Application Support Analyst

About our culture

The Works is such a welcoming place to… well… work!

Our atmosphere is supportive, friendly and inclusive. A second home-from-home where you can be your best and authentic you.

We’ve built an environment that’s busy, always moving, and full of energy. Yet we still make space to share must-watch TV recommendations and our favourite page-turners!

We’re a proactive and hardworking bunch who are dedicated to inspiring and empowering our customers to read, learn, create and play.

It’s the perfect place for people who know how to roll their sleeves up, get creative, and put their passion and imagination to work… we’re people who ‘do’!

If you’re the kind of person who is as ’crafty’, ‘caring’ and ‘can-do’ as we are, then this is the kind of culture for you.

What we will give to you!

• 25% off colleague discount in-store and online (Often increased to 50% off for seasonal offers!)
• 33 days holiday (Inclusive of Bank Holidays)
• Holiday Purchase scheme to increase your annual leave entitlement by 5 extra days per year
• Access to our MyWorks reward platform which has thousands of exclusive online discounts across hundreds of well-known retailers, utilities, holidays and much more!
• Hybrid working – This varies by department, but typically we’re working to 1 or 2 days per week in the office
• Save As You Earn (SAYE) scheme. Become a shareholder and buy your own piece of The Works by buying shares at an exclusive discounted rate direct-from-salary
• Company pension contribution
• Can-Do Academy – Instant access to training and development programmes when it suits you
• Cycle to Work scheme
• Employee Health, Wellbeing and Financial support through the Retail Trust and our Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) – Because you matter!
• Life Assurance
• Healthcare Cash Plan
• Free Car Parking when on-site at our Support Centre
• Optional Charity Giving schemes – Pennies from Heaven and Give as you Earn
  
  

About the Role

Reporting into the Head of Systems, Services & Operations you will play a crucial role in delivering outstanding application support to your colleagues across Stores, Distribution Centre (DC) and Support Centre (SC) as well as our ecommerce website.

You’re a natural communicator who enjoys keeping your colleagues in the loop, ensuring they feel their issues are understood and giving them the confidence that the issues will be resolved. You thrive on seeing incidents and problems through to resolution, spotting trends and holding yourself to the highest best practice standards. You keep up to date with technology; enjoy getting into the detail and owning issues.

This is an exciting opportunity for an ambitious, technically strong and solution focused Application Support Analyst to join our evolving Technology Services team.

The purpose of the role is to respond effectively to incidents and requests restoring service or fulfilling requests as quickly as possible whilst communicating with all relevant stakeholders. Providing cover for the Technology Service Desk as required. To provide a problem management function for the application estate. To drive application standardisation, documentation, performance and knowledge both within Technology Services and the wider business. The key responsibilities are:

Incident Management

Acting as a technical escalation point for the Technology Service Desk and a bridge into both our in house Development Team and our technology partners. Reviewing application incidents, completing diagnostics, replicating bugs and resolving or technically escalating incidents. Ensuring the right resolution path is followed and SLAs are continuously monitored. Flagging any knowledge management opportunities prior to closure.

Problem Management

Owning problem management for applications, prioritising, monitoring, reporting on and ultimately resolving problems. Continually utilising incident trend analysis to reduce demand on incident management via root cause analysis. Ensuring the lessons learnt from each problem are identified and documented.

Knowledge Management

Creating and maintaining known errors, workarounds, knowledge articles and standard operating procedures. Seeking training and documentation opportunities across Technology Services. Pulling knowledge from the Development Team and pushing knowledge towards the Technology Service Desk as well as the wider business.

 About you

• PASSIONATE – In everything you do – you want to learn, you want to grow and you want to develop the service we offer.
• STRONG COMMUNICATOR – You enjoy building and developing relationships with people, keeping everyone up to date.
• HIGHLY ORGANISED – You can prioritise your workload, set expectations and keep your promises.
• TECHNCIAL MINDSET – You have a strong technical mind-set and ability to troubleshoot ambiguous issues logically.
• ANALYTICAL – You enjoy working with data, monitoring situations and making decisions based on facts.
• INNOVATIVE THINKING – You are able to “think outside the box” and are always looking for the next opportunity.

The sought-after experience we’re seeking

Mandatory

• Expert level application support skills with an ability to learn new enterprise or bespoke applications quickly and support them to a second line level
• Strong experience working between an in-house development team and a service desk
• Strong experience of working in an environment aligning to ITIL best practice
• Experience in T-SQL & SQL Server 2012 and upwards
• Ability to take log files generated from various applications / sources to then problem solve, and root cause analyse
• Strong MS office Skills, particularly Excel
• Strong problem solving and investigative skills

Desirable

• Retail technology experience.

• Experience with Salesforce platform

• Grafana experience / logging platforms like Dynatrace or similar

• Experience with containers using Docker

• Messaging queue technology like RabbitMQ or similar
• Oracle database experience
• Experience of point of sales software such as Enactor

Finally, the bit about The Works

We are working towards our ambition of becoming one of the most loved retailers in the UK and the go-to place for reading, learning, creativity and play.

We believe in the importance of fun and fulfilment and taking time out to do the things you love.
With 525 stores nationwide and a strong multi-channel proposition, our mission is to offer a unique and enjoyable shopping experience, built on core principles of value, variety and quality.

We’re super proud to be certified as two star ‘Outstanding to work for’ via Best Companies for three years running and a Sunday Times 2020 Top 25 Best Big Companies to work for.

