IT Application Support / Learning Systems Specialist

Salary: £420 – £456 per day

Contract Type: Full time, Permanent 

Location: Brighton 

Job Purpose:

We are looking for a IT Applications Suppport/Learning Systems Specialist to join our team. In this role you will support Study Group’s application landscape as well as learning systems and associated online learning infrastructure. The role responds to requests for support received via the Service Desk and will work with the Application Support Team to diagnose, troubleshoot and resolve application issues. You will also require the role to provide consistent end-user support and maintenance of Study Group’s learning systems, as well as to ensure that all users have the necessary access to their learning systems and to provide the maximum possible up-time for all learning systems.

Key Responsibilities:

• Provide end-user support for all Study Group applications, and act as a point of contact and response for end-user issues.
• The tasks contained within this responsibility revolve around the use of a service desk system to prioritise and respond to issues, perform troubleshooting, provide support, and escalate issues when required.
• The described functions of the responsibility should be undertaken constantly and with a high priority. Response and resolution times are defined as SLAs and should be adhered to.
• provide end-user support for all learning systems (Moodle and Totara), and act as a point of escalation for end-user issues that have been triaged by the wider Application Support or Local IT Operations teams. The scale of the Study Group learning systems defining the end-user as being both staff and clients of the company.
• The tasks contained within this responsibility revolve around the use of a Service Desk system to prioritise and respond to issues, performing troubleshooting, providing support, and escalating issues when required.
• The described functions of the responsibility should be undertaken constantly and with a high priority. Response and turnaround times are defined and should be adhered to.
• ensure end-users have consistent access and functionality across all learning systems, constant administration, maintenance, and monitoring is required. The maintenance and monitoring of the learning systems and infrastructure upon which they reside forms a core part of this responsibility. High availability and uptime standards need to be recognised as the learning systems form an integral part of Study Group and its core business.
• The administration component requires careful management of permissions, configuration changes, and implementation of new features while adhering to change control policies. The maintenance and monitoring is undertaken using a variety of automatic and manual procedures via both hardware and software.
• The tasks maintained in this responsibility represent levels of priority varying from medium to high, although all should be undertaken consistently.
• Urgently responding to alerts from monitoring systems may be necessary at times.
• Responsible for the process of reviewing, testing and upgrading Moodle and Totara minor/major versions across development, staging and production environments in line with planned maintenance schedules.
• Development work may require a combination of solo development work, working with external contractors completing development work, and implementing developmental changes to the appropriate environments according to change control policy.
• Communicate fully and effectively with colleagues throughout the incident lifecycle, ensuring that staff are updated at all stages of the incident.
• Document and share knowledge and best practise with other IT staff.
• Identify trends in application supports and recommend remedial action to address the trending topics and areas, continually improving the user experience and increasing the efficiency of the app support function.

Experience Required:

• At least diploma level IT qualified or equivalent experience
• proven experience working with the administration and development of the Moodle platform
• Experience working with the Totara platform would be advantageous
• PHP experience is essential
• Moodle LMS administration and development or equivalent
• Totara LMS administration and development or equivalent
• PHP knowledge is essential
• Linux knowledge, focused on Ubuntu Server would be advantageous
• Linux based web server platforms (Apache, NGINX, PHP, MySQL would be advantageous)
• Experience with Git & CI/CD practices would be advantageous
• Experience with VMware environments would be advantageous
• Proficiency and knowledge in networking would be advantageous

About Study Group

We are a global pathway provider in International Education, working collaboratively with a number of Top Tier Universities. Voted as the 2017, 2018 and 2020 Global Pathway Provider of the year, our people are united with the shared ambition of providing a world-class UK education to talented students from across the globe.

Organisational Compliance

Study Group is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of its students, and expects all staff and volunteers to share the same dedication. Applicants will be required to undergo child protection screening appropriate to the role, including checks with past employers, an Enhanced Check from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) and overseas criminal records if appropriate.