Senior Application Specialist

Job Description – Senior Application Specialist

About Hiscox:

At Hiscox we care about our people. We hire the best people for the work, and we’re committed to diversity and creating a truly inclusive culture, which we believe drives success. We embrace hybrid-working practices, balancing the ability to work remotely with the culture and energy we experience when we are face-to-face in our offices. Our focus on collaboration and cross-functional working is supported with virtual tools that minimise physical travel, hot-desking neighbourhoods that create a physical sense of community and Team Charters that our teams co-create to set out how they’ll work together. This modern way of working has contributed to impressive employee engagement scores across Hiscox and means we’re delivering even better solutions for our Hiscox Colleagues. As an international specialist insurer, we are far removed from the world of mass market insurance products. Instead, we are selective and focus on our key areas of expertise and strength - all of which is underpinned by a culture that encourages us to challenge convention and always look for a better way of doing things. We insure the unique and the interesting. And we search for the same when it comes to talented people. Hiscox is full of smart, reliable human beings that look out for customers and each other. We believe in doing the right thing, making good and rebuilding when things go wrong. Everyone is encouraged to think creatively, challenge the status quo and look for solutions. Scratch beneath the surface and you will find a business that is solid, but slightly contrary. We like to do things differently and constantly seek to evolve. We might have been around for a long time (our roots go back to 1901), but we are young in many ways, ambitious and going places. Some people might say insurance is dull, but life at Hiscox is anything but. If that sounds good to you, get in touch. You can follow Hiscox on LinkedIn, Glassdoor and Instagram (@HiscoxInsurance).

Position: Senior Application Specialist
Location: York

The Role: Although Hiscox UK have utilised Microsoft Azure Cloud Services for several years, we are just starting out on the adoption of Microsoft D365 CE and the Power Platform suite. As a Senior Application Specialist in the Power Platform CoE, you will be at the forefront of this initiative. Reporting into the Technical Architect (Power Platform), you will lead a small team of application Specialists creating innovative solutions using Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform and focusing on low/no-code. Working with business stakeholders, you will refine and develop requirements into solutions using the Power Platform, balancing potentially conflicting requirements across different workstreams or business units to streamline business process and maximise organisational efficiency. You will have a key role in the development and ongoing improvement of our Dynamics 365 and Power Platform estate. Working with our Microsoft partners, you will ensure the quality of the D365 solutions being implemented by them as well as providing continuous maintenance and improvement. You will be responsible for the end-to-end delivery of internal projects using Power Platform and D365 from requirements gathering and estimations, through solution design, build, test and delivery, also ensuring software deliverables are documented, secure, efficient, easily maintainable and with an appropriate support model in place. The Senior Application Specialist will also work with the Technical Architect (Power Platform) in the development of an appropriate governance model for the CoE and the wider business, with associated policies and standards, to ensure any Power Platform components meet best practice, are manageable, maintainable, secure and performant. You will maintain an up-to-date knowledge of technology advances in Dynamics 365 CE and Power Platform, promoting a culture of continuous improvement within the team. Providing direction and support to other colleagues across the business and acting as an SME for Microsoft D365 and Power Platform.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Work with key business and technology stakeholders to elicit and refine requirements, ensuring solutions are pragmatic and maximise the benefits of the technology.
2. Collaborate with the Power Platform Architect, and Solution Architects, to ensure Dynamics 365 and Power Platform solutions are developed in accordance with Hiscox’s architectural principles, policies and guidelines, and remain aligned with the Microsoft upgrade roadmap.
3. Take ownership of Power Platform and Dynamics 365 CE technical design and solution architecture.
4. Provide leadership, direction and support to other members of the team.
5. Support the definition and introduction of an appropriate governance model to assist in the adoption of Power Platform and Dynamics 365 technologies.
6. Lead in the design, development and delivery of Dynamics 365 CE and Power Platform components, ensuring they remain securely configured, access control models are enforced, appropriate metrics are captured, and technical standards are adhered to.
7. Support the Engineering team in the definition and development extensions or integrations to support more advanced scenarios.
8. Ensure that extensions to Dataverse and the Common Data Model are introduced in a manner consistent with industry best practice.
9. Provide ongoing support and further development for deployed solutions.
10. Ensure that non-functional requirements are identified and addressed, with components securely configured, access controls enforced, environments sized appropriately, effective monitoring metrics captured, and an effective support model in place.

Essential Skills:

1. Proven track record of working as a Senior Functional Specialist or Developer, in the definition, design, development, testing and deployment of D365 and Power Platform applications and solutions.
2. In-depth knowledge of Microsoft Dynamics 365 CE (particularly Customer Service and Sales) and the Power Platform (Power Apps, Power Automate, Power Pages, Power BI and CoPilot Studio) including an appreciation of appropriate use cases for each.
3. Experience with leading people.
4. A drive to develop your own, and your team's, technical skills and knowledge.
5. Understanding of Azure cloud technology and the Azure security model.
6. Strong communication skills and ability to talk to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
7. Self-motivated and demonstrable ability to stay current with the latest technologies, trends, best-practice and security that can benefit the technology roadmap and team.
8. Experience with both waterfall and agile project methodologies, and application lifecycle management.

Desirable Skills:

1. Intermediate or Advanced level Power Platform or Dynamics Microsoft certifications e.g. Power Platform Functional Specialist Associate, Power Platform App Maker Associate, Power Platform Solution Architect Expert.
2. Experience in working with Power Platform AI Builder and integrating with external AI technology would be an advantage.
3. Experience with extending the Power Platform using C#, JavaScript etc.
4. Insurance industry knowledge and experience an advantage.