Head of DevOps and DataOps

Job Description:

Salary £59,966 - £67,468, 33 days annual leave plus bank holidays, hybrid working (3 days per week in office), competitive pension and other benefits

Hays Technology are working in partnership with a Higher Education client to recruit a Head of DevOps and DataOps vacancy on a permanent basis.

It is an exciting time to be joining this Digital Services team as they deliver on an ambitious digital strategy and masterplan that will drive significant digital transformation across the organisation. The role is responsible for the development and support of the major applications, master data, and information reporting systems that support the University's business processes, including student records, timetabling, accommodation management, research management, finance, HR/payroll, marketing, and facilities management. It is critical to enabling the University to streamline and automate processes to enhance efficiency and reliability; ensuring valuable data and insights are provided to support the University's growth, serve students, and improve operational efficiency.

You will have responsibility for a team of 23 staff within the department, including line management for the team leaders of the five sub teams; DevOps, DataOps, ERPOps, Dev Team, Agile Delivery.

Key Responsibilities:

Leadership & Strategy

• Lead and develop multidisciplinary teams including solution, low‑code, data and integration developers, delivering new digital solutions, automation and operational excellence.
• Set future technology direction through horizon planning, guidance on emerging platforms (e.g. Power Platform and data technologies) and adoption of best practice.
• Embed strong customer focus, continuous learning, coaching, and knowledge‑sharing to maximise capability and minimise operational risk.

Technical Governance & Quality

• Establish and maintain development standards, toolsets, source control, documentation templates and policies.
• Ensure quality, security and resilience are integral to all development and integration activities.
• Maintain expert knowledge of systems integration, solution development and emerging trends, acting as a trusted technical adviser to senior stakeholders.
• Participate as a key member of the Architecture Board, assuring solution design and architectural compliance.

Systems Ownership & Operations

• Own and continuously improve critical enterprise systems (e.g. ERP, Student Records and associated data, application and database platforms).
• Act as escalation point for 2nd and 3rd line incidents, ensuring timely resolution and supplier engagement.
• Lead preventative maintenance, upgrades, disaster recovery planning, configuration management and risk management for relevant systems.
• Work closely with partners and suppliers on roadmap development, defects, enhancements and incident resolution.

Resource & Delivery Management

• Plan and prioritise resources across Dev, Agile Delivery, ERPOps and DataOps teams, balancing operational demands with long‑term strategy.
• Maintain accurate resource plans and guide estimation and sizing of development activity.
• Work with Service Owners and Project Managers to ensure effective allocation of developer capacity for projects, change, support and upgrades.
• Proactively identify, mitigate and resolve resourcing risks to maintain delivery momentum.

If you would like to apply, you must have the following skills and experience:

• Educated to degree level in an IT related discipline or with equivalent additional experience.
• Previous experience in an IT Leadership or management role.
• Substantial technical experience in solutions development and system implementation within one or more operating environments within a complex IT service serving a large organisation.
• Brings clear, 'customer focussed' thinking to the development of technical strategies, standards and design principles.
• Maintains excellent awareness of technical innovations and emerging trends.
• Successful track record in building and leading highly flexible teams of developers and technical experts, operating in a matrix environment.
• Familiar with the technologies relevant to the team's purpose.
• Experience with any or all of the following are of interest: Microsoft M365 and Azure technologies, including Office 365, Business Intelligence or SAP ERP (Basis, FI, HR, ESS/MSS, Payroll, SRM, PI) or Tribal SITS or MS SQL Server.

If you have the relevant experience and would like to apply, please submit your CV.

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