Head of Platform Development

Maritime and Coastguard Agency; Southampton; Hybrid; GBP 57,000 - 80,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Pension with employer contribution

25 days annual leave

Staff discount portal

Employee Assistance Programme

Flexible working

Job summary

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) is seeking a Head of Platform Development to lead the platform and software development capability. You will define the technical strategy, governance, and delivery across Microsoft Power Platform, Dynamics 365 and related tools, while building a high-performing, secure and scalable digital service team.

Success requires extensive experience leading platform engineering, strong governance, and the ability to drive cross-functional collaboration with

Qualifications

• Experience with enterprise-scale platform development and governance.
• Strong Agile delivery skills across multidisciplinary teams.
• Ability to define and enforce development standards and guardrails.

Responsibilities

• Lead MCA's platform and software development strategy across internal and supplier-delivered solutions.
• Provide technical leadership across Power Platform and Dynamics 365; define Foundry and Copilot Studio development approach.
• Define and maintain development, testing, release, and integration standards; ensure live service readiness.
• Build and lead a strong platform engineering capability, supporting recruitment and succession planning.

Skills

Agile delivery

Technical leadership

Stakeholder engagement

Governance & assurance

Tools

Power Platform

Dynamics 365

C# / .NET

Dataverse & APIs

Job description

About the role

Salary: £57,515 (This role comes with a DDaT allowance of up to £24,915) - A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Contract Type: Permanent – Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) is seeking a Head of Platform Development to join our Digital and Technology Directorate. This role sits within the platform development team, leading the Agency’s software and platform development capability across Microsoft Power Platform, Dynamics 365, Foundry, operational AI and Copilot technologies. You will help shape technical strategy, strengthen governance and assurance, and build a high-performing team delivering secure, scalable and user-centred digital services.

Key Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Leading MCA’s platform and software development strategy across internal and supplier-delivered solutions.
• Providing technical leadership across Power Platform and Dynamics 365. Define an approach to Microsoft Foundry and Copilot Studio Development.
• Defining and maintaining development, testing, release, integration and assurance standards.
• Building and leading a strong platform engineering capability, supporting recruitment, development and succession planning.
• Employer pension contribution of 28.97% of your salary.
• 25 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day each year of service (up to a maximum of 30 days annual leave).
• 8 Bank Holidays plus an additional Privilege Day to mark the King’s birthday.
• Access to the staff discount portal.
• Excellent career development opportunities and the potential to undertake professional qualifications relevant to your role paid for by the department, such as CIPD, Prince2, apprenticeships, etc.
• Joining a diverse and inclusive workforce with a range of staff communities to support all our colleagues.
• 24-hour Employee Assistance Programme providing free confidential help and advice for staff.
• Flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance.

About you

To be successful in this role you will need to have the following experience:

• Extensive experience with Microsoft Power Platform and Dynamics 365, including enterprise-scale implementation and operation.
• Strong understanding of Dataverse, integrations, and end-to-end software and platform lifecycle management, including design, build, release and live service.
• Good working knowledge of C# and .NET based development, with demonstrable experience providing technical leadership, governance and design assurance for bespoke or supplier built digital systems, including APIs, services and Dynamics 365 plugins, through the review of solutions, design documentation, standards compliance and readiness for live service.
• Strong Agile delivery skills, including coaching, technical leadership and assurance across multidisciplinary teams and mixed delivery models (internal and supplier-led).
• Ability to define and enforce development standards, architectural patterns and technical guardrails across multiple teams and third-party suppliers.
• Appreciation of AI/ML systems, generative AI, and/or agentic AI frameworks and tooling.
• Proven experience leading technical teams or platform engineering functions, influencing senior stakeholders to drive organisational change while building sustainable internal capability and thriving communities of practice.
• Experience designing or running governance frameworks, quality assurance processes, or Centre of Excellence-based governance structures.
• Awareness of data, security and compliance standards relevant to enterprise platforms.