Head of Application Development

TeacherActive Limited.; Birmingham; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

TeacherActive Limited. seeks an experienced Head of Application Services to own the application estate and lead the development of digital solutions that drive business performance.

This hands-on, player-manager role combines team leadership with direct involvement in discovery, roadmaps, agile delivery, releases and continuous improvement, ensuring applications are reliable, secure and well supported. You will shape the application roadmap, manage priorities and delivery backlogs, and

Qualifications

• Leads application or product teams with hands-on delivery.
• Practical understanding of agile delivery and backlog management.
• Translate business challenges into usable, sustainable digital solutions.

Responsibilities

• Own our applications end-to-end, from idea through to support or retirement.
• Shape and maintain the application roadmap, priorities and delivery backlog.
• Collaborate with business teams to identify friction and opportunities for improvement.
• Lead agile product development while hands-on with requirements, acceptance criteria and delivery decisions.
• Coach and develop a small team to foster ownership and continuous improvement.
• Ensure applications are reliable, secure, maintainable and well supported.
• Use data and outcomes to guide what comes next.
• Manage relationships with technology partners and suppliers, ensuring quality and results.

Skills

Leadership

Agile delivery

Requirements gathering

User stories

Stakeholder management

Job description

Are you an experienced applications leader who still enjoys being close to the work?

We’re looking for a Head of Application Services to take ownership of our application estate and lead the development of digital solutions that make a genuine difference to how our business operates.

This is a hands-on player-manager role where you’ll combine leadership of a small application and product delivery team with direct involvement in discovery, roadmaps, agile delivery, releases, support and continuous improvement.

What you’ll be doing

You’ll:

• Own our applications end-to-end, from initial idea and development through to support, improvement and eventual replacement or retirement.
• Shape and maintain the application roadmap, priorities and delivery backlog.
• Work closely with teams across the business to identify friction, opportunities and practical digital improvements.
• Lead agile product development while remaining hands-on with requirements, user stories, acceptance criteria and delivery decisions.
• Coach and develop a small application and product team, creating a culture of ownership, collaboration and continuous improvement.
• Ensure applications are reliable, secure, maintainable and well supported.
• Use feedback, data and business outcomes to understand what’s working and determine what comes next.
• Manage relationships with technology partners and suppliers, holding them accountable for quality and results.

What we’re looking for

You’ll be someone who can balance strategy with delivery.

You’ll be comfortable setting direction and influencing senior stakeholders, but equally happy getting involved in a backlog refinement session, challenging a requirement, reviewing a release or helping the team solve a problem.

You’ll bring strong application or product leadership experience, a practical understanding of agile delivery and the ability to translate business challenges into useful, sustainable digital solutions.

Above all, we’re looking for someone who is proactive, curious and commercially minded - someone who wants to understand how the business works and use technology to make it better.

For us, it's not just about building applications and systems that work- it is about using your imagination and understanding how everything ties together in terms of data, patterns, user experience and being completely embedded in all business areas.

If you want the opportunity to shape how applications are developed, supported and improved across the organisation, we’d love to hear from you.