Group Head of Environment and Planning

OSB Group; Wolverhampton; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading mortgage lender is seeking a Platform Technology Manager to oversee non-production and production environments. You'll ensure scalable, cost-effective technology solutions while managing a team of Platform Engineers. The role includes coordinating with various teams, conducting capacity forecasting, and ensuring compliance with organizational policies. Candidates should have operational and line management experience, preferably in cloud environments.

Benefits

Discretionary annual bonus opportunity of up to 25%

30 days annual leave plus bank holidays

Contributory pension (8% employer 5% employee)

Life Assurance (4x salary)

Access to Private Medical Insurance

Hybrid working options

Qualifications

• Previous proven operational experience working in a similar role.
• Previous experience of Line Management.
• Advanced knowledge of capacity planning and performance analysis.

Responsibilities

• Manage OSB’s non-production and production environments.
• Communicate and coordinate changes across environments.
• Conduct capacity forecasting and minimise disruption.

Skills

Operational experience

Line Management experience

Cloud environments (AWS or Azure)

Capacity planning

Performance analysis

Numeracy and statistics

Job description

About the team

If you are interested in joining a busy IT department that is rising to meet the needs of an evolving post‑merger environment then this could be the right role for you.

You will manage a platform technology team which consists of Platform Engineers and have access to the wider design teams to support the co‑ordinated design, additionally you will have a resource planning function that works in collaboration with programme and project managers to incorporate the low level designs into technical and resource requests, and a capacity planner who would be looking ahead to identify constraints and conflicts. You will ensure there’s effective, efficient and collaborative working relationship between teams and that they share a common purpose.

We value diversity highly across all the teams within the group and are keen to interview people from all backgrounds and genders. Even if you don’t hit all of the criteria, we are still keen to hear from you.

About Us

OSB Group is a leading specialist mortgage lender, primarily focused on carefully selected segments of the mortgage market. Our specialist lending is supported by our Kent Reliance and Charter Savings Bank retail savings franchises. Diversification of funding is provided by sophisticated securitisation platforms. OSB’s unique cost‑efficient operating model is supported by our wholly‑owned subsidiary OSBIndia.

What you will be doing

In this role, you will have the opportunity to ensure the environments to deliver technology is scalable, easy to deploy, and cost‑effective to manage. They will also be accountable for low level solution design, working alongside the architectural function to drive enterprise‑ready solutions that are fit for purpose taking into account integration, capacity and environmental requirements to ensure future change is simpler to implement.

The role will also be critical to the business change function essential to the organisation and will be seen as a technical expert within their field, this would result in extensive involvement in project planning for future services as well as maintenance and upgrade planning for existing. This role holder would be expected to provide technical assurance for all changes within the remit of their technology tower and be accountable for the stability within their technologies.

You will be responsible for ensuring that the capacity, configuration, versioning and alignment of all associated systems, components, applications, services etc. are known, maintained and updated for utilisation across the stack by a variety of teams. You’ll also be accountable for the non‑production environments including their suitability for changes, consistency and stability.

