Inzpire - L3 Functional Area Services (FAS) Applications Support Engineer

THE COMPANY

We are a highly innovative and rapidly growing defence and technology company that design, develop, and deliver some of the world’s most advanced defence related training, products, and services.

We were recently crowned Employer of the Year at the British Ex-Forces in Business Awards 2023. We have been listed as one of the ‘100 Best Large Companies to Work For’ in the UK and Midlands by Best Companies several times as well as achieving ‘Best Companies 3 Star Accreditation’ and a rating of ‘world-class’ for our employee engagement on a number of occasions. We are also proud to have been honoured with two Queen’s Awards for Enterprise in Innovation, for our next-generation GECO military mission planning system.

As part of a unique and specialist defence company, our friendly team consists of experienced and highly capable individuals, working together with a mature ‘can do’ work ethic. Our central business functions are located in an easily accessible, bright and modern head office to the west of Lincoln, alongside our mission systems team, while the majority of our operational specialists are embedded alongside our Defence customers.

THE ROLE

We are seeking an experienced FAS Application Support Engineer to provide specialist support for complex command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance applications. This role is suited to a technically confident engineer with strong experience across virtualised environments, multi-domain interoperability, tactical data links and enterprise application support.

The successful candidate will act as a subject matter expert, supporting critical applications and technologies across Defence-style environments within Air Force domains. You will work with a broad range of hosted applications, messaging systems, databases, networking services and geospatial technologies, ensuring reliable operation and integration across secure, multi-site environments.

Key responsibilities:

• Provide expert-level support for FAS applications across complex C4ISR environments.

• Support, maintain and troubleshoot virtualised platforms and hosted application services.

• Integrate and support tactical data link feeds, including IP and serial sensor and radar feeds.

• Support instant messaging and wide-area messaging services, including federation, server-to-server connectivity and cross-domain interoperability.

• Work across Windows, UNIX and Solaris-based systems to maintain availability and performance.

• Support application integration across multi-site, multi-domain and secure network environments.

• Maintain and troubleshoot supporting infrastructure services including directory services, databases, web services, file shares, certificates and network services.

• Contribute specialist technical knowledge for both current contract requirements and future application introductions.

This is a fixed-term contract opportunity with expected dates from 21 September 2026 to 31 March 2028, with potential for the contract to be extended beyond the initial term.

THE PERSON

You will be a hands-on technical specialist who is comfortable working in secure, operationally focused environments. You will be able to analyse complex issues, communicate clearly with technical and non-technical stakeholders, and apply deep platform and application knowledge to keep critical systems running effectively.

Required skills and experience

• Subject matter expert-level knowledge of virtualised environments, including VMware, vSphere and Hyper-V.

• Strong experience supporting FAS, C4ISR or similarly complex operational applications.

• Knowledge of tactical data links and the integration of IP, serial and sensor-based data feeds.

• Experience with instant messaging technologies and wide-area messaging networks, including federation and cross-domain interoperability.

• Strong understanding of Windows and UNIX-hosted applications and services.

• Experience with networking, DNS, Active Directory, DFS, PKI, LDAP, Kerberos and related infrastructure services.

• Database and application support experience across technologies such as MSSQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, IIS, Apache, Java, XML and SOAP.

• Ability to troubleshoot complex technical issues across application, platform, network and infrastructure layers.

Desirable technology experience

Experience with any of the following technologies or application areas would be advantageous:

• Solaris 10, NISP, NIS+, ZFS Zones, SMB and SharePoint.

• NATO NIRIS, NIRIS, S2S/C2S, nICCLink, US GCCS, HeATS, GrATS and BOWMAN BITS.

• TNG, TACNIP, JCSSA, MCCIS, ICS, TAIS, SIACCON, FISH and CSI.

• Tactical data link and situational awareness technologies including L11, L11B, L1, L16, JREAP, NFFI, FFI, AIS and NVG.

• Geospatial and mapping technologies including XML, KML, KMZ, WMS and WFS.

• Experience with NTFS permissions, DFS and multi-site file sharing across wide area networks.

Due to the nature of elements of the role, the successful applicant must be a UK National and may be required to successfully complete National Security Vetting which may require criminal record, security service and credit reference checks; qualification will also normally require a minimum UK residency of at least 5 years.

HOW TO APPLY

If you have the required background and are interested in joining a high-performing team, supporting the delivery of exceptional award-winning products and services to our customers, we would be delighted to hear from you. Please click apply and follow the instructions to upload your CV.

Please note that we are part of the QinetiQ group and you will be taken to the QinetiQ careers website in order to complete your application.

BENEFITS

Our comprehensive benefits package includes:

• 30 days paid holiday plus 8 days bank holidays per year.

• Uncapped paid leave scheme (upon successful completion of probation period).

• Company provided private medical and dental insurance.

• QinetiQ Share Incentive Scheme.

• Enhanced maternity and paternity pay.

• Annual profit and performance related pay scheme.

• Death in service (x4 salary).

• Company contributions into a group personal pension scheme.

• Business travel insurance.

• Tax efficient cycle to work and charitable giving schemes.

• Tax efficient electric vehicle company car scheme.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES

Inzpire are committed to creating an inclusive and respectful environment for current and prospective employees. We recognise that a diverse, talented and highly motivated workforce is pivotal to our continuing success, therefore our selection decisions are based on the merit of the individual, irrespective of their race, colour, religion, gender, age, sexual orientation, marital status, disability or any other characteristic.

We genuinely recognise the benefits of a diverse and inclusive working environment. We are proud to be a Disability Confident Committed Employer, a supportive signatory of the Armed Forces Covenant and a Gold award winner within the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme. We are therefore delighted to offer a guaranteed interview scheme to service leavers, reservists and military spouses or partners (including those of service leavers) who meet all our advertised requirements.