#LI-Hybrid

About our culture

The Works is such a welcoming place to… well… work!

Our atmosphere is supportive, friendly and inclusive. A second home-from-home where you can be your best and authentic you.

We’ve built an environment that’s busy, always moving, and full of energy. Yet we still make space to share must-watch TV recommendations and our favourite page-turners!

We’re a proactive and hardworking bunch who are dedicated to inspiring and empowering our customers to read, learn, create and play.

It’s the perfect place for people who know how to roll their sleeves up, get creative, and put their passion and imagination to work… we’re people who ‘do’!

If you’re the kind of person who is as ’crafty’, ‘caring’ and ‘can-do’ as we are, then this is the kind of culture for you.

What we will give to you!

• 25% off colleague discount in-store and online (Often increased to 50% off for seasonal offers!)
• 33 days holiday (Inclusive of Bank Holidays)
• Holiday Purchase scheme to increase your annual leave entitlement by 5 extra days per year
• Access to our MyWorks reward platform which has thousands of exclusive online discounts across hundreds of well-known retailers, utilities, holidays and much more!
• Hybrid working – This varies by department, but typically we’re working to 1 or 2 days per week in the office
• Save As You Earn (SAYE) scheme. Become a shareholder and buy your own piece of The Works by buying shares at an exclusive discounted rate direct-from-salary
• Company pension contribution
• Can-Do Academy – Instant access to training and development programmes when it suits you
• Cycle to Work scheme
• Employee Health, Wellbeing and Financial support through the Retail Trust and our Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) – Because you matter!
• Life Assurance
• Healthcare Cash Plan
• Free Car Parking when on-site at our Support Centre
• Optional Charity Giving schemes – Pennies from Heaven and Give as you Earn
  
  

About the Role

Reporting into the Head of Systems, Services & Operations you will play a crucial role in delivering outstanding application support to your colleagues across Stores, Distribution Centre (DC) and Support Centre (SC) as well as our ecommerce website.

You’re a natural communicator who enjoys keeping your colleagues in the loop, ensuring they feel their issues are understood and giving them the confidence that the issues will be resolved. You thrive on seeing incidents and problems through to resolution, spotting trends and holding yourself to the highest best practice standards. You keep up to date with technology; enjoy getting into the detail and owning issues.

This is an exciting opportunity for an ambitious, technically strong and solution focused Application Support Analyst to join our evolving Technology Services team.

The purpose of the role is to respond effectively to incidents and requests restoring service or fulfilling requests as quickly as possible whilst communicating with all relevant stakeholders. Providing cover for the Technology Service Desk as required. To provide a problem management function for the application estate. To drive application standardisation, documentation, performance and knowledge both within Technology Services and the wider business. The key responsibilities are:

Incident Management

Acting as a technical escalation point for the Technology Service Desk and a bridge into both our in house Development Team and our technology partners. Reviewing application incidents, completing diagnostics, replicating bugs and resolving or technically escalating incidents. Ensuring the right resolution path is followed and SLAs are continuously monitored. Flagging any knowledge management opportunities prior to closure.

Problem Management

Owning problem management for applications, prioritising, monitoring, reporting on and ultimately resolving problems. Continually utilising incident trend analysis to reduce demand on incident management via root cause analysis. Ensuring the lessons learnt from each problem are identified and documented.

Knowledge Management

Creating and maintaining known errors, workarounds, knowledge articles and standard operating procedures. Seeking training and documentation opportunities across Technology Services. Pulling knowledge from the Development Team and pushing knowledge towards the Technology Service Desk as well as the wider business.

 About you

• PASSIONATE – In everything you do – you want to learn, you want to grow and you want to develop the service we offer.
• STRONG COMMUNICATOR – You enjoy building and developing relationships with people, keeping everyone up to date.
• HIGHLY ORGANISED – You can prioritise your workload, set expectations and keep your promises.
• TECHNCIAL MINDSET – You have a strong technical mind-set and ability to troubleshoot ambiguous issues logically.
• ANALYTICAL – You enjoy working with data, monitoring situations and making decisions based on facts.
• INNOVATIVE THINKING – You are able to “think outside the box” and are always looking for the next opportunity.

The sought-after experience we’re seeking

Mandatory

• Expert level application support skills with an ability to learn new enterprise or bespoke applications quickly and support them to a second line level
• Strong experience working between an in-house development team and a service desk
• Strong experience of working in an environment aligning to ITIL best practice
• Experience in T-SQL & SQL Server 2012 and upwards
• Ability to take log files generated from various applications / sources to then problem solve, and root cause analyse
• Strong MS office Skills, particularly Excel
• Strong problem solving and investigative skills

Desirable

• Retail technology experience.

• Experience with Salesforce platform

• Grafana experience / logging platforms like Dynatrace or similar

• Experience with containers using Docker

• Messaging queue technology like RabbitMQ or similar
• Oracle database experience
• Experience of point of sales software such as Enactor

Finally, the bit about The Works

We are working towards our ambition of becoming one of the most loved retailers in the UK and the go-to place for reading, learning, creativity and play.

We believe in the importance of fun and fulfilment and taking time out to do the things you love.
With 525 stores nationwide and a strong multi-channel proposition, our mission is to offer a unique and enjoyable shopping experience, built on core principles of value, variety and quality.

We’re super proud to be certified as two star ‘Outstanding to work for’ via Best Companies for three years running and a Sunday Times 2020 Top 25 Best Big Companies to work for.

#LI-Hybrid