Vice President, Head of Messaging & Collaboration in London

MAIN PURPOSE OF THE ROLE

The Head of Messaging & Collaboration is accountable for the strategic direction, governance, engineering excellence and operational delivery of the organisation’s enterprise messaging and collaboration platforms. The role is responsible for defining and executing the Messaging & Collaboration strategy, ensuring services remain secure, resilient, scalable and aligned with organisational objectives while supporting the organisation’s cloud-first and Digital Workplace strategy. Leading a globally distributed engineering and operational team, you will own the technology roadmap across Microsoft 365 collaboration services, including Exchange Online, Microsoft Teams, SharePoint Online, OneDrive, Teams Phone and associated collaboration technologies. You will drive platform modernisation, cloud transformation and service optimisation while ensuring high levels of availability, security and user experience. Working closely with senior stakeholders across Technology, Cyber Security, Enterprise Architecture, Risk, Compliance and Business Technology teams, you will ensure messaging and collaboration services support regulatory obligations, operational resilience and evolving business requirements. As a senior technology leader within Digital Engineering Services, you will provide strategic leadership across engineering standards, architecture, governance, vendor management, financial planning and people development, ensuring the organisation continues to adopt modern collaboration technologies and maximise value from its Microsoft investment.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Strategy & Leadership
  • Define and own the enterprise Messaging & Collaboration strategy, aligning technology roadmaps with business objectives and the wider Digital Workplace strategy.
  • Develop and execute multi-year technology roadmaps supporting cloud adoption, platform modernisation and continual service improvement.
  • Provide strategic leadership across Messaging & Collaboration engineering, delivery and operational support teams.
  • Build, develop and mentor high-performing engineering teams, fostering a culture of collaboration, accountability and continuous improvement.
  • Champion innovation and the adoption of emerging Microsoft technologies, including Microsoft Copilot and AI-enabled productivity solutions.
• Leadership & People Management
  • Lead, mentor, and develop a diverse team, including an offshore support and operations function and UK-based engineering contractors.
  • Foster a high-performance, collaborative, and inclusive team culture.
  • Manage team workloads, performance, and development through KPIs, structured feedback, and resource planning.
• Engineering & Delivery
  • Provide technical leadership and directions across engineering and delivery functions, ensuring designs, builds, and deployments are aligned with enterprise architecture, security, and regulatory standards.
  • Lead the design, build, and deployment of secure, scalable messaging and collaboration solutions.
  • Establish and maintain standards for configuration, automation, documentation, and testing.
  • Drive product lifecycle management including upgrades, patching, and decommissioning legacy systems.
  • Partner with PMO and internal stakeholders to deliver projects efficiently and align with business priorities.
• Service Ownership & Operational Excellence
  • Own the end-to-end delivery of messaging and collaboration services (e.g. Exchange Online, Microsoft Teams, SharePoint Online, OneDrive, email security/gateway solutions).
  • Oversee the daily operations of the service to ensure high availability, resilience, and compliance.
  • Act as a senior escalation point for high-priority incidents, leading resolution and root cause analysis.
  • Track SLAs, manage service reporting, and implement continual service improvements.
• Governance, Risk & Compliance
  • Ensure all messaging and collaboration platforms are compliant with internal security policies, financial regulatory requirements, and industry best practices.
  • Own risk management activities, including DR planning, security hardening, vulnerability remediation and audit response.
  • Partner with Information Security, Risk, and Compliance teams to proactively manage regulatory obligation and security posture.

WORK EXPERIENCE

• Essential Minimum 10 years’ experience delivering enterprise Messaging & Collaboration services within large, complex organisations.
• Minimum 5 years’ experience leading global engineering and operational technology teams.
• Proven experience defining and delivering enterprise collaboration strategies within Microsoft 365 environments.
• Significant experience leading cloud transformation and collaboration platform modernisation programmes.
• Experience owning enterprise Messaging & Collaboration services across the full service lifecycle.
• Strong track record of delivering technology strategy, governance and operational excellence.
• Experience managing technology budgets, commercial planning and software licensing.
• Experience working within highly regulated environments, ideally Financial Services.
• Experience leading geographically distributed teams and managing third-party suppliers.
• Experience engaging with Executive Leadership, Architecture, Cyber Security and Business stakeholders.
• Experience delivering organisational change and technology adoption programmes.

• Desirable Experience implementing Microsoft Copilot or AI-enabled productivity technologies.
• Experience migrating legacy messaging platforms to Microsoft 365.
• Experience with enterprise compliance, eDiscovery and information governance solutions.
• Experience supporting global service delivery across multiple regions.

SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

• Essential Expert knowledge of Microsoft 365 collaboration technologies including Exchange Online, Microsoft Teams, SharePoint Online and OneDrive.
• Strong understanding of Microsoft Teams Phone and enterprise voice services.
• Strategic leadership and technology roadmap development.
• Enterprise architecture and solution governance.
• Cloud transformation and Microsoft 365 migration programmes.
• Strong understanding of Microsoft Intune, Microsoft Entra ID and Conditional Access.
• Information Protection, Compliance and Security Governance.
• Vendor, supplier and commercial management.
• Financial planning and budget ownership.
• Executive stakeholder management and influencing skills.
• Service ownership and ITIL Service Management.
• Risk management and regulatory compliance.
• People leadership, coaching and organisational development.
• Strong communication and presentation skills.

• Desirable Microsoft Purview.
• Microsoft Copilot.
• Microsoft Defender for Office 365.
• Global Relay, Enterprise Vault or Behavox.
• Forcepoint, Clearswift or Proofpoint.
• Microsoft Power Platform.
• Microsoft certifications (MS-700, MS-102, SC-400, Microsoft 365 Certified: Enterprise Administrator Expert).

PERSONAL REQUIREMENTS

• Strategic thinker with the ability to translate business objectives into technology strategy.
• Inspirational leader with a proven ability to build, develop and motivate high-performing teams.
• Strong commercial awareness and financial acumen.
• Excellent executive presence with exceptional communication and influencing skills.
• Collaborative leadership style, capable of building trusted relationships across business and technology functions.
• Strong decision-making capability, balancing strategic priorities with operational demands.
• Customer-focused with a commitment to delivering exceptional service and user experience.
• Passionate about innovation, modern workplace technologies and continuous improvement.
• Resilient and adaptable, with the ability to lead through organisational change.
• High levels of integrity, professionalism and accountability.
• Strong governance mindset with a focus on risk, compliance and operational excellence.
• Committed to developing people, fostering inclusion and creating a culture of continuous learning and innovation.

We are open to considering flexible working requests in line with organisational requirements.

MUFG is committed to embracing diversity and building an inclusive culture where all employees are valued, respected and their opinions count. We support the principles of equality, diversity and inclusion in recruitment and employment, and oppose all forms of discrimination on the grounds of age, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy and maternity, race, gender reassignment, religion or belief and marriage or civil partnership. We make our recruitment decisions in a non-discriminatory manner in accordance with our commitment to identifying the right skills for the right role and our obligations under the law.

At MUFG, our colleagues are our greatest assets. Our Culture Principles provide a roadmap for how each of our colleagues must think and act to become more client-obsessed, inclusive and innovative. They reflect who we are, who we want to be and what we expect from one another. We are excited to see you take the next step in exploring a career with us and encourage you to spend more time reviewing them!

Our Culture Principles

• Client Centric
• People Focused
• Listen Up. Speak Up.
• Innovate & Simplify
• Own & Execute