Head of Enterprise Applications

About Designer Group

Designer Group is a leading mechanical and electrical (MEP) contractor serving clients in sectors including data centres, power generation, grid and energy infrastructure. As we grow, we are investing in digital, data and AI so that technology becomes a genuine advantage in how we win and deliver work.

Why this role exists

Our core enterprise applications have served us well but largely operate as standalone systems. We now want to connect them into one estate, where data is captured once in the system that owns it and flows to every system, report and AI use case that needs it.

Connected, trusted data is the foundation for using data and AI to drive our business strategy – helping us win the right work, deliver projects more predictably and make faster, better decisions.

You will lead enterprise applications, shape enterprise and domain architecture, and lead the data team. Working closely with the CTO, the Head of IT, the Business Transformation Lead and senior leaders, you will set the direction and help deliver it. While the team is small, that means working directly on application improvements, integrations and data models; as you grow the team, your focus will shift towards architecture, direction and leading delivery through others. You will help shape how a growing business uses technology to compete.

Key responsibilities

1. Enterprise applications (IT ownership)

• Act as the IT owner for the group’s core business applications, partnering with nominated business owners in each function.
• Ensure applications are well run: support model, service levels, incident and problem management, change control, access management, backup and continuity.
• Lead system selection, business cases and vendor evaluations, ensuring integration, data access, security and total cost of ownership are assessed up front.
• Manage application vendors and partners, including contracts, SLAs, licences, product roadmaps and renewals.
• Drive adoption and process improvement so that systems are used consistently across divisions and regions.
• Manage budgets for application licences, projects and external partners.

2. Enterprise and domain architecture

• Own the group’s target enterprise architecture, architecture principles and roadmap, and keep them current.
• Provide domain architecture for corporate systems: CRM, tendering, ERP and finance, procurement, HRIS, time and attendance, and payroll. Ensure these integrate effectively with project systems, including design and BIM, planning, safety and quality where relevant.
• Maintain the application portfolio, recommending what to retain, consolidate, replace or retire.
• Define systems of record, data ownership and the master data model.
• Produce and review solution designs, data flows and integration designs for projects.
• Chair a design authority forum and set integration and data criteria that all new system purchases and renewals must meet.
• Ensure architecture decisions meet security, GDPR and EU AI Act requirements, working with the privacy and cyber security functions.

3. Integration

• Lead the design and delivery of the integration platform and the integration roadmap.
• Define integration standards and patterns: APIs, events, scheduled sync and file-based exchange where appropriate.
• Be hands-on in designing, prototyping and troubleshooting integrations, working with internal staff and implementation partners. Build in monitoring, alerting, error handling and recovery so that failed data exchanges are visible and can be resolved.

4. Data team leadership and mentorship

• Line-manage and lead the data team, agreeing clear priorities, objectives and ways of working with the team.
• Mentor and coach team members on data engineering, data modelling, reporting, data quality and stakeholder management, with individual development plans.
• Build team capability through code and design reviews, pairing, knowledge sharing and support for training and certification.
• Own the data platform and reporting roadmap, ensuring application data flows into a governed platform that supports reporting, analytics and AI.
• Establish data governance with business owners: agree data ownership, quality standards, definitions and access controls, and maintain a data catalogue. Define how data quality issues are assigned, prioritised and resolved.
• Prioritise demand for reports and dashboards, ensuring the team delivers trusted, reusable data products rather than one-off reports.
• Plan future data team resourcing and skills as the group grows.

5. Delivery and ways of working

• Lead application, integration and data projects using agile and product-based ways of working, adapted pragmatically for a construction business.
• Introduce modern delivery practice: backlog management, release planning, version control, automated testing and deployment (DevOps/CI-CD) and environment management.
• Support the group’s digital and AI programme by ensuring applications and data are AI-ready: well structured, governed, accessible through integration and of the quality needed for AI use cases.
• Act as a trusted adviser to the CTO and senior leaders, explaining technology choices in clear business terms.
• Work closely with the Head of IT to ensure applications, integration and data align with infrastructure, security, service management and support.

Experience and skills

Essential

• 10+ years in enterprise applications covering architecture, integration and data, including at least three years in a lead or senior ownership role.
• Proven enterprise and domain architecture experience: target states, roadmaps, principles, application portfolios and solution design.
• Hands-on experience across several of: ERP and finance, CRM, HRIS and payroll, procurement, and project systems.
• Strong understanding of integration patterns: APIs, events, middleware and integration platforms.
• Solid modern data experience: data modelling, master data management, data governance, data platforms and lakehouse concepts, and reporting tools such as Power BI.
• Experience leading and mentoring technical staff, ideally including data analysts or data engineers.
• Good knowledge of modern software delivery: agile, product ownership, DevOps, CI/CD and SaaS release management.
• Proven vendor management skills, including selecting and managing application vendors and implementation partners, negotiating contracts and SLAs, and managing performance, renewals and costs.
• Able to work in the detail (for example SQL, data models, API specifications, integration configuration) while the team is being built, as well as at strategy level.
• Excellent stakeholder skills: building trusted relationships with senior business leaders, influencing decisions and communicating simply.
• Demonstrated experience using AI tools and techniques to make work more efficient, supported by practical examples of automating routine tasks, accelerating analysis, design or documentation, and improving team productivity. Able to explain the benefits achieved, how outputs were checked and how sensitive information was protected.
• Eligibility to work in Ireland, the UK or another EU member state.

Desirable

• Experience in construction, engineering, MEP or other project-based or service based organisations.
• Familiarity with construction technology such as BIM, common data environments, Procore, Primavera P6.
• Microsoft ecosystem experience: Azure, Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Power Platform or Microsoft Fabric.
• Experience in software development, such as building or extending applications, scripting, low-code solutions or custom integrations.
• Experience designing or implementing data mesh, including domain-owned data products, federated governance and self-serve data platform capabilities.
• Certifications such as TOGAF, ArchiMate, Azure Solutions Architect, Azure/Fabric data certifications, DAMA CDMP, SAFe or PRINCE2 Agile.
• Experience working across multiple countries or with distributed teams.
• Awareness of GDPR, the EU AI Act and information security standards such as ISO 27001.

We know strong candidates may not meet every requirement listed above. If this role excites you and you meet many of the essential criteria, we would still love to hear from you.

Personal attributes

• Hands-on and strategic: equally comfortable shaping a roadmap and solving a practical problem.
• Pragmatic: favours simple, workable solutions over theoretical perfection – right-sized for a growing company.
• People developer: enjoys coaching others and builds confident, capable teams.
• Collaborative: builds trust with business teams rather than imposing technology on them.
• Structured and accountable: brings order to a fragmented estate and follows through.
• Curious: keeps up with data, AI and software delivery practice and applies it where it adds value.

What success looks like in the first 12 months

Timeframe

Outcomes

First 30 days

Application and data landscape baselined; quick wins identified

3 months

Target architecture, master data model and roadmap endorsed by the executive team; named business owners and systems of record for every core application; design authority operating

12 months

Integration platform in place with first priority integrations live; governed data platform delivering trusted core KPIs; reduced duplicate data entry and manual reporting; data team operating with clear standards and growing capability