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Application Developer

Employer
DURHAM UNIVERSITY
Location
Durham (GB)
Salary
£33797 - £40322 per annum
Closing date
15 Mar 2020

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The Department and role purpose
Nomis (www.nomisweb.co.uk) is a web service delivered by Durham University in partnership with the Office for National Statistics. It provides free access to official UK labour market statistics and census results. Established in 1978, the service is now used widely by central and local government, academics and the commercial sector.

The Geography Department at Durham University seeks to appoint an application programmer to support the Nomis programming team. The main purpose of the role is to assist in the development and maintenance of the proprietary Nomis back-end database applications and internal data processing applications written with C++ in a Unix environment.

Joining a small and agile team, the post-holder will be responsible for developing, maintaining and updating the back-end systems used to securely expose complex data and metadata for consumption by our customer-facing website and API.

The post-holder will follow established procedures to process data and metadata supplied by Office for National Statistics, import them into the Nomis databases and perform quality checks. The successful applicant will also maintain existing data processing code and write new C++ applications to pre-process, load and build incoming raw data.

The Nomis website is currently undergoing a re-development project. To support this, enhancements and changes are required to back-end software. The successful applicant will work under the direction of the software development manager on the re-development and enhancement of services to support this project. This will involve assisting in the implementation of a new version of the Nomis API, re-development of databases that store lookups, metadata and code lists for the back-end databases and assisting in a move towards a microservices architecture.

This exciting position brings with it the opportunity to feed ideas and suggestions for new functionality into the development process, shaping the tools used internally by the team and enhancing discovery and delivery capabilities of the Nomis API.

Role responsibilities:

  • Provide management for the delivery of high-quality software development.
  • Develop and maintain the C++ programs used to load and disseminate statistical datasets via the Nomis API and customer-facing website.
  • Create and modify routines to process confidential raw data for new and existing Nomis datasets and load it into the Nomis database.
  • Update and maintain lookups and code lists in the main geographic and classification databases using existing tools.
  • Lead a redevelopment of the Nomis API and databases that store lookups, metadata and code lists and expose these for use by the customer-facing website and API.
  • Implement, modify and perform quality control checks and procedures on data.
  • Ensure the security of back-end applications that expose data and information in accordance with established security standards and principles.
  • Create and perform testing procedures to identify and resolve issues with code prior to the release of updates to the production system.
  • Promote and foster positive and highly collaborative approaches to problem solving and project implementation, helping to motivate, mentor and coach project team members.
  • Act as a point of contact for service colleagues and stakeholders to interpret and resolve complex technical problems.
  • Make decisions about the nature and level of problem solving, physical and analytical tools, techniques and protocols to deliver project and service objectives, providing advice and making recommendations for resolution as appropriate.
  • Collaborate with other specialists within the Service and across the University, regarding methods and standards to deliver integrity and consistency with service delivery.
  • Provide regular status reports and identify risk management and contingency planning to other service staff, specialists, users and managers.
  • Liaise with internal and external agencies, local authorities, industries and visitors where appropriate.
  • Take responsibility for monitoring and updating risk assessments and safety procedures, providing guidance to others where necessary.
  • Develop, modify and optimise protocols and methodologies.
  • Any other reasonable duties. 

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