Head of IT

Gravitas Group; Greater London; On-site; GBP 100,000 - 115,000; Full time

Job summary

Gravitas Group in London is seeking a Head of IT to lead a fast‑paced retail IT function on‑site. You will shape the IT strategy, manage a hybrid estate and balance hands‑on technical authority with strategic leadership.

You will drive governance, vendor management and service delivery across HQ and stores, ensuring uptime, security and scalable processes for a £250m+ business. Strong engineering roots and retail tech exposure are highly valued.

Qualifications

• Senior IT leadership experience in a fast‑paced, complex environment (multi‑site retail).
• Engineering roots with ability to lead and still engage technically.
• Retail/e‑commerce exposure and international operations preferred.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor and develop IT teams; drive accountability and improvement.
• Own a hybrid estate; ensure reliable integration of on‑prem and cloud.
• Set governance, standards, and vendor management across IT.
• Drive service delivery, reduce downtime and improve user experience.

Skills

IT leadership

Retail IT experience

Hybrid cloud

Systems administration

Network engineering

Tools

JAMF

Intune

Google Workspace

Microsoft 365

Entra ID

AD

Okta

GPOs

Mac endpoint management

Windows endpoint management

Job description

Head of IT (Onsite, London) — £100,000–£115,000

Company: Leading UK women’s fashion retailer (high-growth)
Location: London, W12 (White City) — Onsite
Type: Permanent
Salary: £100k–£115k base (DOE)

The Role

We’re looking for a Head of IT who can combine strategic leadership with hands‑on technical authority. You’ll shape and modernise the IT function while maintaining excellent service delivery for a fast‑paced, multi‑site retail environment. This role suits someone who has progressed from an engineering background and is still comfortable getting into the detail when needed.

Key Responsibilities

Leadership & Team

• Lead, mentor and develop the IT team; build a culture of accountability and continuous improvement
• Implement structured performance reviews, development plans and certification roadmaps
• Recruit and retain high‑performing technical talent; strengthen succession planning and resilience

Technical & Architecture (Hands‑on)

• Own and evolve a hybrid estate (legacy on‑prem + cloud) ensuring reliable integration
• Manage a mixed Mac + Windows endpoint environment (e.g., JAMF and Intune)
• Act as technical authority for Google Workspace and Microsoft 365, identity/SSO (incl. Entra ID)
• Be the escalation point for complex incidents (network, servers, performance, security)
• Oversee patching, firewalling, DR replication and broader security/compliance controls

Business Delivery & Governance

• Scale the IT operating model to support a £250m+ retail business
• Move performance measurement beyond SLAs to business‑impact KPIs/OKRs
• Set and enforce documentation/architecture standards; QA internal and vendor delivery
• Manage suppliers/SaaS partners and hardware vendors with strong operational governance

Service Delivery & Adoption

• Drive a customer‑first IT service culture across HQ and stores
• Mature service desk from reactive to proactive; reduce downtime and improve user experience
• Lead rollouts/migrations via robust change management to avoid peak‑trading disruption

Required Experience

• Senior IT leadership experience in a fast‑paced, complex environment (ideally £250m+ turnover and/or multi‑site)
• Clear engineering roots (Systems Admin / Network Engineer / Cloud Engineer / Infrastructure Architect)
• Retail/e‑commerce and international operations exposure strongly preferred

Technical Skills (Hands‑on expected)

• Hybrid cloud + virtualization
• Identity & access: AD / Entra ID / Okta / Google Cloud Identity
• Endpoint management: Apple Business Manager, JAMF, Intune, GPOs
• Networking/security: routing/switching, firewalls, VPN, SD‑WAN, Wi‑Fi (retail footprint)
• Scripting/automation (PowerShell/Bash/Python) desirable

Key Competencies

• High technical credibility; strong vendor management/challenge
• Pragmatic problem‑solving with commercial awarenessComfortable in ambiguity and competing priorities
• Able to translate technical detail into clear business outcomes