Lead Platform Manager (Integration) in Birmingham

Base salary: £54878 pa to £64562 pa depending on skills and experience. In addition, we offer a flexible benefits fund of 20% which is paid on top of the base salary and is fully pensionable, as well as a range of competitive benefits.

HS2 Ltd endeavours to ensure everyone working for us and with us feels included, thrives and achieves their full potential. This means we are positive and inclusive about making adjustments, providing flexible working, encouraging our staff networks to flourish and providing personal and professional development opportunities.

As the Lead Platform Manager (Integration) sits within the Platforms & Operations function, you will be responsible for the effective management of HS2's IT Integration platform capabilities. The role is responsible for the delivery, maintenance and availability of IT integration and infrastructure and oversees supplier resources providing development and management services.

About the role:

• Provide technical leadership and ownership for the organisation's integration platforms, ensuring they support reliable, secure, and scalable connectivity between enterprise applications and platforms.
• Define and maintain integration strategy, architecture standards, and patterns, enabling consistent and reusable approaches to API development, messaging, and data movement.
• Oversee the operation and continual improvement of integration services and middleware platforms (e.g. API gateways, enterprise service bus, and data platforms), ensuring availability, performance, and security requirements are met.
• Collaborate with technical teams to ensure integration designs align with overall technology architecture and support business and IT strategies.
• Lead the delivery and lifecycle management (cradle to grave) of integration capabilities that support key enterprise platforms, such as ERP, HCM, and the enterprise data platform.
• Lead the provision of expert advice on integration patterns, including how integration should be set up (point-to-point Vs. Integration platforms).
• Ensure integration components are effectively version-controlled, monitored, and maintained, with robust operational support and incident management processes in place.
• Establish and maintain an inventory and governance processes for integration design, development, and usage, including review of third-party and in-house integrations for adherence to policy and standards.
• Act as the primary point of contact for integration-related technical issues, risks, and opportunities, providing expert advice and guidance to project teams and technical stakeholders.
• Support the onboarding of new applications and platforms by ensuring appropriate integration capabilities are designed, provisioned, and operationalised.
• Collaborate with security, service, and data teams to ensure integration solutions meet data protection, access control, and regulatory requirements.
• Actively promote and embed Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in all your work, and support and comply with all organisational initiatives, policies and procedures on EDI.

About you:

Skills:

• Integration: Applies appropriate integration patterns and technologies to enable reliable, secure data and service connectivity across systems.
• Solution Architecture: Developing and communicating a multi-dimensional solution architecture to deliver agreed business outcomes.
• Systems Development Management: Plans and leads the development and lifecycle of integration components and platforms.
• IT Infrastructure: Ensures integration platforms (e.g. API gateways, middleware, ETL tools) are operationally supported and continuously improved.
• Stakeholder relationship management: Ability to influence stakeholder attitudes, decisions, and actions for mutual benefit.

Knowledge:

• Knowledge of enterprise integration patterns, platforms, and tools (e.g. APIs, ESB, messaging queues, event-driven architecture, ETL/ELT pipelines), and their application in a modern IT estate.
• Knowledge of the integration technology landscape, including cloud-native services (e.g. Azure Integration Services), hybrid integration platforms, and middleware tools.
• Knowledge of delivery methodologies (e.g., but not limited to waterfall, agile, or lean), and how they impact the planning and delivery of integration and platform capabilities.
• Knowledge of security, governance, and data protection considerations in the context of systems integration, including secure API management and access control.
• Knowledge of how enterprise platforms (e.g. ERP, HCM, enterprise data platforms) interact through integration, and how to enable resilient, scalable connectivity between them.

Type of Experience:

• Experience leading the delivery and lifecycle management of integration platforms or services in a large, complex IT environment.
• Experience designing and overseeing technical integration solutions across multiple enterprise systems, using APIs, messaging, or data pipelines.
• Experience working with platform teams, solution architects, and suppliers to ensure integration design aligns with enterprise architecture and business requirements.
• Experience ensuring operational stability and performance of integration services, including monitoring, incident resolution, and continual improvement.
• Experience supporting delivery teams and projects by enabling secure, scalable, and reusable integration capabilities that meet user and system needs.

The post-holder is expected to behave at all times in a manner consistent with the HS2 values of Safety, Leadership, Integrity and Respect. It is expected that you will actively promote and embed Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in all your work and support and comply with all organisational initiatives, policies and procedures on EDI.

As HS2 Ltd do not hold a sponsorship license from the Home Office, we are not able to provide sponsorship to any applicant. Applicants must already have the Right to Work in the UK at the time of application and our process involves a Right to Work validation prior to the interview stage. Note, there are certain types of time-bound visas that we cannot accept. Any offers made to applicants will be subject to satisfactory completion of pre-employment checks which include Nationality & Immigration Status, employment references, DBS, Financial and Education checks.

We ask for a variety of detail in your online application; however, we perform the first assessment of suitability for a role based solely on the information in your CV. In a further development of our efforts to create a more diverse workforce, your CV will be anonymised and personal information will be removed during the first stage of the application review. This removes bias from the process and makes it even more important that you attach an updated word version of your CV for each new application ensuring you include evidence directly related to the criteria in the job advert.

Any applications received after the closing date will not be considered.

About Us:

High Speed 2 (HS2 Ltd) will be the UK's new high-speed rail network. As well as improving capacity, the new scheme will shorten journey times between a number of Britain's major population centres, boost the economy and create thousands of jobs. HS2 Ltd will create a skills legacy and develop a diverse range of talent. We aim to be a leader in EDI practice by creating a safe & inclusive working environment for all our staff - living our values of Safety, Respect, Integrity and Leadership.

HS2 Ltd is also a safety-critical organisation. Employees are required to ensure reasonable care of their own and others' health and safety by taking personal responsibility for working to our 'Safe at Heart' programme principles and following safe working procedures at all times.