Lead Solutions Specialist (Housing) - Colchester City Council in Basildon

Colchester City Council is committed to delivering high-quality and accessible services to residents, visitors and businesses. They are a local government authority providing a diverse range of public and commercial services across Colchester, the second largest district in Essex.

The Council are seeking a Lead Solutions Specialist (Housing) who will be responsible for co-ordinating and developing our digital work programme in relation to Housing Software Solutions. This role will be dedicated to leading a team of technical and support specialists delivering systems support to users and third-party contractors, and systems development in line with Project Management and Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) principles. You will also contribute to activities in relation to readiness for Local Government Reform.

Duties of the role

• As an essential member of the Digital Team you will be a first point of contact for operational delivery of the Service Catalogue for Colchester Borough Homes.
• The role will require you to manage and monitor team and individual performance on Helpdesk Tickets in relation to software application support requests and incidents and develop a knowledge base for users.
• You will assist with the prioritisation, scoping and options assessments for the programme of software development projects.
• You will ensure delivery of the projects in terms of resource allocation and timelines, consultancy with software suppliers, regular update reporting to stakeholders, and proactive support to the team with managing risks, issues and compliance.
• You will be required to monitor and manage licences and software renewals, and support procurement and budget setting activities.

Qualifications and skills required

• Be educated to degree level or equivalent, have experience in Housing software application maintenance and development, ideally NEC Housing.
• Be experienced in managing the delivery of Service Desk Tickets and Software Development & Data Projects, against Service Level Agreement/Service Catalogues.
• Have excellent communication, influencing and negotiation skills.
• Be able to assess business requirements and produce options assessments that are focussed on customer self‑serve, automation and efficiency, removing bespoke solutions and silo processing.
• Ideally have a knowledge/experience of housing rent and service charges, social housing and Arm's Length Management Organisations.
• Be able to keep us compliant with licencing, procurement, security, audit and data protection requirements.

What we offer

• The Council encourages all employees to maximise their potential.
• You will be entitled to join an attractive pension scheme and will receive a generous annual leave entitlement, including two extra company holidays during the Christmas period.
• Other benefits include flexible working, gym, travel and online retail discount, and excellent training, development and progression opportunities.

Colchester City Council has a wide range of services and facilities that can involve dealing with children or vulnerable adults. We treat our obligations for the safety of children and vulnerable adults seriously and expect our staff to be committed to the principles of our published policies and to adhere to the procedures contained within them.