Application Support Engineer (Computer Services Officer 3)

Competition # : 48776

Department: Cyber Security & Digital Solutions

Location: HALIFAX

Type of Employment: Permanent

Union Status: NSGEU - NSPG

Closing Date: 09-Sep-26 (Applications are accepted until 11:59 PM Atlantic Time)

About Us

At CSDS, we prioritize people — both within our team and in the communities we serve. Our mission is to redefine how Nova Scotians engage with government by creating accessible, reliable digital solutions centered around user needs.

In today’s tech-driven world, CSDS empowers government departments with essential digital solutions to meet Nova Scotians’ expectations. As a trusted partner across government, we enable departments to fulfill their mandates with secure, user-friendly services. From healthcare and education to public safety, we collaborate to transform how services are designed and delivered.

We don’t just implement technology; we modernize outdated systems and reimagine processes. Our agile, data-driven approach ensures that digital services are both efficient and adaptable to Nova Scotia’s evolving needs.

Joining CSDS means contributing to work that makes a real difference. From providing vital tech support to healthcare professionals to strengthening cybersecurity and developing scalable digital platforms, you’ll play a key role in building a more inclusive, responsive government for Nova Scotians.

Together, we’re setting new standards for digital public service, delivering resilient solutions that meet today’s needs—and anticipate tomorrow’s challenges.

About Our Opportunity

You will join Digital Platform Services, within the Emerging Platforms team, a highly capable engineering team that builds and supports the reusable digital platforms powering modern government services in Nova Scotia. We take end-to-end ownership, researching opportunities, designing platform architecture, writing code, automating cloud infrastructure, and operating production systems. Our work spans payments, notifications, forms, and other shared components that delivery teams rely on to serve citizens. We partner closely with product managers, delivery leads, and business stakeholders across departments, and we take pride in being open, transparent, and collaborative. If you want to work in a technically broad, mission-driven environment where your contributions directly advance digital service delivery for the province, this is the place.

We’re hiring an Application Support Engineer who brings solid backend development background (Python, .NET, or Node.js) and some familiarity with cloud infrastructure provisioning and management (e.g. Terraform for AWS/Azure). In this role you will primarily serve as a support-oriented engineer handling bug fixes, incident response, and client or internal user requests while also contributing to cloud deployments, infrastructure maintenance, and platform operations. This position is ideal for someone eager to expand their skills across the full stack and cloud environment, and grow with guidance from more experienced colleagues as you take on increasingly complex responsibilities.

Primary Accountabilities

Application Support & Bug Fixing

• Investigate, reproduce, and resolve defects in custom applications (Python, .NET).
• Perform small enhancements and code cleanup within existing services.
• Support API integrations and troubleshoot issues across service boundaries.
• Participate in code reviews, adhering to team coding standards and secure development practices.

Automated Testing & Quality Assurance

• Maintain and extend automated test suites (unit, integration, and regression tests) to ensure platform stability.
• Write targeted tests to verify bug fixes, prevent regressions, and support continuous delivery workflows.
• Contribute to improving test coverage and quality in existing applications and services.
• Work with senior engineers to embed testing into CI/CD pipelines and ensure reliable deployments.

DevOps & Automation Support

• Maintain and update Terraform IaC for AWS and Azure environments
• Contribute to CI/CD pipeline improvements in GitLab.
• Support logging, monitoring, and alerting configurations (CloudWatch, Azure Monitor, etc.).
• Assist with routine operational tasks (deployments, environment maintenance, dependency updates).

Platform Operations & Legacy System Support

• Handle Tier 2/Tier 3 operational issues for existing platforms.
• Provide operational support for platforms, and other legacy systems as needed.
• Maintain documentation for configurations, operational procedures, and known issues.

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Cloud Infrastructure Support

• Contribute to provisioning, maintenance, and troubleshooting of AWS and Azure services.
• Work with senior engineers to implement secure, scalable cloud configurations following best practices.

Continuous Improvement

• Identify opportunities to reduce toil through automation.
• Improve platform stability, performance, and operational resilience.
• Support periodic platform upgrades, refactors, and optimization efforts.
• Contribute to incident postmortems and follow-up remediation work.

Qualifications and Experience

As the successful candidate, you will have a related Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science plus three (3) years of related experience; or graduation from a recognized Information Technology Program plus three (3) years and six (6) months of related experience; or an equivalent combination of training and experience may be acceptable.

