Head of System Administration - Oracle Cloud Applications in Stevenage

The Head of Oracle Cloud Applications is responsible for the delivery, management, and optimisation of all Oracle Fusion (SaaS), PaaS and EPM applications across 30 plus businesses – all within Energy, Water, Telecommunications and Transport.

This role leads the Oracle Applications team, oversees the outsourced support providers and service performance, and ensures our Oracle platforms remain secure, reliable and aligned to business needs.

Key Responsibilities

• Service Delivery Management

• Coordinate with Senior Stakeholders across multiple business units and coordinate requirements.
• Escalation point covering critical issues both technical and operational business incidents within the Oracle platforms.
• Oversee incidents, service requests and change management processes.
• Perform Audit of both internal and external support activities.
• Manage environment strategy and release cycles across all Oracle instances.
• Lead quarterly Oracle Cloud updates, patching and deployment activities.
• Ensure optimal system performance, security, availability and resilience.
• Own and maintain the change control process, including impact assessments.
• Manage IT infrastructure refresh cycles with minimal business disruption.
• Monitor, manage and optimise Oracle license utilisation and associated costs.
• Enable the System Administration team to provide high‑quality user support.
• Maintain robust access controls, permissions, and system security compliance.
• Define and enforce governance policies, standards and best‑practice guidelines.
• Ensure all system configuration, process flows and procedures are accurately documented.

• Manage the relationship and contract performance of the outsourced service provider (Mastek).
• Ensure delivery of all contracted services including incident management, enhancements, release management, security monitoring and environment management.
• Maintain a consistent reporting cadence and review monthly service reports.
• Address performance gaps and raise improvement actions with the Service Delivery Manager.
• Audit supplier compliance with Group policies including security and GDPR.

• Monitor budgets across services and Statements of Work.
• Process and validate supplier invoices.
• Maintain effective supplier account management.

• Lead, develop and motivate the Oracle System Administration team.
• Conduct performance reviews and support individual development plans.
• Assess skills gaps and ensure the team is adequately resourced and trained.
• Promote a culture of best practice, continuous learning and service excellence.

Qualifications & Experience

• Extensive experience supporting Oracle Cloud Applications (HR, Payroll, Financials, Procurement, Projects, Inventory, and - PBCS, ARCS, PaaS).
• Strong knowledge of Oracle Fusion Cloud hosted solutions.
• Experience of working in an ITILv4 compliant organisation.
• Experience translating business requirements into technical or functional solutions.
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills at all business levels.
• Background working with system implementers or managed service providers.
• Experience across the full SDLC and BAU support environment.
• Experience in service desk management, SLA/KPI governance, and supplier relationship management.
• Commercial experience in contract management and issue resolution.
• Strong financial awareness including budgeting and licence management.
• Experience of system integrations and business intelligence tools.
• Knowledge of information security principles.

Additional Information:

• Location: Hybrid / Stevenage
• Effective licence optimisation and compliance.
• Maintaining user confidence in system stability and support processes.
• Managing supplier performance and service quality.