Head of Application Support

DB Recruitment; Kildare; Hybrid; EUR 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

DB Recruitment is seeking an experienced Head of Application Support in Ireland to lead an enterprise application support function, ensuring stability, availability and performance of critical business applications.

This senior leadership role governs strategy, service delivery and continuous improvement, with a hybrid work pattern (3 days onsite, 2 days from home). You will collaborate with software development, infrastructure, cloud, architecture and security teams to optimize operations.

Qualifications

• Senior leadership experience in Application Support or IT Service Management.
• Experience managing teams supporting enterprise-scale applications.
• Strong knowledge of ITIL, incident, problem, change and release processes.
• Experience in enterprise tech environments with high availability requirements.
• Understanding of application architecture, integrations, databases and cloud environments.
• Proven vendor and third-party management experience.

Responsibilities

• Lead and manage the application support function including internal teams and partners.
• Own operational support and availability of business-critical applications.
• Develop and implement the application support strategy and operating model.
• Oversee incident, problem, change and release management processes.
• Ensure incidents are escalated and resolved with clear stakeholder communication.
• Define and monitor SLAs, KPIs and performance metrics.
• Collaborate with development, infrastructure, cloud, security teams.
• Manage vendor relationships and performance.

Skills

ITIL / service management

Leadership

Vendor management

Incident & problem management

Cloud platforms (Azure/AWS)

SQL & relational databases

ServiceNow / ITSM

Stakeholder management

Education

ITIL certification or equivalent

Tools

ServiceNow

ERP/CRM applications

Job description

We are seeking an experienced Head of Application Support for a top company based in Kildare to lead and develop an enterprise application support function, ensuring the stability, availability and performance of critical business applications.

This is a senior leadership position with responsibility for application support strategy, service delivery, team leadership, operational performance and continuous improvement. 3 days a week onsite and 2 days from home

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and manage the Application Support function, including internal teams and third-party service providers.
• Take ownership of the operational support and availability of business-critical applications.
• Develop and implement the application support strategy, operating model and service standards.
• Manage incident, problem, change and release management processes across the application estate.
• Ensure critical incidents are managed effectively, including escalation, stakeholder communication and root-cause analysis.
• Establish and monitor SLAs, KPIs and operational performance metrics.
• Drive improvements in application availability, resilience, monitoring and support processes.
• Work closely with software development, infrastructure, cloud, architecture and security teams.
• Build strong relationships with business stakeholders and ensure technology issues are prioritised according to business impact.
• Manage relationships and performance across application vendors and outsourced technology partners.
• Oversee application upgrades, releases, patches and production changes.
• Identify opportunities for automation and improved monitoring to reduce manual support activity and recurring incidents.
• Ensure appropriate documentation, knowledge management and support procedures are maintained.
• Support disaster recovery, business continuity and operational resilience initiatives.
• Manage team capacity, recruitment, development and succession planning.
• Contribute to technology strategy, budgeting and application roadmap decisions.

Experience & Skills

• Significant experience within Application Support, Production Support or IT Service Management, including experience at leadership level.
• Proven experience managing teams supporting complex, business-critical applications.
• Strong knowledge of ITIL/service management principles, particularly incident, problem, change and release management.
• Experience operating within enterprise technology environments with demanding availability and service requirements.
• Strong understanding of application architecture, integrations, APIs, databases and infrastructure/cloud environments.
• Experience managing major production incidents and coordinating technical teams through resolution.
• Strong vendor and third-party management experience.
• Experience defining and reporting against SLAs, KPIs and service performance metrics.
• Understanding of application monitoring, observability and automation tools.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills with the ability to communicate effectively with both technical teams and senior business leaders.
• Strong people-management skills with a track record of developing high-performing technical teams.
• ITIL certification or equivalent service-management qualification.
• Experience with cloud platforms such as Azure or AWS.
• Knowledge of SQL and relational database environments.
• Experience with ServiceNow or similar ITSM platforms.
• Experience supporting ERP, CRM, financial, customer-facing or other enterprise applications.
• Previous involvement in application modernisation or cloud-transformation programmes.

For more info you can contact [e-mail]