• 3+ years of experience as a software developer, DevOps engineer, or platform engineer supporting production applications.
• Backend development experience using Python, .NET Core (C#), Node.js, or similar languages.
• Experience diagnosing and resolving application defects, including analysis of logs, metrics, integrations, and cloud services.
• Experience writing and maintaining unit, integration, and regression tests, ideally within automated testing or TDD workflows.
• Experience with Docker and containerized application development.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines (GitLab, GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, etc.).
• Familiarity with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using tools such as Terraform (Azure and/or AWS preferred).
• Understanding of observability fundamentals, including logs, metrics, dashboards, and alerting (e.g., CloudWatch, Azure Monitor).
• Comfortable supporting and troubleshooting both modern cloud services (AWS/Azure) and legacy systems such as Microsoft IIS, MOVEit, and SelectSurvey.
• Exposure to Agile delivery practices such as Scrum or Kanban.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to collaborate across engineering, product, and business teams.
• Willingness to learn new technologies, tools, and platforms under guidance from senior team members.

Assets

• Experience with advanced observability practices, including distributed tracing or structured logging strategies.
• Experience supporting or contributing to high-traffic or mission-critical systems or applications with high-volume transactions.
• Comfort working across multiple programming languages and frameworks, with openness to learning new ones.
• Exposure to container orchestration tools such as ECS, Kubernetes, or Azure Container Apps.
• Experience with relational and/or NoSQL databases (PostgreSQL, SQL Server, DynamoDB, Cosmos DB, etc.).
• Experience improving automated test coverage or working with broader test automation frameworks.
• Understanding of ITIL-style operational processes (incident, change, and problem management) in a production environment.

Equivalency

Applicants relying on education and experience equivalencies must demonstrate such equivalencies in their application.

Benefits

Based on the employment status and union agreement, the Government of Nova Scotia offers its employees a wide range of benefits such as a Defined Benefit Pension Plan, Health, Dental, Life Insurance, General illness, Short and Long Term Disability, Vacation and Employee and Family Assistance Programs. For information on all our Benefit program offerings, click here: Benefits for government employees.

Working Conditions

• Normal work week is 35 hours/week, 7 hours/day
• May be required to work overtime on occasion
  
  

What We Offer

• Career development where you have access to career guidance, tools, resources, and ongoing training for every stage of your career
• Engaging workplace: our employees feel valued, respected, connected, and tuned in, we have forward-thinking policies and strategies
• Countless career paths
• A Dynamic, client-focused office environment where service excellence and teamwork are our focus.
  
  

Pay Grade: PR 14

Salary Range: $2,912.93 - $3,547.06 Bi-Weekly

Employment Equity Statement: Our goal is to be a diverse workforce that is representative, at all job levels, of the citizens we serve. The Government of Nova Scotia has an Employment Equity Policy, and we welcome applications from Indigenous People, African Nova Scotians and Other Racially Visible Persons, Persons with Disabilities and Women in occupations or positions where they are under-represented. If you are a member of one of these equity groups, you are encouraged to self-identify on your electronic application.

Accommodation Statement: We are committed to providing an inclusive and accessible recruitment process. Candidates may request accommodations based on any grounds protected by the Human Rights Act. If you require an accommodation throughout the recruitment process, please contact us at competitions@novascotia.ca.

This is a bargaining unit position initially restricted to current civil service employees represented by the Nova Scotia Government Employees Union (NSGEU). If applying from outside a government office, employees must apply correctly via this link:

Failure to apply correctly means that your application will not be given first consideration as a bargaining unit applicant, and will only be included if external applications are pursued.

External applicants and current casual employees will only be considered if there are no qualified civil service bargaining unit candidates. PLEASE NOTE: Candidates will not be considered for an interview if applications are incomplete or are missing information.

If you are receiving a pension from the Nova Scotia Public Service Superannuation Plan (PSSP) or any related plans, you cannot receive pension payments while contributing to the same plan. If you accept a position that requires PSSP contributions, your pension payments must be stopped. Please contact the Nova Scotia Pension Services Corporation for more information.

Offer of employment is conditional upon the completion of all applicable background checks and confirmation of credentials, the results of which must be satisfactory to the employer. We thank all applicants for the interest, however, only those selected for an interview will be contacted. All questions and concerns may be directed to Competitions@novascotia.ca.