IT & Transformation Strategy & Governance Lead

As the UK’s leading Social Enterprise, we move lives forward every day by building, managing and supporting thriving Communities. From new homes, social housing and student accommodation to leisure, education and Community initiatives, our work makes a positive difference to millions of People across the UK. And that takes People who care about doing the right thing. People who are ambitious, ready to grow and motivated to make a difference through the work they do.

We’re looking for Colleagues who bring energy, curiosity and ownership. People who enjoy being challenged, support those around them and want to keep raising the bar. Because when we perform at our best, we create more opportunities to invest in our Customers, our Communities and each other.

Experience matters, but it’s only part of the story. If you share our values and want to build a career where your work has real impact, we’d love to hear from you.

More about your role

As our IT & Transformation Strategy & Governance Lead, you will own and continually improve our IT strategy, technology roadmap, application landscape, IT contracts and policy framework. You will connect IT and Transformation, turning operational and transformation needs into clear technology priorities while making sure plans, risks, dependencies and supplier commitments remain visible and well managed.

You will maintain effective governance across the technology portfolio, including roadmaps, decision logs, policy schedules, contract dashboards, application reports and risk registers. Working with teams across the organisation, you will support investment and prioritisation decisions, challenge unclear ownership or unmanaged technology change, and provide leaders with clear, practical recommendations.

This role is based in Northwich around 3 days a week.

At Places for People, we are committed to a safe working environment so a basic DBS check is mandatory., As part of our commitment to diversity and inclusion, we offer a guaranteed interview to candidates who are disabled, neurodiverse, or have served in the Armed Forces, provided they meet the essential criteria for the role. If you would like to be considered under this scheme, please indicate this in your application. We are dedicated to creating a supportive and accessible recruitment process for all.

We are committed to creating an inclusive and accessible recruitment process. If you require any reasonable adjustments to support your application or interview experience, please let us know. We’re happy to work with you to ensure you have the opportunity to perform at your best.

If you are a Places for People customer and you’re looking for support with your application, please contact our skills and employment team on skillsemployment@placesforpeople.co.uk.

We understand the importance of a supportive and inclusive work culture so please talk to us at interview about flexibility you may need. We can’t promise to give you exactly what you want, but we promise not to judge you for asking. For this role we are open to discussing the possibility of reduced hours, flexible start and finish times or compressed hours.

If you are a recruitment agency please note we operate a PSL and do not take cold calls

Safeguarding

At Places for People, safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. We are committed to creating safe communities for our customers and colleagues by protecting children, young people, and adults at risk from harm, abuse, and neglect.

We follow robust safeguarding policies and procedures, ensuring all employees, volunteers, and contractors uphold the highest standards of safeguarding and accountability. Our recruitment process includes pre-employment checks, including Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks where applicable, to promote a safe and secure working environment.

By joining Places for People, you are expected to contribute to our safeguarding culture, following our policies and reporting concerns to protect those in our communities

• Experience working within IT strategy, technology governance, IT portfolio management, IT operations, transformation, business systems, architecture or technology delivery.
• Practical experience of maintaining governance records such as technology roadmaps, application inventories, contract registers, policy libraries, risk registers or portfolio reports.
• Evidence of working with stakeholders across functions such as IT, Transformation, Procurement, Finance, Legal, operational teams, technology suppliers and senior leadership.
• Experience managing or providing oversight of IT contracts, renewals, supplier performance, licensing, costs or value-for-money considerations.
• Experience translating complex technology, supplier or governance information into clear reports, business cases, decision papers or recommendations.

More about you

You will be organised, commercially aware and comfortable bringing structure to a complex technology environment. You can work confidently with specialists, suppliers and senior leaders, ask constructive questions and turn detailed information into clear decisions and actions. You will take ownership of keeping governance information accurate, current and controlled while balancing several priorities.

Experience in housing, property, customer operations, shared services or another regulated organisation would be useful, particularly if you have worked with complex or legacy application landscapes. Qualifications or training in areas such as ITIL, COBIT, TOGAF, business analysis, project or programme management, supplier management, Agile or Lean Six Sigma would also be welcome. Experience with platforms such as Microsoft 365, SharePoint, Power BI, Visio, Jira or ServiceNow would be beneficial but is not essential.

We know rewarding work deserves rewarding benefits. That’s why, alongside a competitive salary, you’ll have access to a package designed to support you at work and beyond.

You’ll receive:

• Pension with matched contributions up to 7%
• Bonus scheme for colleagues at 2%
• 35 days holiday (including bank holidays) with the option to buy or sell days
• Healthcare cashback plan for everyday medical costs, with private GP and health support services available
• Comprehensive wellbeing support including counselling, flu jabs, our Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) and access to our Wellbeing Hub, supporting your mental, physical and financial wellbeing
• Access to Our Place Rewards, offering discounts and savings on groceries, travel, shopping, home products and other lifestyle purchases
• Ongoing training, professional qualifications, internal development programmes and career progression opportunities
• Recognition programmes including Star Awards and Colleague Awards, celebrating achievements and recognising great work
• Strong focus on inclusion, wellbeing and colleague engagement
• Free membership to Places Gyms
• Life Assurance to provide financial security for your loved ones, alongside access to will writing services to help you plan for the future with confidence