Senior Application & Technology Owner at Wavestone Management Advisory UK Ltd, London, 12 Months, £Contractor Rate

Smart Building & Workplace Technology | London, UK | Contract

Role Overview

We are looking for an experienced Senior Application & Technology Owner to take end-to-end technical and operational ownership of enterprise workplace applications and Smart Building solutions.

The primary focus of this position is on Application Operations (RUN), Maintenance, Service Stability, Lifecycle Management, and Continuous Improvement, rather than traditional project delivery.

The successful candidate will ensure that business-critical applications and tools operate reliably, are maintained effectively, and continue to evolve in line with business requirements and the enterprise technology roadmap.

Experience with Smart Building technologies is highly desirable; however, candidates with a strong background in enterprise application ownership, IT service operations, and application life cycle management will also be considered.

1. Your Tasks:

Application Ownership & RUN Operations (Primary Focus)

• Take end-to-end technical and operational ownership of enterprise workplace applications, tools, and Smart Building solutions.

• Ensure the continuous availability, stability, performance, and reliability of applications in daily business operations (BAU).

• Oversee application maintenance, incident resolution, problem management, defect handling, and operational improvements.

• Monitor application health, service performance, and vendor delivery against agreed SLAs.

• Manage application support processes, operational documentation, and escalation procedures.

• Coordinate maintenance activities, system updates, patches, releases, and ongoing application enhancements.

• Ensure that existing applications and tools are functioning correctly and are effectively supported throughout their life cycle.

Application Lifecycle, Roadmap & Continuous Improvement

• Own and maintain application roadmaps, including maintenance planning, technology upgrades, enhancements, and future development requirements.

• Manage the application enhancement backlog and coordinate the implementation of new features and functionalities.

• Evaluate existing applications and capabilities to identify opportunities for optimisation, standardisation, and reuse.

• Identify, document, prioritise, and actively manage technical debt.

• Assess business requirements, evaluate technical feasibility, and recommend sustainable solutions.

• Support application rationalisation, platform consolidation, re-platforming, and decommissioning initiatives.

• Ensure alignment between application development, operational stability, and enterprise technology standards.

IT Service Management & Tool Governance

• Oversee application-related IT service management processes, potentially leveraging ServiceNow or comparable ITSM platforms.

• Coordinate incident, problem, change, and release management activities with internal IT teams and external service providers.

• Maintain operational governance, service documentation, runbooks, and application ownership records.

• Ensure appropriate service monitoring, issue tracking, reporting, and continuous service improvement.

• Work closely with vendors and business stakeholders to ensure sustainable application support and maintenance arrangements.

Transition, Go-Live & Operational Readiness

• Lead technical readiness activities, including UAT oversight, integration testing, and defect triage.

• Coordinate go-live preparation, Early Life Support (ELS), hypercare, and transition into stable business-as-usual operations.

• Ensure successful handover from project delivery teams into application operations.

• Manage operational acceptance, knowledge transfer, documentation, and formal transition sign-off.

• Validate that applications are supportable, maintainable, and operationally stable before entering BAU.

Technical Delivery & Stakeholder Management

• Lead application-related technical initiatives and improvements across local and global real-estate environments.

• Coordinate internal IT teams, Workplace Services, Facilities Management, Real Estate teams, and external vendors.

• Support project planning, resource coordination, budgeting, risk management, and technical delivery where required.

• Act as a trusted technical partner to business stakeholders, providing guidance on solution feasibility, architecture, and technology decisions.

• Provide regular reporting on application performance, operational risks, technical debt, roadmap execution, and service improvement.

2. Must-Have Requirements

Professional Experience & Application Ownership

• Proven experience as a Senior Application Owner, Technology Owner, Application Manager, or IT Service Owner in an enterprise environment.

• Strong hands-on experience in application operations (RUN), maintenance, support, and business-as-usual service management.

• Demonstrated responsibility for maintaining business-critical applications and ensuring their stability, availability, and performance.

• Experience managing the entire application life cycle, including operational support, maintenance, upgrades, enhancements, and roadmap planning.

• Strong understanding of incident management, problem management, change management, release management, and vendor coordination.

• Proven experience with application transition from project delivery into stable operations, including UAT, go-live, ELS/hypercare, and BAU handover.

Technical & Operational Competencies

• Good knowledge of enterprise application environments, system integrations, application dependencies, and technical service operations.

• Ability to assess technical feasibility, manage technical debt, and make sustainable application life cycle decisions.

• Experience managing application enhancement backlogs, maintenance schedules, and continuous improvement initiatives.

• Familiarity with IT Service Management (ITSM) processes and tools, such as ServiceNow or comparable platforms.

• Ability to oversee external support providers, monitor SLAs, and ensure effective operational governance.

Delivery & Stakeholder Management

• Proven experience supporting application-related projects and technical changes while maintaining operational service continuity.

• Experience coordinating technical activities across multiple locations, business units, or regions.

• Strong stakeholder-management and communication skills when working with business teams, IT leadership, and external vendors.

• Practical project-management experience using Agile, Scrum, PRINCE2, PMP, or equivalent approaches.

• Experience with structured change-management methods, such as Prosci, ADKAR, or equivalent frameworks.

Location & Availability

• Based in London or within reasonable commuting distance.

• Mandatory on-site presence in Mayfair, London, at least 2 days per week.

• Flexibility to increase on-site presence during the initial onboarding and transition phase, potentially up to 5 days per week.

• Availability for a full-time, 12-month contractor engagement.

• Availability to start as soon as possible, subject to the updated project timeline.

3. Nice-to-Have Requirements

• Experience with Smart Building technologies, including IoT, Building Management Systems (BMS), occupancy analytics, energy monitoring, and occupant-facing applications.

• Previous experience in corporate real estate, workplace technology, or facilities management environments.

• Practical experience with ServiceNow modules, configurations, or integrations in an enterprise IT environment.

• Experience supporting applications across international or multi-region real-estate portfolios.

• Knowledge of enterprise architecture, application rationalisation, and platform consolidation.

• Awareness of ISO 27001, GDPR, and relevant IT governance standards.

• Experience working within complex, matrixed global organisations.

• Relevant IT service management certification, such as ITIL Foundation or higher.

4. Important Candidate Profile Considerations

• The ideal candidate is an operations-driven Application Owner with strong technical governance and delivery capabilities, rather than a traditional Project Manager focused primarily on implementation

• We are specifically looking for professionals who have taken long-term responsibility for running, maintaining, supporting, and continuously improving business-critical enterprise applications

• Priority: RUN Operations - Application Ownership - Maintenance & Stability - Lifecycle & Roadmap Management - Stakeholder Management - Project Delivery - Smart Building Domain Knowledge.