Senior Manager – Technical Applications

Salary: Competitive
Hours: 37.5 hours, Mon – Wed
Location: Hybrid, 3 days per week at VHQ, Crawley
Contract: Permanent

Closing Date: 20th October 2026

In a nutshell

At Virgin Atlantic, we believe everyone can take on the world. As we continue our journey to become the most loved travel company, technology is central to how we deliver brilliant experiences for our customers and colleagues.

We’re looking for a Senior Technical Application Platform Owner to provide strategic and technical leadership across the application platforms that support our airline and holidays businesses.

The role

Reporting to the Head of Enterprise Applications, you’ll own the strategic direction, performance, reliability and continual improvement of a portfolio of application platforms. You’ll work closely with business leaders, project teams, architects, suppliers and technology specialists to ensure our platforms are secure, scalable, supportable and aligned to business priorities.

You’ll play a key role in accepting new solutions and services into operation, providing technical guidance throughout major programmes of change and representing Technology and Enterprise Transformation at senior governance and steering forums.

You’ll also:

• Develop and maintain strategic application and technology roadmaps.
• Act as the senior escalation point for technical issues and delivery blockers.
• Oversee platform changes, releases, interfaces and operational support arrangements.
• Ensure applications are fit for purpose and meet agreed performance, security and service-level expectations.
• Work with Information Security, Data Protection, Architecture and Service Management teams to manage risk and compliance.
• Build and prioritise backlogs of enhancements, fixes and improvements.
• Work with Finance, Contracts and Commercial teams to understand total cost of ownership, licensing and future investment needs.
• Lead technical discovery sessions and provide expert input into project scope, requirements and delivery plans.
• Drive continual improvement, innovation and the adoption of relevant industry best practice.

About you

• You’ll bring significant experience of application platform ownership, technical service management or a similar technology leadership role. You’ll have a strong understanding of digital, web and SaaS technologies, application architecture, release management, operational support and supplier management.
• You’ll be comfortable working across complex, interdependent technology environments and influencing senior stakeholders, including leadership teams and, when required, board-level audiences. You’ll be able to explain complex technical information clearly, balance competing priorities and make evidence-based recommendations.
• Experience of working with security, data protection, regulatory compliance, SLAs, commercial partners and large-scale transformation programmes would be highly valuable.
• Most importantly, you’ll be a collaborative and credible technology leader who can bring people together, create momentum and ensure our application platforms continue to support Virgin Atlantic’s ambitions.

Join us and you’ll help shape the technology foundations of a digitally led, technology-enabled airline. You’ll have the opportunity to influence major change, work with strategic partners and make a visible contribution to the experiences we create for our customers and colleagues.

Be yourself – Our differences make us stronger

Virgin Atlantic are committed equal opportunities employers and positively encourage applications from suitably qualified and eligible applicants regardless of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, religion or belief, marital status, pregnancy and maternity. Diversity brings strength which is why we strive to provide an inclusive environment where individuality is celebrated, and we can ignite the potential of our forward-thinking mix of people.

Please be aware as part of our recruitment process we may look to use a variety of resourcing tools to help us understand your skills and experience in relation to the role you have applied for. These may include application questions, video interviews or online testing. Please feel free to contact us at if there are any reasonable adjustments to our process that you would like us to consider, for example use of hearing loops, sign language interpreter etc. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if there are any issues preventing you from being at your best during your application or assessment process. Any issues raised after your assessment is completed or once a decision has been made will be too late for us to consider within our process.

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