Head of Technology Operations

We're recruiting for a Head of Technology Operations to join our team. They will have overall responsibility for the day-to-day management, activities, and guidance of the Activate Group IT Support and platform engineering teams, with first and second line support led through the Service Desk Manager. The role owns all Activate Group IT infrastructure and platforms, with full accountability for defining and delivering the platform strategy across all group systems and environments, and for infrastructure availability, security, and performance. Working closely with the Head of Development and the Director of Data, the role champions modern platform engineering, DevOps, and site reliability engineering practices, and acts as the senior (4th line escalation point for critical infrastructure issues., Leadership and Management:

• Lead the IT Support and platform engineering teams, managing first and second line support through the Service Desk Manager, including effective resource, demand, and utilisation planning to deliver high-quality service.
• Manage both teams' set objectives and targets working together to achieve them, promoting professional growth and skill development.
• Monitoring the teams closely to ensure exceptional service is provided and KPIs are met.
• Foster a collaborative, inclusive, and high-performance culture, actively removing barriers between teams and celebrating achievements to build motivation.
• Establish ambitious standards and support the teams to achieve high performance through regular 121s, challenge, feedback, and recognition. Identify training needs and develop others by building their skills and confidence.
• Adhere to all relevant regulatory rules and guidance applicable to the role.
• Adhere to and function within departmental budgets, ensuring cost-effective operations.
• Identify, evaluate, and implement technology, automation, and process improvements to increase efficiency and service quality, building business cases for investment where required.
• Build and lead the platform engineering capability, setting clear standards, career paths, and development opportunities.

IT Infrastructure and Support:

• Through the Service Desk Manager, ensure first and second line support provides timely and effective assistance to internal users across hardware, software, networking, and business applications, with incident, problem, and request management owned through to resolution.
• Define, monitor, and report on IT support metrics, KPIs, and SLAs, using insight, data, and root-cause analysis to inform decisions and drive continuous improvement initiatives.
• Take full ownership of key projects, delivering at pace while maintaining quality, in line with business objectives.
• Embed ITIL-aligned incident, problem, change, and asset management processes, owning the ITSM toolset, service catalogue, and knowledge base.
• Own and manage all group IT infrastructure, including servers, cloud platforms (Microsoft 365, Azure/Entra ID), networking (LAN/WAN, Wi-Fi, VPN), endpoint estate, and telephony across all sites, acting as senior technical escalation point on major incidents.
• Ensure infrastructure availability, resilience, and performance, owning monitoring, capacity planning, and preventative maintenance across the estate.
• Own backup, business continuity, and disaster recovery arrangements, including regular testing of recovery plans.
• Define and maintain the infrastructure roadmap, managing hardware and software lifecycles, upgrades, and end-of-life replacement across all sites.
• Own day-to-day IT security operations, including patching, endpoint protection, access and identity management, and support for the group's cyber security policies and accreditations.
• Manage third-party IT suppliers, contracts, and software licensing, holding vendors to account on performance and value.
• Plan and deliver technical projects such as hardware refreshes, site openings and moves, system upgrades, and automation initiatives

Platform Strategy and Engineering:

• Define, communicate, and deliver the long-term platform strategy across all Activate Group systems and environments, ensuring alignment with the technology roadmap and growth plans.
• Drive adoption of modern cloud, containerisation (e.g. Kubernetes), and platform engineering practices to increase scalability, resilience, and speed of delivery.
• Lead the adoption of infrastructure as code (IaC), CI/CD pipelines, and automated testing within platform operations.
• Champion site reliability engineering (SRE) practices, embedding monitoring, observability, and incident response, and continuously improving performance metrics including application load times, throughput, and error rates.
• Partner with the Head of Development and the Director of Data to design platform services that accelerate product delivery and data-driven innovation, providing developers with self-service, reliable, and well-documented platform capabilities.
• Act as the 4th line escalation point for critical system, firewall, switching, and infrastructure incidents that cannot be resolved by support or infrastructure teams.
• Ensure platforms are cost-optimised, secure, and future-proof, working with InfoSec to maintain robust security, compliance, and governance across all environments.
• Establish governance and reporting on platform performance, cost, and risk.

Stakeholder Engagement:

• Build and maintain strong relationships with key stakeholders across the organization.

• Act as a point of escalation for complex issues and ensure timely resolution

• Communicate updates and risks consistently to senior management, sharing longterm plans to build clarity and alignment across the business.

