Director of Applications

At the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, we work with political leaders around the world to drive change. We help governments turn bold ideas into reality so they can deliver for their people. We do it by advising on strategy, policy and delivery, unlocking the power of technology across all three. And by sharing what we learn on the ground, so everyone can benefit. We do it to build more open, inclusive and prosperous countries for people everywhere.

We are a global team of over 800 changemakers, operating in more than 40 countries, across five continents. We are political strategists, policy experts, delivery practitioners, technology specialists and more. We speak more than 45 languages. We are working on over 100 projects, tackling some of the world’s biggest challenges. We’re all here at TBI to make a difference.

In a world of ever more complex challenges, we believe diversity of background and perspective is a strength. We pride ourselves on a culture that values and nurtures difference. We are dedicated to unlocking potential, not only for the countries we work in but also for each of our team members. No matter where you’re from or who you are, if you’re passionate about the transformative power of progressive politics, we invite you to build a better future with us.

TBI's Digital function exists to enable the Institute's global mission by ensuring our people have the platforms, applications and engineering capability to operate effectively at scale. Following a period of foundational delivery, including the establishment of Cyber Essentials+ certification, a live SOC, Salesforce as our CRM platform, the stabilisation of our Workday investment, and the building of our data warehouse foundations, Digital is moving into a phase focused on platform maturity, AI-enabled operations and engineering excellence.

The Director of Applications is a new, senior role accountable for the availability, configuration and ongoing evolution of TBI's core business platforms: Salesforce, Workday, and Microsoft 365 / Azure, together with the engineering practice, AI platform operations and platform-level roadmaps that underpin them. Reporting to the CTO, this role leads the Applications function, owns the platform Centre of Excellence, and provides the technical leadership that translates business needs into delivered platform capability.

You will be an experienced applications leader with deep expertise in SaaS platforms, modern engineering practice (CI/CD, source control, environment and release management, test automation) and the operational realities of running mission-critical business systems globally. You will work closely with the CTO, the Head of Digital Transformation & Performance, the Enterprise Architect, the Director of Security & Compliance, and the platform leads to ensure our applications estate enables rather than constrains TBI's ambitions.

Key Responsibilities

Platform Leadership

• Accountable for the availability, configuration and ongoing management of TBI's three strategic platforms: Salesforce, Workday, and Microsoft 365 / Azure
• Own the platform-level roadmaps that enable delivery of the Digital Roadmap, in close collaboration with the Digital Leadership Team and Platform Leads
• Establish and lead the platform Centre of Excellence; platform-specific standards, delivery patterns and an internal community across the platform leads and developers
• Line management responsibility for the Build team

Engineering Practice

• Own engineering practice across the Applications function: source control and repository governance (GitHub, Salesforce via Gearset), CI/CD pipelines, environment management (dev/test/UAT/prod parity and access), release management and test strategy / automation
• Define and enforce technical execution standards for releases, distinct from the change control approval process
• Define and lead engineering standards, architectural patterns and Infrastructure as Code

AI Platform Operations

• Accountable for the operational availability of TBI's internal AI platforms (Claude, Agentforce, AI assistants) and ongoing AI consumption cost and budget management
• Own AI usage monitoring: drift, hallucination and misuse pattern detection, partnering with the Director of Security & Compliance, who owns AI security and the Responsible Use Policy
• Provide the operational foundation that enables TBI's Agentic AI and Generative AI capability pillars

Capacity & Observability

• Own scaling (design and operation), rightsizing and optimisation of cloud and SaaS resources
• Own application monitoring, alerting and on-call response for in-scope platforms
• Lead cross-platform test strategy and quality standards

Cross-Functional Working

• Partner with the Digital Leadership to translate business needs (the Digital Roadmap) into platform-level delivery (Platform Roadmaps)
• Partner with the Director of Security & Compliance on identity, access, secret management and DevSecOps practices embedded in CI/CD
• Partner with the Enterprise Architect on significant technical decisions and integration patterns
• Support the CTO with platform investment cases, vendor negotiation for strategic platforms and Executive-level reporting on platform health

Person Specification

• Significant senior leadership experience running enterprise application functions in a mid-to-large global organisation
• Deep expertise in at least two of: Salesforce, Workday, and Microsoft 365 / Azure or AWS as enterprise platforms (configuration, integration, governance, licensing, support)
• Demonstrable experience embedding modern engineering practice incl. CI/CD pipelines, source control governance, environment management, release management, automated testing, in a SaaS-heavy environment
• Track record of building and running Centres of Excellence around major platforms
• Experience operationalising AI platforms and managing AI consumption cost is a strong advantage
• Strong understanding of how applications-layer decisions intersect with security, identity, data and architecture, and a collaborative working style with peers in those functions
• Experience managing technical leads and platform specialists, and a track record of developing them
• Comfortable operating at executive level on platform investment cases and roadmap trade-offs
• Pragmatic and delivery-oriented; able to make and defend decisions about where to invest engineering effort
• Open and progressive; bold and pragmatic; an optimistic changemaker — aligned with TBI's core beliefs

Candidates must have the legal right to work in the UK to apply for this role.

We reserve the right to close this role early if we receive a sufficient number of applications.

Closing Date: