Applications Manager

UK, Remote

£60,000 - £70,000 per annum Bonus

A leading distribution business is looking to appoint an Applications Manager to take ownership of its application landscape and support its ongoing technology transformation.

With a complex portfolio of business-critical systems supporting operations across multiple businesses, the organisation is focused on improving system integration, operational efficiency and the overall customer experience.

This is an opportunity to take a leading role in shaping the application strategy, developing a capable team and ensuring technology continues to meet the evolving needs of the business.

Lead the team responsible for the performance, support and strategic development of the business's application portfolio.

You will own the application roadmap, ensuring systems remain reliable, secure, integrated and aligned with business priorities. Working closely with senior stakeholders, technical teams and external suppliers, you will translate business requirements into a clear, prioritised plan that balances day‑to‑day service delivery with longer‑term improvement and transformation initiatives.

This role requires a combination of strategic thinking, hands‑on leadership and strong commercial awareness, with responsibility for application lifecycle management, supplier performance, service quality and continuous improvement.

• Application Strategy & Ownership: Take responsibility for the application portfolio, including ERP, warehouse management integrations, finance, transport, forecasting, reporting, document management and e-commerce platforms.
• Roadmap & Transformation: Develop and maintain a prioritised application roadmap, balancing business demand, system upgrades, transformation projects, operational resilience and technical debt.
• Team Leadership: Lead, coach and develop the applications team, including implementation and ERP consultants, establishing clear accountability, service standards and development objectives.
• Service Delivery: Oversee application support, incidents, problems, requests and changes, ensuring systems remain reliable, secure and fit for purpose.
• Business Stakeholder Management: Work closely with business leaders, process owners and delivery teams to understand requirements, agree priorities and ensure technology improvements deliver measurable benefits.
• Supplier & Commercial Management: Manage strategic technology suppliers against contracts, service‑level agreements, performance expectations, risk and cost, supporting procurement, renewals and investment decisions.
• Systems Integration & Governance: Work with architecture, infrastructure, data and security teams to maintain a coherent application landscape, with appropriate standards for integration, access, testing, change and compliance.
• Continuous Improvement: Identify opportunities to simplify the application landscape, reduce duplication, address legacy constraints and improve efficiency, resilience and long‑term sustainability.
• Risk Management: Monitor and escalate application, cyber security, continuity and supplier risks, providing clear recommendations and ensuring appropriate controls are maintained.

• Proven experience leading an applications, enterprise systems or application support team within a complex business environment.
• Experience owning a multi‑system application portfolio and developing a strategic application roadmap.
• A strong understanding of enterprise applications, SaaS platforms, integrations, data flows and application lifecycle management.
• Experience with in a distribution, retail or supply chain environment
  , with exposure to ERP and warehouse management systems. Sage X3 experience would be…