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NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) works at the very heart of the health service in Scotland, providing a diverse range of services to ensure frontline patient care is delivered effectively. As well as direct services such as blood transfusion and national screening programmes, the Agency provides a wide range of support services such as: collation, interpretation and dissemination of information; payment of primary care practitioners; surveillance of infectious and communicable diseases; national procurement; counter fraud services and provision of expert legal services.
As part of the IT Strategic Business Unit, NSS Infrastructure services has direct responsibility for over 400 servers running over 250 different applications, and for processing over 100 million records per year. The NSS Infrastructure Server team is responsible for maintaining and supporting the existing server estate as well as researching emerging technologies and recommending future direction. They are also involved in a number of major IT projects aimed at optimising the use of IT infrastructure.
The team is split into 3 areas of expertise - Microsoft, Unix, and Oracle Database Admin.
The postholder will work within the Server team as one of 3 Oracle database administrators with responsibility for the support and maintenance of over 50 production and around 100 test and development Oracle databases.
NSS has a number of implementations of Oracle database, from version 11g up to 19c. These are hosted on a variety of physical and virtual platforms, running various flavours of linux and solaris, including an ‘on-premise cloud’ Exadata cluster. Although NSS manages a large Azure subscription, there are currently no Oracle databases deployed in the public cloud.
Candidates should have experience of supporting Oracle databases from version 11.2 onwards.
Job Description:
The postholder will work within the IT Infrastructure Server team with responsibility for Oracle databases and technologies used within NSS
Tasks will include:
- Perform routine administration tasks including installing Oracle software; creating and upgrading Oracle databases; managing users and security; database backup and recovery; monitoring and performance tuning
- Provide technical support to users throughout the NSS. Resolve problems within an agreed timescale by adopting an analytical approach designed to identify the cause of any perceived problem, resolve it and avoid a future recurrence.
- Manage the progression of multiple tasks where unexpected events may necessitate the switch of tasks without warning, e.g. virus attack or systems failure.
- Ensure departmental standard operating procedures (SOPs) and standards are followed.
- Liaise with business users to gather information on technical requirements or issues. Provide technical advice ensuring technical issues are clearly explained and understood.
- Keep up-to-date with new and emerging technologies by undertaking research and development as required.
- Liaise closely with colleagues within the IT department and with third party suppliers to make the best use of available resources and optimise service delivery ensuring two-way communication and understanding of technical issues. The SBU works within an ITIL service management framework.
Skills and Experience:
- The IM & T Technical Specialist should be educated to degree level or equivalent. The post holder should have an appreciation of the business requirements of the NSS and combine this knowledge with finely tuned customer relation skills.
Our benefits package includes pension scheme, comprehensive range of work life balance policies, occupational health services, learning resource centres and discounted leisure, financial and shopping benefits.
For an informal discussion on the post, please contact Paul McKinlay on Paul.McKinlay@nhs.scot
Further information on NSS is available from: https://www.nss.nhs.scot/
Closing date for completed applications is the 13th April 2022
Please note that the majority of correspondence is sent by e-mail only, so please check your e-mail regularly (including junk folders).
NHS National Services Scotland is an equal opportunities employer and as committed participant in the disability confident scheme, guarantees to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for our vacancies