• Check and prioritise all email correspondence and meetinginvitations on behalf of the Executive Director.
• Develop and administer a system for dealing with enquiries and correspondence on behalf of the Executive Director, including composing responses to routine correspondence.
• Monitor progress of the preparation of replies by colleagues to correspondence to the Executive Director, within appropriate timescales.
• Manage and co-ordinate the Executive Director’s diary, making appointments and arranging meetings, events, booking venues, organising catering and hospitality for visitors as necessary.
• Make all travel and accommodation arrangements for the Executive Director.
• Prepare and circulate agendas and paperwork for meetings, as required.
• Attend meetings as required at our head office and at various locations across Scotland, in order to take notes/minutes and prepare action records.
• Assist in the preparation of PowerPoint presentations/speeches as required.
• Establish good working relationships in regular communication with other officers of the Care Inspectorate, external partners, Scottish Government and members of the public. 
• As part of the wider Executive Support team, provide PA support cover in the absence of the other PAs.
• Carry out your duties in accordance with our Health and Safety policies, procedures, guidance, practices and legislative requirements, taking reasonable care for your safety and that of others who may be affected by what you do or fail to do while at work.

Relationship management

• Ensure productive and smooth working arrangements and protocols between staff delivering directorate support and all other Care Inspectorate employees.
• Develop and maintain constructive and co-operative working relationships with internal and external stakeholders to ensure effective and efficient directorate support.
• Demonstrate a commitment to the CareInspectorate’s aims,vision and values and to the Care Inspectorate’s overall objective of improving care in Scotland.
• To ensure effective communication of the CareInspectorate's work with people who experience care, carers, relatives and advocates.

Other duties

This job may require some travel and may involve some overnight stays and unsocial hours.

This job description is a broad picture of the post at the date of preparation. It is not an exhaustive list of all possible duties and it is recognised that jobs change and evolve over time. Consequently, the post holder will be required to carry out any other duties to the equivalent level that are necessary to fulfil the purpose of the job, and to respond positively to changing business needs.

Job title: Applications Manager

Attributes

Experience

Essential

• Significant experience in leading digital/ software development in medium/large scale public sector projects, familiar with supporting cloud based applications.
• Demonstrate excellent technical expertise in areas including applications development and have a well-rounded understanding of computer systems and networks with the analytical skills needed to identify and troubleshoot issues that arise within applications and use problem-solving skills to determine the best solutions for these issues.
• Proven experience of designing, building and delivering working solutions which meet customer needs.
• Proven experience in a range of Internet / Intranet based technologies.
• Experience of formal Project Management Methodologies. (Agile, Prince2)

Desirable

• Experience of working with other regulatory bodies or partner scrutiny bodies.
• Experience of working with Azure PaaS and DevOps environments.

Education, qualifications and training

Essential

• Educated to SCQF level 9 in IT or graduate qualification in a software engineering or related field.
• Evidence of continuous professional development.

Desirable

• Membership of a Professional body, appropriate to Software Engineering
• Project Management qualification

Skills and knowledge

Essential

• Ability to provide user-centric solutions, which users find simple and intuitive to use.
• Ability to challenge and test traditionally held views about web development, and contribute suggestions for continual improvement within IT.
• Have high attention to detail and accuracy.
• Excellent written and verbal communication and interpersonal skills across all levels in the organisation.
• Proven ability to multitask in a fast pace environment to deliver effective outcomes and meet targets on time.
• Ability to prioritise workload.
• Ability to evaluate the impact of decisions on stakeholders and include this in the decision making process.
• The ability to analyse complex issues related to digital applications and provide effective solutions
• An ability to adapt to evolving technologies and the ability to bring innovative solutions to digital application challenges
• Ability to make fully evaluated and firm recommendation and proposals to the IT Management Team
• Strong decision-making and quality leadership skills to effectively motivate, develop and lead the team to complete necessary tasks.
• Experience in reporting and providing status updates to senior management.
• Experience in budget management.
• Understand organisational motivations including problems, goals, and objectives.
• Drive continuous improvements in process maturity.
• Facilitation skills: ability to facilitate workshops with all staff levels.
• The ability to build relationships and collaborate with other teams, fostering a positive working environment

Desirable

• Ability to align the application roadmap with the IT strategy
• Ability to support the ongoing development of strategic plans.

Key performance outcomes

Service improvement

• Uses knowledge and experience to gather and consolidate information in order to make appropriate changes and improvements.
• Aware of trends and changes and maintains professional knowledge and skills.
• Encourages and promotes new ideas.
• Ability to identify gaps in performance and make appropriate suggestions for improvement.
• Demonstrate initiative, drive and determination to complete tasks and achieve objectives.

Leading others

• Ability to provide leadership, a clear sense of purpose and direction.
• Ability to take a flexible, pragmatic approach to support to effectively achieve performance objectives i.e. interim redeployment of team members.

Team working

• Adapts to the team and builds team spirit.
• Listens, consults others and communicates proactively.
• Demonstrates integrity.
• Contributes to the shared vision and purpose and shares this effectively.
• Involves the team in decision and actions.
• Ability to work effectively with members of a multi-disciplinary team to deliver business improvement.

 Effective communication

• Listens to, understands and communicates complex and multi-stranded information from a range of sources, adopting effective questioning techniques to elicit and appreciate a range of views.
• Ability to negotiate with others in a way that suits the situation, demonstrating a high level of theoretical and practical knowledge.
• Ability to express ideas clearly and concisely, explain intricate and complicated concepts and ideas.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Equally at ease in technical discussions with IT colleagues as well as business discussions with senior managers and employees.
• Ability to select appropriate communication style and methods depending on the needs and abilities of the audience.
• Ability to explain IT concepts and issues in a clear way, without using technical jargon.
• Ability to advise, persuade and influence people in a professional and effective manner.

Objective decision making 

• Demonstrates analytical and systematic approach to problem solving and decision making.
• Ensures the Business Analysis team has the appropriate support, resources, and authority levels to make decisions quickly and easily.
• Encourages and supports decisions of team members.
• Considers Care Inspectorate values in relation to the impact of their decisions and considers the wider context in which the Care Inspectorate operates.
• Ability to work autonomously.
• Ability to make appropriate and realistic judgments based on professional expertise, relevant, up to date and verifiable information.

Planning and organising

• Ability to plan, execute, track and report on delivery progress against requirements.
• Works in a systematic, methodical and orderly way.
• Regularly reviews workloads, goals and targets with team and prioritise where necessary.
• Uses 1-1 supervision to support team members to plan workloads.
• Delegates effectively to others and optimises resources to achieve desired results.
• Focuses on customer needs and satisfaction.
• Sets high standards for quality and quantity and monitors and maintains quality and productivity.

 Flexibility

• Encourages a flexible, positive approach to work in their team.
• Applies regulation and standards sensibly and understands where a flexible approach may be required.
• Works productively in a high-pressure environment.
• Adapts to changing circumstances.
• Has a flexible and pragmatic approach to new ideas and change initiatives.
• Is open minded to suggestions about how to improve processes within the Care Inspectorate.
• Exercises professional judgement when considering options and outcomes.
• Demonstrates personal resilience, being able to work flexibly under pressure with stamina and tenacity to deliver results.

Please note, these are key performance outcomes to be used to recruit into the role.