Senior Automation Developer

Job Purpose

As a Senior Automation Developer in the Automation Service, you will play a pivotal role in designing, developing, and implementing automated solutions to reduce manual, repetitive tasks across the University. You will work closely with teams to lead colleagues through the development lifecycle of an automation solution to ensure solutions meet business requirements and are implemented to a high standard. You will collaborate with the wider Automation Service Team and other central functions to deliver innovative solutions and manage the transition to launch and ongoing support.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

Stakeholder Engagement & Collaboration

• Collaborate with stakeholders to identify automation opportunities and understand business requirements.

• Translate business requirements into innovative, robust and secure automation solutions to reduce manual effort for business teams.

• Line management of staff within the Automation Service either directly or through matrix management and leading team skills and development, mentoring new team members on best practices and development techniques

• Communication with vendors on software related issues; suggests improvements and collaborates with other users in the RPA community.

Design & Development

• Design and develop Automation solutions using industry-leading tools such as UiPath (preferred), Blue Prism, Automation Anywhere, Microsoft Power Platform.

• Build, test, and deploy automation workflows to automate repetitive tasks and processes.

• Provide technical expertise and support to ensure the successful implementation and maintenance of RPA solutions.

• Complete Process Design Documentation to a high standard to accurately document a developed process.

Quality & Standards

• Responsible for implementation and adhering to best practice and University standards for all work including: the automation development lifecycle, configuration and testing, security controls, data protection and data integrity.

• Responsible for the structure and development of peer review of solution designs.

• Responsible for ensuring quality and security measures are in place.

• Co-lead the change control process.

• Supports investigation and remediation of production level issues, production deployment processes and performance testing.

• Support the creation and implementation of Automations standards and frameworks in the automation team.

• Support the handover of completed automations through hyper care support and into live, successfully embedding the automation with the business teams.

• Identify, managing and mitigating development and solution risks.

Knowledge, Qualifications, Skills and Experience

Knowledge and Qualifications

Essential:

A1 Either: Ability to demonstrate the competencies required to undertake the duties associated with this level of post having acquired the necessary professional knowledge and management skills in a similar or number of different specialist roles. Or: Scottish Credit and Qualification Framework level 9,10 or 11 (Ordinary/Honours Degree, Post Graduate Qualification), or equivalent, including being professionally qualified in relevant discipline, with a broad range of professional experience in a management role(s).

A2 Knowledge of deploying automation technologies to design business solutions and process improvements, and of monitoring and developing automation technologies.

A3 Expert understanding of current and emerging automation technologies and how these can be used to solve business problems.

A4 The ability to lead and quickly understand and digest business process to conceptualise as an automated solution.

Desirable:

B1 UiPath Certified Professional Automation Developer Professional status or similar.

B2 Knowledge of using UiPath Robotic Enterprise Framework (REFramework) to implement best practice in logging, exception handling and application initialisation.

Skills

Essential:

C1 Effective communication and presentation skills to interact with the wider Automation Service, business teams and central functions.

C2 Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to establish effective working relationships.

C3 Ability to test and debug automation scripts, using both automated and manual methods, to ensure they work as intended.

C4 Ability to lead and design UAT.

C4 Strong analytical and problem-solving skills to identify automation opportunities and design effective solutions.

C5 Ability to plan tasks and workload using an Agile approach to deliver an automation implementation within agreed timescales.

C6 Able to explain technical concepts and analyses clearly supporting the team to translate business objectives into actionable solutions.

C7 Demonstrable experience of identifying and communicating technical infrastructure requirements.

Experience

Essential:

E1 Experience working as an automation developer.

E2 Significant experience of working with automation technology to deliver complex automations.

E3 Practical experience of managing the automation lifecycle complying to the best practice standards.

E4 Experience deploying Automation solutions using a variety of tools including:

o    RPA tools (UiPath, Blue Prism or similar)

o    SQL to manipulate data tables

o    Using and integrating solutions using an Application Programming Interface (API)

o    MS Azure

E5 Experience of deploying solutions using DevOps methodology.

E6 Experience in using version control systems and CI/CD pipelines (e.g., Azure DevOps, Git) to manage code versions and changes.

E7 Experience of working in fast-paced, project-oriented work environment.

Desirable

F1 Experience of a Higher Education environment.

F2 Experience of developing solutions using Microsoft Power Apps and Microsoft Power Automate.

Terms and Conditions

Salary will be Grade 8, £48,350 - £56,021 per annum.

This post is full time (35 hours p/w) and open ended.

Relocation assistance will be provided where appropriate.

As part of Team UofG you will be a member of a world changing, inclusive community, which values ambition, excellence, integrity and curiosity.

As a valued member of our team, you can expect:

1 A warm welcoming and engaging organisational culture, where your talents are developed and nurtured, and success is celebrated and shared.

2 An excellent employment package with generous terms and conditions including 41 days of leave for full time staff, pension - pensions handbook https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/payandpensions/pensions/, benefits and discount packages.

3 A flexible approach to working.

4 A commitment to support your health and wellbeing, including a free 6-month UofG Sport membership for all new staff joining the University  https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/staff/healthwellbeing/.

We believe that we can only reach our full potential through the talents of all. Equality, diversity and inclusion are at the heart of our values. Applications are particularly welcome from across our communities and in particular people from the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) community, and other protected characteristics who are under-represented within the University. Read more on how the University promotes and embeds all aspects of equality and diversity within our community https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/humanresources/equalitydiversity/.

We endorse the principles of Athena Swan https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/humanresources/equalitydiversity/athenaswan/ and hold bronze, silver and gold awards across the University.

We are investing in our organisation, and we will invest in you too. Please visit our website https://www.gla.ac.uk/explore/jobs/ for more information.