Your responsibilities will include…

• Responsible for OSB’s non‑production and production environments to ensure parity and reduce risk for deployments
• Manage dependencies between components and the ripple effect of changes across the tech stack
• Communicate and coordinate the impact of all changes across OSB’s non‑production and production environments to both technical and non‑technical resources
• Provide ongoing support to functional business areas in relation to configuring and baselining environments
• Deliver solution designs that form project delivery tasks and ultimately create configuration documents utilising a consistent approach; that aligns to SMART
• Maintain a Configuration Management (CM) database
• Lead, update and recommend improvements to existing configuration management processes and procedures based on latest trends and efficiencies
• Conduct capacity forecasting and modelling exercises to minimise disruption.
• Through the DevOps and Engineering teams manage enhancements to the Configuration Management tools
• Review, analyse and present resolutions to configuration challenges and issues
• Work with DevOps, Engineering, Service Delivery & Test to define OSB’s non‑production environment strategy on GCP
• Manage 3rd party relationships with technology providers
• Estimate, prioritise and deliver agreed changes to environments
• Monitor and track environment usage, performance and cost environment capacity planning
• Review current environment build process, with a view to making time / effort savings, so Engineering can better estimate new environment builds etc.
• Ensure that you and your team fully understand and comply with the organisation’s Risk Management Policies as they relate to your area of responsibility and demonstrate in your day to day work that you put customers at the heart of everything you do.
• Ensure that you and your team fully understand and comply with the organisation’s Data Governance Policies as they relate to your area of responsibility and demonstrate in your day to day work that you treat data as an important corporate asset which must be protected and managed.
• Maintain the company’s compliance standards and ensure timely completion of all mandatory online training modules and attestations.
• Line manage and coach all direct reports, including all aspects of performance management, development, conduct, sickness management, appraisals, employee administration and recruitment.
• As nominated Risk Champion for your function, work alongside the Risk function in developing and maintaining a risk management agenda, acting both to ensure the necessary levels of transparency for potential risks and promoting a positive culture of awareness and accountability throughout your function.
• Act as the Relationship Owner and primary business contact for the vendor(s) assigned to you. Responsible for meeting the day to day requirements outlined in the Vendor Management & Outsourcing Policy and the Relationship Owner Operating Standards, including completing assigned training, providing a risk assessment related to the vendor(s), monitoring service performance and ensuring adherence to the Group’s Information Security requirements.

In return for your commitment

We offer a base salary dependent on experience and a competitive benefits package including :

• Discretionary annual bonus opportunity of up to 25%
• 30 days annual leave plus bank holidays
• Contributory pension (8% employer 5% employee)
• Life Assurance (4x salary) plus Group Income Protection
• Access to Private Medical Insurance and Medical Cash Plan
• Additional benefits such as Hybrid working, Cycle Purchase scheme, Technology Purchase scheme, Season Ticket Loan, Holiday purchase / sell schemes, Employee Perk Portals, Payroll giving and Save as you Earn scheme

Could you be the one?

We are looking for talented individuals who have the experience and knowledge set out below

• Previous proven operational experience working in a similar role.
• Previous experience of Line Management
• Previous experience of working in cloud based environments, preferably AWS or Azure
• Previous experience delivering quality outcomes at pace against challenging requirements
• Advanced knowledge of capacity planning and performance analysis for high availability IT service
• Advanced knowledge of designing and implementing performance reporting across multiple teams.
• High standard of numeracy and understanding of statistics especially methods of regression

We also believe that your career and how you progress is as unique as your individual personality. We continually support our people so they can become the best version of themselves.

What to do next

If this sounds like you, please send us your CV! If shortlisted from your initial application we operate a personalised recruitment process. Interviews are a two way street, we aim for them to be relevant and conversational to get the best out of you!

OSB Group are dedicated to diversity in the workplace and committed to treating all our employees and job applicants equally. We embrace equal opportunities and are opposed to discrimination on any grounds.

As part of our public commitment to the Women in Finance Charter, we have introduced our own initiatives to attract, develop and advance senior women in our sector. We don’t stop there though, we have broadened our approach to encourage diversity and inclusion at all levels and in all roles. Our leadership and Executive Committee are right behind us, to the extent that our Diversity Champions sit at Board level and on a monthly basis receive updates on our progress.

While we are an organisation that values face-to-face interaction to build and nourish our culture, we also acknowledge that people are not must productive in an office and tied to the 9 to 5. The vast majority of roles throughout the Group fall within scope of our Hybrid Working approach, which aims to provide ongoing flexibility and support in terms of work : life balance. Our approach provides opportunity for individuals to informally agree with their Line Manager how they split their working week between their primary office location and home.

All applicants must have rights to work in the UK and be willing to undertake the relevant pre‑employment screening checks should your application be successful.

Unfortunately, due to the high number of applications currently being received, only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

OSB Group are committed to Diversity and Inclusion across the business.