Head of Application Platforms

About the role

The Head of Application Platforms is responsible for the end‑to‑end performance, stability and delivery of Dis‑Chem’s application platforms across retail, customer, core and integration domains. The role drives a platform‑as‑product mindset, ensuring platforms are reliable, scalable, secure and reusable across the business.

Key responsibilities

• Define and maintain platform strategies and roadmaps for Retail, Customer, Core and Integration platforms.
• Ensure platforms deliver reusable capabilities rather than bespoke point solutions.
• Decide and govern platform ownership models in line with enterprise design principles.
• Drive simplification, standardisation and technical‑debt reduction.
• Accountable for outcomes delivered through platform tribes and squads.
• Ensure stable, secure operation of applications, including incident, problem and lifecycle management.
• Partner with Infrastructure and Security to meet availability, performance and resilience targets.
• Coordinate with Integration and Workflow platforms to enable reliable data flow and process automation.
• Work with Enterprise Architecture to ensure adherence to technology standards and patterns.
• Collaborate with IT Demand Management, PMO and business product owners to prioritise work and define value cases.
• Govern vendor delivery within platform accountability frameworks.

Required profile

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Systems, Computer Science or a related field.
• 10+ years’ experience in application or digital technology leadership.
• Proven delivery and operation of large‑scale enterprise platforms.
• Strong product and platform leadership mindset.
• Experience leading multiple Agile tribes and squads.
• Ability to manage complex application landscapes and dependencies.
• Strong stakeholder engagement across business and IT.