, frequent travel or outdoor work, or near-continuous screen use on most days.	7
Total (Band 8b: 585 to 629)			600

The UK GDaD PCF suggests Band 8c for this level (G6). This reference places it at Band 8b, in line with principal roles in other technical families, because its scope is one technical area rather than a directorate.