Application Support Analyst, Audit Technology Services

Main purpose of the job: The National Audit Office (NAO) has made a strategic investment in audit technology and automation to enhance audit quality, efficiency, and value for money. This role provides application support for business-critical audit systems, helping to keep services reliable, secure and effective for auditors. The postholder will support day-to-day operations, controlled system change and service improvement. The role helps ensure audit technology supports audit delivery while meeting NAO security, privacy and governance requirements. As an Application Support Analyst, you will support specialist audit applications used by around 700 financial audit users. These are core business systems, not standard helpdesk tools, and the role is focused on maintaining reliable, secure services, supporting controlled change and improving how the applications are supported and used. You will work with NAO colleagues and third-party suppliers to resolve issues, support releases and upgrades, maintain clear documentation and identify improvements from service data, user feedback and recurring incidents.,

• Provide high-quality application support for users, taking ownership of incidents and service requests through to resolution or escalation.
• Investigate application issues, identify recurring problems, support root-cause analysis and agree fixes or workarounds with technical teams or suppliers.
• Complete business-as-usual administration, including joiner, mover and leaver activity, access changes and periodic access reviews, ensuring least-privilege access and clear audit evidence.
• Monitor application availability, performance, capacity, data quality and service trends, using insight to identify risks and recommend improvements.
• Support incident, problem, change, release and knowledge management processes, including controlled configuration changes, maintenance and updates.
• Plan and complete functional, regression and user acceptance testing for releases, patches and infrastructure changes, including test scripts, evidence, defect management and post-release checks.
• Coordinate supplier support tickets, provide clear evidence, monitor service performance and escalate recurring issues or risks as needed.
• Create and maintain support procedures, knowledge articles, user guidance, training materials, service reporting and other documentation to support consistent team delivery.
• Support the development and delivery of user training or knowledge-sharing activities where this helps improve application use, reduce repeat queries and support effective adoption of changes.
• Support projects and the transition of new or changed services into business-as-usual operation, ensuring support, monitoring, documentation, access, resilience and supplier arrangements are ready.
• Participate in extended-hours support during peak periods and occasional out-of-hours work for upgrades, maintenance or priority issues., We support Parliament in holding government to account and we help improve public services through our high-quality audits.
We are independent of government and the civil service. The Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG), Gareth Davies, leads the NAO. He is an officer of the House of Commons with statutory authority to:
• audit and report on the financial accounts of all government departments and other public bodies
• examine and report on the value for money of how public money has been spent.
The Public Accounts Commission (TPAC), a parliamentary committee of MPs, oversees our work. Read more about the governance of the NAO. We have an ambitious five-year strategy from 2020 to 2025. Its aim is to improve our support to Parliament in examining public sector performance, provide more practical recommendations that lead to better outcomes, and share more of our independent insight. Read more about our recent impacts in our Annual Report and Accounts 2022-23. Company info


• Experience supporting business-critical applications or digital services, including incident triage, service requests, escalation and resolution.
• Good understanding of application support and IT service management, including incident, problem, change, release, deployment and knowledge management.
• Ability to diagnose application issues, identify recurring problems and work with technical teams or suppliers to agree fixes or workarounds.
• Experience supporting releases, upgrades or patches, including testing, evidence recording and defect management.
• Experience creating or supporting user guidance, training materials or knowledge-sharing content to help users understand application changes and common support processes.
• Ability to use service data, ticket trends, user feedback and reporting tools to monitor performance, identify risks and support continuous improvement.
• Good data and analysis skills, including intermediate Excel skills and the ability to present information clearly for operational reporting and decision-making.
• Awareness of access management, information security and data protection, including least-privilege access and clear audit evidence.
• Familiarity with ITIL principles or equivalent service management practices
Desirable skills
• Understanding of Dynamics 365, Microsoft Power Platform and Dataverse would be an advantage, particularly where these support configuration, application administration, data management, workflow automation, integration and service support.
• Familiarity with SharePoint, Azure DevOps and SQL.
• Awareness of Application Insights and experience of setting up or using performance monitoring would be an advantage, particularly to support service reliability, issue investigation and continuous improvement.
• Interest in emerging technologies, including automation and AI, and how these may potentially support audit technology services in the future.
Abilities
• Delivers high-quality customer service and a positive user experience.
• Communicates clearly and effectively with users and stakeholders.
• Able to work at pace, prioritise effectively, and manage multiple issues or tasks.
• Works confidently with third-party suppliers, escalating issues appropriately.
• Collaborates effectively with colleagues across different teams and seniority levels.
• Applies logical, solutions-focused thinking to resolve problems.
  
  The National Audit Office (NAO) is the UK's independent public spending watchdog.
  
  During the peak financial audit period (May, June and July), the postholder will be required to participate in an extended hours support rota. Shifts may fall between 8:00am and 7:00pm Monday to Friday, and between 10:00am and 4:00pm on Saturdays and Sundays, allocated fairly across the team via a planned rota.
In addition, the postholder may occasionally be required to work out of hours to support system upgrades, planned maintenance or priority issues where service continuity is essential. Where you are required to work extended or out of hours shifts, you will receive overtime payments in line with NAO policy. To apply candidates should provide: -An up-to-date CV -A covering letter of no more than 2 pages clearly demonstrating how you meet the essential criteria and providing relevant examples from your experience The closing date for applications is 23:59 on Monday 28th September Please note that we reserve the right to close this vacancy early if a high volume of applications is received. Selection process Shortlisted candidates will be invited to attend an initial Teams interview during WC 12th of October, followed by panel interview during WC 19th October or 26 October. Nationality Requirements: -UK nationals -nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK -nationals from the EU, EEA or Switzerland with (or eligible for) status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)