Business Applications and Project Manager at Hitachi Rail in Slough

Business Applications and Project Manager

This full-time on-site position offers great opportunities for career growth. Location: Datchet, Slough. Job Schedule: Full time. Remote: No.

Company Overview

Through its Social Innovation Business that brings together IT, OT(Operational Technology) and products, Hitachi contributes to a harmonized society where the environment, wellbeing, and economic growth are in balance. Hitachi operates globally in four sectors - Digital Systems & Services, Energy, Mobility, and Connective Industries - and the Strategic SIB Business Unit for new growth businesses. With Lumada at its core, Hitachi generates value from integrating data, technology and domain knowledge to solve customer and social challenges. Revenues for FY2024 (ended March 31, 2025) totaled 9,783.3 billion yen, with 618 consolidated subsidiaries and approximately 280,000 employees worldwide. Visit us at www.hitachi.com . Hitachi Ltd is a global conglomerate headquartered in Japan, employing approximately 280,000 employees worldwide and a turnover of £60 Billion. Hitachi Europe Ltd is the regional head office for Hitachi Ltd and employs approximately 350 people in 13 countries across Europe. Our Head Office is at Ditton Park, Datchet in the UK with offices throughout Europe. The Information Technology Group of Hitachi Europe Ltd is part of Hitachi’s shared service for EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) and responsible for delivery of IT services to Hitachi companies in our region.

What you’ll be doing

Key Responsibilities

• Manage and support the organisation’s portfolio of business applications, ensuring availability, usability and alignment with business requirements.
• Directly manage staff within the EDI and SAP Applications teams, providing leadership, coaching, performance support and day-to-day guidance.
• Lead application-related projects, including upgrades, enhancements, integrations, migrations and new system implementations.
• Work with stakeholders to gather requirements, define scope, agree priorities and translate business needs into clear delivery plans.
• Work closely with the G-AMO Support and Operations team ensuring effective communication and support between application process owners and remote support teams.
• Manage project plans, milestones, risks, issues, budgets and dependencies, providing regular reporting to the Head of Projects and Customer Solutions.
• Oversee team workload, priorities and resource allocation across EDI and SAP Applications, ensuring operational support and project delivery commitments are met.
• Coordinate testing, user acceptance, release management, training and post-go-live support activities.
• Manage relationships with application vendors and third-party partners, including service performance, escalations and improvement plans.
• Identify opportunities for process improvement, standardisation, automation and better use of existing systems.

What you bring to the team

The role will be a mixture of remote-hybrid work with 1day in the Hitachi Office (Office address: Hitachi Europe Ltd, Botanica Ditton Park, Riding Court Road, Datchet, SL3 9LL ).

Skills and Experience

• Minimum five years’ experience in application management and project management.
• Good understanding of business applications, enterprise systems and the corporate IT function.
• Experience managing application lifecycles, including support, change, testing, release and continuous improvement.
• Proven ability to deliver projects using structured project management methods; Agile, hybrid or waterfall experience desirable.
• Experience of working with ERP, CRM, workflow, reporting or other business-critical applications.
• Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to work across business, IT and supplier teams.
• Previous experience of directly managing, coaching or developing technical or application support teams.
• Strong knowledge of Microsoft 365 tools, particularly Excel, PowerPoint, Teams and SharePoint.
• Experience with SAP s/4 HANA or similar ERP platforms would be advantageous.
• Relevant project management or service management qualification, such as PRINCE2, PMP, Agile, Scrum or ITIL, would be beneficial.

Competencies

• Delivery focused, organised and able to manage multiple priorities.
• Strong communicator who can engage confidently with technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Analytical and practical problem solver with attention to detail.
• Customer focused, with a strong understanding of business impact and service quality.
• Confident people manager who can motivate teams, set clear expectations and support professional development.
• Collaborative team player who can work effectively across departments, regions and supplier teams.
• Proactive, adaptable and committed to continuous improvement.

Benefits Package

• Generous holiday entitlement - with the option to buy up to an additional 5 days per year
• A Holiday Banking scheme allowing you to bank untaken holiday to use another year
• Group Personal Pension
• Private Medical Insurance with self-funded option to cover family members
• Employee Assistance Programme available to all employees
• Personal Accident Insurance
• Voluntary Benefits (funded by employee) including; Cycle To Work scheme
• Gym Membership
• Dental Insurance with option to include dependent children
• Health screening
• Dining card

Our Values

• Wa - Harmony, Trust, Respect
• Makoto - Sincerity, Fairness, Honesty, Integrity
• Kaitakusha-Seishin - Pioneering Spirit, Challenge

We are proud to say we are an equal opportunity employer and welcome all applicants for employment without attention to any factor that doesn’t impact your ability to do the job, including race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.