Head of Applications

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

Job summary

TeacherActive is seeking a Head of Application Services in Birmingham City Centre. You will own our application estate and lead digital solutions that transform how the business operates.

This is a hands‑on player‑manager role, combining leadership with direct delivery responsibilities across discovery, roadmaps, releases and continuous improvement. You will shape the product roadmap, manage the backlog, and collaborate across the business to identify friction and improvements.

Qualifications

• Experience leading application/product teams.
• Strong understanding of agile delivery.
• Ability to translate business challenges into digital solutions.
• Proactive, curious and commercially minded.

Responsibilities

• Own our applications end‑to‑end, from idea through to support and retirement.
• Shape and maintain the application roadmap, priorities and backlog.
• Work with business teams to identify friction and opportunities for digital improvements.
• Lead agile product development while being hands‑on with requirements and acceptance criteria.
• Coach and develop a small application and product team, driving ownership and continuous improvement.
• Ensure applications are reliable, secure, maintainable and well supported.
• Use data and feedback to decide what comes next and manage vendor relationships.

Skills

Leadership

Agile delivery

Stakeholder management

Team coaching

Job description

Head of Application Services

Birmingham City Centre

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

• 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.

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

AT01