MBS Release Lead

Salary: The starting salary is £71,121, which includes allowances totalling £3,009. The salary is broken down as £68,112 basic salary, which will increase annually until you reach the top of the scale £72,953. Plus, a location allowance of £2,009 and a non-pensionable allowance of £1,000.

Location: Kilburn

Background to the Role: Met Business Services (MBS) is a new way for the Met to deliver enabling services to all of our officers and staff. MBS is a front-line focused services organisation that sets our people up to succeed, reduces admin, delivers modern user centric end to end solutions and provides a single source of truth for all HR, Finance and Commercial data, providing a critical cornerstone to fix our foundations. MBS will help every person and supplier working with the Met by:

• Building a modern and efficient industry-standard business services directorate, building and pooling key specialist capabilities, strengthening HR, Finance and Commercial functions whilst removing functional silos;
• Designing end-to-end services, building them the needs of the users rather than in functional process silos and seamlessly integrating them regardless of how they are delivered;
• Providing easy-to-use interfaces and ‘one-touch’ services for end-users that leverage the potential of contemporary technologies like automation and low-code workflows.

This is an exciting time to be part of MBS – we are building new capabilities and new ways of working that will directly help the frontline to focus on what matters and make a real difference to London. The Met as a whole is transforming to deliver on our goals of More Trust, Less Crime and High Standards, and being part of establishing this new organisation puts you at the heart of that journey with tremendous potential for growth both within the team and across the Met. The value and purpose of MBS is wired into the heart of the Met, with opportunities to collaborate across the organisation, drive innovation to get the right outcomes and support our people in policing London.

Role Description: The Met Leadership have approved the design and implementation of a centralised service delivery model (Met Business Services – MBS), to replace functional services with business services, breaking down silos and building end-to-end services around user requirements. The initial scope of the MBS model will be MPS Commercial, Finance and HR scope of services functions with the flexibility and scalability of bringing additional new services into it. A key enabler of the MBS led transformation is the implementation of a new “MBS Release Lead” Capability within Met Business Services. The MBS Release Lead will be responsible for overseeing the management, coordination, and execution of software releases and environment configurations within the Oracle Fusion platform. They will have oversight and management of the people, processes and 3rd party suppliers required for all aspects of MBS from a day-to-day perspective, initially covering HR, Finance and Commercial products and services, with the view to support other services in the future as they on board into MBS. The MBS Release Lead will ensure the smooth deployment of Oracle Fusion applications and updates, while minimising disruptions to business operations. They will work closely with cross-functional teams, including development, testing, infrastructure, and business stakeholders, to ensure that environments are properly maintained and changes are thoroughly tested before release. They will report directly into the MBS Head of Service & Operations who will have senior strategic oversight and accountability for all aspects of services, operations and technology across MBS; control and responsibility will remain with the MBS Release Lead. They are responsible for promoting process excellence and encouraging cross-functional and cross-process collaboration.

Key Responsibilities:

• Release Excellence – Met Business Scope of Services: Leads and coordinates release strategies, plans, and schedules. Develop and maintain the release calendar in collaboration with product management, development, QA, and operations teams. Plan, schedule, and manage Oracle Fusion application releases, patches, and updates. Collaborate with business and technical teams to define release schedules and ensure alignment with organisational goals. Monitor and manage the deployment of release updates to production and non-production environments, ensuring compliance with change control processes. Ensure that release issues and risks are identified, mitigated, and communicated to relevant stakeholders. Create and maintain release documentation, including release notes and deployment guides. Manage pre and post-release activities, including risk assessments, go/no-go decisions, and deployment reviews. Ensure rollback plans and contingency measures are in place for all releases. Monitor the success of releases and gather post-implementation feedback for continuous improvement. Define and maintain release schedules, ensuring clear communication and alignment with stakeholders. Ensures compliance with industry standards, regulations, and company policies.
• Leadership and Collaboration: Provides leadership and release guidance, fostering a culture of quality and accountability. Creates an environment where trust and open communication is encouraged, giving everyone a voice to be creative and work as a single cohesive team. Act as a liaison between IT teams, business units, and third-party vendors to facilitate smooth release processes. Mentors and trains team members on release methodologies, tools, and release best practices. Fosters a culture of high-performance, innovation and continuous service improvement, (embracing Met values). Collaborates with the senior leadership team to define priorities. Sets team goals and monitors performance through structured feedback and appraisals. Ensures that the team are set up for success by implementing best practices, continuously improving the current landscape and future proofing changes where applicable. Ability to present complex technical concepts in a clear, customer-friendly manner. Oversee the management of partners, both internal and external, supporting the delivery of operational and service excellence. Agree clear ways of working and set out expectations with all suppliers from the outset. Build strong relationships with suppliers to support the multi-partnership approach to managing our technical products and services that we provide our users. Promptly address risks/issues affecting successful and commercial binding outcomes. Ensure supplier deliverables are executed on time and to the right quality, and address failures proactively using the appropriate channels. Drive customer satisfaction with suppliers by ensuring timely and effective resolution of any release issues that may arise. Gather customer feedback and translate insights into actionable improvements.

Required Competences (Qualifications):

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field.
• Certification in ITIL, Agile, or PMP.
• Experience with cloud environments (e.g., Oracle, AWS, Azure).
• Familiarity with regulatory environments such as SOX or GDPR.

Disability Confident Statement: The Met is committed to being an equitable (fair and impartial) and inclusive employer for disabled people, striving to have a diverse and representative workforce at all levels. We encourage applications from people from the widest possible range of backgrounds, cultures and experiences. We particularly welcome applications from people with disabilities and long-term conditions, ethnic minority groups and women. As a Disability Confident Leader, the Met has committed to making disability equality part of our everyday practice. We ensure that people with disabilities and those with long term conditions have the opportunities to fulfil their potential and realise their aspirations. The Met is committed to making reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process to ensure disabled applicants can perform at their best. If you need any reasonable adjustments or changes to the application and recruitment process, we ask that you include this information within your application form. All matters will be treated in strict confidence.