Support Services & Development Team Manager

Salary range: Grade 12 £50,085 - £52,194 p.a. plus fantastic benefits

Contract: Permanent

Hours of work: 36 hours per week

Location: Croydon

The Role

We're looking for a systems manager who knows that their job isn't to be the smartest person in the room, it's to make sure the team around them is. You’ll lead our Support Services and Development team, six specialist officers who design, maintain, and secure the business systems that underpin Croydon’s Revenues and Benefits services. Council Tax, Business Rates, Housing Benefit all run through their systems, and it has to be right, on time, and compliant. This isn't a technical lead role. It's a management role with technical credibility. You won't be buried in system configurations. That's what your team is for.

Instead, You’ll Be:

• The decision-maker – weighing risks, prioritising work, and making judgment calls on system changes, process improvements, and resource allocation.
• The people developer – coaching, mentoring, and performance‑managing a team of specialists. You'll grow them, challenge them, and make sure they feel supported.
• The bridge – translating between your technical team, IT suppliers, operational services, finance, and senior leadership. You make complexity accessible.
• The protector – ensuring system security, GDPR compliance, and audit readiness, while keeping the team resilient and well during high‑pressure periods like annual billing.

Who You Are

You don't need a Revenues & Benefits background. You do need:

• Proven experience managing complex business systems in a high‑volume, regulated environment—whether that's local government, finance, payroll, pensions, or another data‑driven service.
• A track record of leading and developing technical or specialist staff – you've done the 1-2-1s, the coaching, the tough conversations, and you've got the stories to prove it.
• Experience managing system upgrades, batch‑processing cycles, or major migrations with tight deadlines and high stakes.
• Strong supplier and stakeholder management – you know how to hold vendors to account and how to translate technical detail for non‑technical audiences.
• A risk‑aware, pragmatic mindset – you can balance "perfect" against "good enough" and know when to elevate and when to own it.

Why join us?

• Genuine autonomy to improve processes and make decisions
• A supportive leadership team who values people over process
• The chance to build a team culture you can be proud of
• A supportive, forward‑thinking culture focused on outcomes, not box‑ticking

In Your Supporting Statement, We Want To Hear About:

• You, first and foremost. Success is down to the individuals and the outcomes they deliver. Who are you? What kind of person are you? Tell us about your impact in previous roles, be specific, and what do you bring to this role?
• The human stuff. Tell us about a time you managed someone who was struggling, maybe with work, maybe with themselves. What did you notice? What did you say? What happened next?
• The messy middle. Managing people isn't always motivational speeches and high‑fives. Tell us about a difficult conversation you had to have with a team member. Be honest, how did you handle it, and what would you do differently now?
• The tiny detail. Read our advert again. Pick one sentence from it that made you think "that's exactly what I believe" and tell us why you feel that way.

About Us

Croydon Council’s priorities:

• Get a grip on the finances and make the council financially sustainable
• Become a council which listens to, respects and works in partnership with Croydon’s diverse communities and businesses
• Strengthen collaboration and joint working with partner organisations and the voluntary, community and faith sectors
• Ensure good governance is embedded and adopt best practice
• Develop our workforce to deliver in a manner that respects the diversity of our communities

Key Business Plan Outcomes:

• Croydon is a place of opportunity for business, earning and learning
• Children and young people in Croydon have the chance to thrive, learn and fulfil their potential
• Croydon is a cleaner, safer and healthier place, a borough we’re proud to call home
• People can lead healthier and independent lives for longer

Croydon Council’s new ways of working

Equal Opportunities Statement

Croydon Council is an inclusive employer and welcomes applications from all sections of the community. Subject to business needs, we will be pleased to consider applications from candidates seeking flexible working arrangements and support hybrid working, whereby staff attend the workplace for part of their working week and work from home, or elsewhere, remotely for the rest of the time. As users of the disability confident scheme, we guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the advertised role. Croydon council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff to share this commitment. The successful candidate will be subject to a DBS check, if the role requires one.