Oracle Head of Platform

Oracle Head of Platform

Permanent • Grade 7 - £64,561 - £83,183 - Consultation grade - subject to formal evaluation under the Pay Equity Review

Working 36.5 hours per week

As Oracle Head of Platform, you will play a pivotal role in ensuring Birmingham City Council's enterprise applications and platforms are robust, secure, and strategically aligned with our ambitious digital transformation agenda.

Reporting to the Head of Function - Platform, you will lead the Applications Practice and Centre of Excellence, overseeing the development, implementation, and continuous improvement of our Oracle and related enterprise applications. You'll ensure the organisation has strong, scalable, and user-centred technology foundations to deliver better outcomes for citizens, businesses, and staff.

This is a senior leadership role that combines strategic direction, operational excellence, and inspirational people management-driving service resilience, capability building, and modern, agile ways of working across the application landscape.

• Provide strategic and operational leadership of the Council's Oracle and enterprise application portfolio, ensuring stability, security, and efficiency.
• Develop and deliver application strategies and roadmaps that support the Council's digital priorities and optimise the use of technology, data, and platforms.
• Establish and lead an Applications Centre of Excellence, promoting best practice, innovation, and professional growth across multidisciplinary teams.
• Drive continual service improvement, embedding agile principles and a strong focus on user needs and experience.
• Oversee application implementation, integration, and support-ensuring quality, performance, and value for money.
• Manage supplier relationships and budgets to deliver reliable, cost-effective services and reduce dependency on contractors.
• Act as a trusted senior partner to service and product owners, providing expert advice and resolving complex application challenges.
• Lead emergency response, business continuity, and change governance for all enterprise applications and platforms.
• Champion inclusion, collaboration, and openness-building a high-performing, motivated team culture aligned with IT & Digital values.

You will be a strategic technology leader with extensive experience managing large-scale Oracle or enterprise application environments in complex organisations. You'll bring:

• Proven leadership in delivering and evolving application services using agile methodologies.
• Strong track record in modernising legacy systems, introducing new technologies, and driving cultural and process change.
• Deep understanding of enterprise application architecture, integration, and information security.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence at all levels and align technology with business outcomes.
• Experience leading multidisciplinary teams, building in-house capability, and fostering a culture of learning and improvement.
• Strong commercial and financial acumen, with experience managing suppliers, contracts, and budgets.

Birmingham City Council is embarking on one of the UK's most ambitious digital transformation programmes. As Oracle Head of Platform, you'll shape the systems and services that underpin this change-creating an environment where innovation, resilience, and user experience sit at the heart of how we deliver public services.

We encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that represents the communities we serve. Our data tells us that for this level of role, ethnic minorities are underrepresented and therefore we will use positive action to support us to achieve diverse shortlists. This may mean that recruitment times are a little longer, but we think this is worth it to achieve our aim.

For any informal enquires please contact:

Please upload your up-to-date CV via the attachments part of your application, this is required for shortlisting. Unfortunately, we cannot consider any applications without a CV attached.

Birmingham City Council is an accredited Disability Confident Leader employer, and we are committed to employing, retaining and developing all of our people.

We want to ensure your recruitment journey with us is a positive and equitable one, so please let us know if there are any reasonable adjustments, additional support, accessibility needs, or if there is any way in which we can support you through your application.

We are dedicated to supporting internal mobility and the development of our people. As such, applications from internal employees and those under S118 will be given priority and reviewed before external applications are considered.

We welcome applications from people with caring responsibilities and flexible working options will be considered.

A Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check will be undertaken.

Proof of Right to work in the UK will be required for all applicants in accordance with UK Home Office requirements, before any employment offer can be confirmed.

Job Description and PersonSpecification - Head of Technical Practice Apps Oracle (2).docx