• Act as a senior technical authority within Activate Group, representing platform and infrastructure capabilities with senior stakeholders and customers where required.

Leadership Behaviours:

This role is expected to lead in line with the Activate Group Leadership Competency Framework:

• Win Together - build strong, trusting relationships across IT, Development, Data, and the wider business; involve the right people early, communicate openly and respectfully, and create an inclusive culture of learning and collaboration.
• Strive for Better - champion innovation and challenge outdated thinking; create space for experimentation, use insight and data to inform direction, welcome constructive challenge, and continuously improve ways of working.
• Make It Happen - take full accountability for decisions and outcomes; make timely, well-judged decisions even with limited information, set clear direction, remove barriers before they escalate, and deliver high-quality results at pace.

• Proven experience in a senior platform, infrastructure, or DevOps leadership role, ideally in SaaS, InsurTech, or B2B technology, including ownership of IT infrastructure and service desk functions in a multi-site environment.
• Management experience
• Strong track record of building and scaling cloud-native platforms (Azure, OCI, AWS, or similar), with deep technical knowledge of server and cloud infrastructure (Microsoft 365, Azure/Entra ID), virtualisation, networking (LAN/WAN, Wi-Fi, VPN, firewalls), endpoint management (e.g. Intune), and backup/DR technologies.
• Deep expertise in Kubernetes, cloud networking, CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure as code, and platform security.7
• Experience leading site reliability engineering (SRE), monitoring, observability, and performance optimisation (load times, application speed, latency management).
• Experience providing senior-level escalation support for complex infrastructure, firewall, networking, and systems issues
• ITIL Foundation certification (or above) and hands-on experience with ITSM platforms and reporting
• Solid understanding of cyber security controls and compliance frameworks (e.g. Cyber Essentials, ISO 27001, GDPR), patching, and access management.
• Experience managing third-party IT suppliers, contracts, and licensing.
• Data-literate, comfortable building KPI and SLA reporting (e.g. Excel, Power BI).
• Hardworking and can-do attitude.
• Solution-orientated looking to get to the bottom of an issue and use initiative.
• Flexible and ready to support after working hours.

We believe in rewarding our people for the great work they do. When you join Activate Group, you can expect:

• 33 days holiday, including bank holidays

• Personal health cash plan - claim back the cost of everyday healthcare such as dental and optical check-ups

• Enhanced maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental pay

• Life assurance at three times your basic salary

• Free breakfasts and fresh fruit

• A birthday surprise for everyone

Activate Group is a growing UK business with 1,000+ team members nationwide. This is an exciting opportunity to build a long-term career with a company that values its people and offers genuine development and progression opportunities., At Activate Group, we want everyone to have the tools and support they need to do their best work. We're an innovative business that continuously reviews and improves our systems, processes and ways of working, making sure they support our teams to do their jobs effectively. Every role at Activate Group is aligned to our wider business vision and purpose - making someone's bad day better. You'll understand how your role contributes to the bigger picture and how your work helps deliver excellent outcomes for customer and partners. We believe work should be enjoyable. We make time to celebrate success, recognise achievements and bring people together at team events and company-wide celebrations. We'll also support your ongoing development through regular feedback and career planning. Whether you're based in one of our contact centres in Halifax, Peterborough or Huddersfield, working at an Activate Accident Repair (AAR) site, or working from home, you'll be part of a supportive culture where people are encouraged to succeed. A bit about us Activate Group is a fast-growing business approaching 1,000 team members nationwide. We work with some of the UK's largest fleets and insurance companies, supporting drivers that have been involved in road incidents through our contact centres in Halifax, Peterborough and Huddersfield. We manage every step of the repair journey - repairing vehicles at our own Activate Accident Repair (AAR) body shops, as well as through a UK-wide network of trusted independent repair partners. We also work with the UK's largest vehicle manufacturers, supporting their approved repair programmes, and deliver innovative technology solutions to fleets, vehicle repair centres and dealerships. Our purpose & values Our purpose underpins everything we do: Make someone's bad day better Our values define how we work with our team members, customers and suppliers: * Make it happen - Be accountable. Take the initiative, work fast, and do a great job. * Strive for better - Be bold. Challenge the norm - make small improvements often. * Win together - Be a team player. Win together, learn together, respect each other.