Applications Analyst

Are you a tech-savvy professional looking to make a meaningful impact in a dynamic educational environment? We are looking for an enthusiastic and knowledgeable Applications Analyst to join our dynamic MIS team at Inspire Education Group. This is an exciting opportunity to provide day-to-day operational administration, user access control, and frontline systems support for the College's core MIS applications. You will act as a vital bridge between the MIS department, curriculum teams, and external software vendors, ensuring that systems—including Advanced Pro Suite, PICS, One Grade, One File, and Pro Engage—remain secure, stable, and user-friendly for all college staff.

About the Role As an Applications Analyst, you will:
Manage the full lifecycle of user accounts (creation, amendments, role changes, and deactivation) across all core MIS applications. Conduct routine audits of user access levels to ensure compliance with data protection legislation (GDPR) and college security policies. Maintain system security groups and permission matrices, ensuring staff only have access to the data required for their specific roles. Troubleshoot daily login issues, password resets, and permission blocks swiftly to minimize operational disruption.

Act as the central point of contact for logging system glitches, software errors, and bugs reported by college users. Investigate reported issues methodically to replicate errors, identifying whether they are caused by user error, data quality issues, or software faults. Draft clear, detailed technical ticket submissions for external software vendors (Advanced, Pellcomp, One File, etc.) and monitor support portals against SLAs.

Support the Team Leader in preparing for scheduled software upgrades, hotfixes, and minor version releases. Execute thorough user-acceptance testing (UAT) scripts in designated "test environments" before upgrades are deployed live. Monitor automated data transfer logs between systems to identify and flag stuck processes or integration sync failures. Create, update, and publish clear user guides, "cheat sheets," and brief video walkthroughs to help staff navigate system features independently.

Deliver informal, practical system inductions for new staff members or refresher sessions for curriculum teams. Provide dedicated, responsive systems support during peak college operational windows, such as main enrolment, student induction, and curriculum planning weeks. You will work closely with the wider MIS team, curriculum departments, and external vendors to ensure high system availability and excellent standards of customer care.

We are seeking a motivated and adaptable individual with: A Level 3 qualification (A-Levels, BTEC, or equivalent Apprenticeship) in an IT, business administration, or data-related field. Advanced IT skills across Microsoft .NET (C#,  and ASP.Net), Microsoft SQL Server, PowerBI, Visual Studio, Azure Dev Ops, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Bootstrap, jQuery, and Rest API. Experience implementing and supporting 3rd party IT packages and managing user accounts/security groups in a professional database environment.

Experience collaborating with diverse groups of stakeholders and translating technical solutions into plain English. Excellent planning, organisation, communication, and administrative skills with a methodical approach to problem-solving. Minimum of Level 2 Literacy and Numeracy (GCSE English Language and Maths Grade C/4 or above). Commitment to safeguarding, equality, diversity, inclusion, and continual professional development. Why work for IEG? Generous Leave: 43 days of annual leave per year, inclusive bank holidays and discretionary days.

Competitive Pension:
Local Government Pension Scheme. Health and…