Senior Applications & Product Specialist

About the role

The Senior Applications & Product Specialist is accountable for the end-to-end lifecycle, performance, and value delivery of a defined portfolio of applications. This role leads the ongoing management of application services, ensuring solutions are aligned with business needs, enterprise standards, and Digital strategy. Acting as a portfolio owner and trusted advisor to the business, the role ensures applications are reliable, secure, cost-effective, and continuously evolving to deliver business value.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Application Lifecycle Ownership (Primary Accountability)

• Own the end-to-end lifecycle of applications within the portfolio, including availability, performance, reliability, and functional fit
• Develop and maintain short and long-term application roadmaps, driving lifecycle decisions (enhance, optimise, modernise, retire)
• Ensure applications meet business needs and remain technically sustainable, secure, and compliant

• Operational Excellence & Reliability

• Ensure applications meet availability targets (24x7x365), performance expectations, and service levels through third-party support providers
• Oversee vendor performance across incident, problem, and change management, acting as escalation point for major incidents
• Drive accountability for root cause resolution, service improvement, and reduction of repeat incidents
• Ensure support models, coverage, and capabilities are fit-for-purpose and aligned to business needs

• Service Line Delivery & Change Execution

• Lead and execute delivery of low complexity / low risk solutions using defined service line pathways
• Maintain delivery discipline, ensuring governance checkpoints, visibility, and accountability for in-flight work
• Support and/or lead minor enhancements and initiatives aligned to the appropriate delivery pathway

• Stakeholder Partnership & Portfolio Alignment

• Build trusted relationships with Business SMEs and stakeholders, acting as a portfolio advisor
• Translate business needs into application outcomes and aligned delivery priorities
• Cookordination with Business Partners, Delivery Leads, and Platform teams to ensure alignment to Digital strategy

• Financial Management & Software Asset Ownership

• Manage portfolio costs and maintain transparency of cost drivers and support portfolio financial planning
• Own software licensing requirements and align with the Software Asset Management (SAM) process

• Governance, Risk & Compliance

• Ensure applications align with enterprise architecture, cybersecurity, and regulatory requirements
• Oversee patching, audit, compliance, and vulnerability remediation activities
• Ensure configuration data, documentation, and disaster recovery / service continuity plans are maintained

• Continuous Improvement & AI Enablement

• Identify and deliver opportunities to improve performance, efficiency, and ways of working
• Leverage AI to enhance analysis, delivery, and operational workflows
• Promote adoption of AI-enabled practices and continuous improvement across the portfolio

Skills and Experience

• Qualification

• Bachelor’s degree in information technology, Computer Science, Engineering, Business, or a related discipline, or equivalent relevant experience
• ITIL Foundation Certification preferred
• PMP, Agile, Scrum, or Product Management certification preferred

• Skills

• Strong understanding of application lifecycle management, service ownership, and portfolio planning
• Ability to develop and manage strategic application roadmaps
• Understanding of service line delivery models and low-complexity delivery pathways
• Knowledge of governance checkpoints, delivery frameworks, and change management
• Awareness of software asset management (SAM) and licensing models
• Strong understanding of application support, incident management, and performance monitoring
• Experience driving reliability, availability, and continuous improvement
• Ability to leverage AI tools to improve efficiency and workflows
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills
• Ability to influence stakeholders across business and technology domains

• Experience

• 8–10+ years of related professional experience in managing application portfolios
• Experience managing or supporting enterprise applications in a 24x7 operational environment
• Experience working with managed service providers and vendor ecosystems
• Experience delivering low complexity solutions within structured delivery frameworks
• Experience in Oil & Gas or asset-intensive industries desirable