Platform Owner (Crown Hosting)

HMRC's Enterprise Cloud Services (ECS) are looking for a Platform Owner who has experience of on-premises data centre, cloud hybrid technology and Platform management to join our ECS hosting management team.

Within HMRC’s Chief Digital & Information Group (CDIO), specifically in the team we are redefining and growing a team of outstanding people to improve its HMRC Cloud Centre of Excellence offering. We are already a diverse team of 90 + individuals, creating a dynamic and inclusive working environment whose skills cover Architecture, Development, Service Design, Operation and Governance.

The Role
The Platform Owner is responsible for overseeing the full lifecycle management of a platform to achieve ongoing optimisation, scalability, security and alignment with business, platform and broader technological objectives. To balance feature development with operational health, including addressing risks and technical debt. The role drives platform optimisation, covering cost-efficiency, reliability, and adaptability within a complex IT landscape.

You will ensure the platform is maintained as a modern, flexible service that integrates with existing and emerging technologies.

Person Specification

• Strategic Platform Leadership: Set and manage the long-term vision and strategy for the platform. Lead decision-making on the platform direction, prioritising features, risks and technical debt appropriately. Develop long-term roadmaps that balance innovation, security and operational stability across IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS environments.
• Risk & Security Management: Oversee the platform security and ensure compliance with regulatory standards for both internal and external platforms. Proactively management risks associated with operations, including vendor dependencies.
• Platform Performance & Innovation: Drive efforts to optimise platform performance, using data-driven insights to improve efficiency, scalability and user experience. Champion adoption of new technologies and innovative practices that enhance platform capabilities.
• Operational Integrity & Issue Resolution: Oversee the resolution of platform-related issues with minimal disruption to services and identifying root causes. Maintain operational integrity with a platform capable of scaling with service growth.
• Cross Functional Alignment: Collaborate with senior leadership and key stakeholders across product, engineering and architecture.

***Security vetting level for this post is "SC" cleared - you will already have this level of clearance or have held it previously***

Duties will include

• Manage a platform or platform feature, setting priorities and leadership for the platform team.
• With the Lead Platform Owner, develop the strategic roadmap of the end-to-end lifecycle of the platform, platform feature and services, responsible for ensuring the maintenance and continuous improvement of the platform.
• Engage with key stakeholders to understand and inform the business and CDIO strategic priorities and to reflect these in the platform module plans.
• Work with the platform and product teams and third parties to continually seek ways to improve the customer experience and deliver high quality, cost-effective, added value platform service and functionality.
• Support the development and maintenance of strategic third-party relationships, identifying opportunities to further benefit from the knowledge, expertise, and services of third parties.
• Ability to lead the resolution of platform incidents, conduct root cause analysis and follow change management process.

Essential Criteria

• Experience of supporting and developing strategic technical solutions, navigating ambiguity, and operating at a strategic level within complex organisations.
• Able to manage the full lifecycle of platforms across internal and external environments.
• Adept in identifying and managing platform risks.
• Proficient in managing relationships with external vendors.
• An understanding of on-premise data centre management.

Desirable Criteria

• An awareness of ITIL v4 Practices.
• Experience of working within a Managed Service and O-SIAM model with service providers and partners.
• Experience in communicating technical and non-technical concepts to stakeholders, both verbally and in writing.
• Knowledge of Security and Compliance features.
• An understanding of Private & Public Cloud Platforms and Products.
• An understand of Project Management Office governance.