Job vacancy: Senior Technical Application Support Officer, The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, 317 Trustwide

Job summary

Main area: 317 IT - Application Support
Grade: Band 5
Contract: Permanent
Hours: Full time - 37.5 hours per week
Job ref: 317-2025-35-04-DR

Employer: The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Employer type: NHS
Site: Trustwide
Town: 317 Trustwide
Salary: £31,049 - £37,796 per annum
Salary period: Yearly
Closing: 07/09/2025 23:59
Interview date: 18/09/2025

Senior Technical Application Support Officer

Band 5

Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one of the busiest and largest NHS foundation trusts in the country, with around 15,000 staff and an annual budget of £1.6 billion.

We have a long history of providing high quality care, clinical excellence, and innovation in medical research regionally, nationally and internationally.

We’re in the top five providers of specialised health services in the country, supporting people with a range of rare and complex medical, surgical and neurological conditions, cancers and genetic orders.

Our staff oversee around 6,500 patient contacts each day, delivering high standards of healthcare.

We are committed to promoting equality and diversity and recognise the benefit in providing an inclusive environment. We value and respect the diversity of our employees and aim to recruit a workforce which reflects the communities we serve, and is equipped to deliver the best service to our patients. We welcome all applications irrespective of people’s race, disability, sex, sexual orientation, religion or belief, age, gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity and in particular those from under- represented groups.

Newcastle Hospitals are proud to be one of the exemplar organisations across the NHS on sustainability, with a long history of delivering Sustainable Healthcare in Newcastle (Shine) and the first healthcare organisation in the world to declare a climate emergency. Our strategy includes commitments to being Net Zero by 2030, for our direct carbon footprint, and Net Zero by 2040 for our footprint plus. Delivering these ambitions will not be possible without the help, support and action of every single member of our team.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

At present the applications that will be covered by the Application Support Team include Oracle Cerner Millennium products, SystmOne and ICE.
The successful applicant will have the ability and attention to detail that will optimise the development, maintenance, user configuration and support documentation of eRecord. They will also have the ability to identify and resolve problems that may arise with the eRecord applications.

Job Purpose

Band 5

· The purpose of the team and all the support officers is to ensure that eRecord applications remain fit for purpose and up-to-date.

· The incumbent will be part of a team set up to support the various applications that make up the Trust’s eRecord. As there are too many applications for any one person to be a subject matter expert in all of them, senior application support officer will be responsible for being the Trusts subject matter expert in a few applications and for ensuring that a junior is appropriately trained to provide backup coverage in the event of short absences.

· At present the applications that will be covered by the application support team include Cerner Millennium products and Citrix.

· The scope of support that the team provides (and each officer will be expected to contribute to all activities) includes:

o Development and maintenance of user documentation

o Development and maintenance of configuration and support documentation

o Maintenance of records regarding the release and version status of the eRecord applications

o Configuration of applications and their data stores to meet the needs of the Trust and the application users

o Providing expert advice and guidance on the opportunities offered by the eRecord applications

o Planning and contributing to the setup, testing and deployment of new or updated versions of eRecord software

o Leading the process of identifying and resolving systemic problems with applications

o The post holder will be required to participate in a rota for the provision of out of hours maintenance and support and to be on call as required.

Band 4

Salary £27,485 - £30,162 per annum

The purpose of the team and all the support officers is to ensure that eRecord applications remain fit for purpose and up-to-date.
The post holder will be part of a team set up to support the various applications that make up the Trust’s eRecord. As there are too many applications for any one person to be a subject matter expert in all of them, the Junior Application Support Officers are expected to understudy and back up the work of senior application support officers.
They will be working toward becoming the Trust’s subject matter experts in a few applications and for ensuring that they are available to provide assistance and backup coverage in the event of short absences.
At present the applications that will be covered by the EPR Development Team include Cerner Millennium products, ICE and SystmOne.
The scope of support that the team provides (and each officer will be expected to contribute to all activities) includes:
- Development and maintenance of user documentation
- Development and maintenance of configuration and support
  documentation
- Maintenance of records regarding the release and version status of the eRecord applications
- Configuration of applications and their data stores to meet the needs of the Trust and the application users
- Providing expert advice and guidance on the opportunities offered by the eRecord applications
- Contributing to the setup, testing and deployment of new or updated versions of eRecord software
- Assisting in the process of identifying and resolving systemic problems with applications
- The post holder may be required to participate in a rota for the provision of out of hours maintenance and support and to be on call as required

Person specification

All Criteria for Band 5

Essential criteria

Excellent written and spoken communication skills
Excellent interpersonal skills
Good presentation skills
Excellent problem solving and troubleshooting skills
Degree level qualification in a relevant subject or previous experience within an operational NHS role
Experience configuring and adapting one or more eRecord applications
Experience and working knowledge of health workflows, processes and data
Excellent decision-making ability
Ability to work unsupervised
Ability to work in a team environment

Desirable criteria

Experience of working in an operational role in the NHS
Experience of working in a computer application support role
Knowledge of project management processes will be useful as the incumbent will need to work to support colleagues actively involved in projects

All Criteria for Band 4

Essential criteria

Excellent written and spoken communication skills
Excellent interpersonal skills
Good presentation skills
Excellent problem solving and troubleshooting skills
Excellent decision making ability
Ability to work unsupervised.
Ability to work in a team environment
Excellent documentation writing skills.
Education to National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) Level 4 in relevant subject or equivalent experience

Desirable criteria

Knowledge of project management processes will be useful as the incumbent will need to work to support colleagues actively involved in projects.
Experience configuring and adapting one or more eRecord applications
Experience of working in an operational role in the NHS
Experience of working in a computer application support role.
Progress toward or commitment to completing a relevant degree level qualification

Important note on completion of reference section of Application Form

All references from current and previous employers will be sought and must cover a minimum of 3 years employment. Therefore, when completing the reference section of your application form, please give the address, telephone number and work email address of each of your current/previous line managers that cover 3 years employment. Failure to complete this section may result in your application not being processed.

Please note it is a requirement of The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust that all successful candidates who require a DBS for the post they have been offered pay for their DBS certificate. The method of payment is a salary deduction from your first month’s pay.

Candidates who are shortlisted for interview will be contacted by e-mail. You should check your SPAM folders as well as your inbox. If you have not been contacted within 4 weeks of the closing date you should assume your application has been unsuccessful.