Pertemps Network Group is one of the largest independent recruitment businesses in the UK, operating more than 200 branches across over 50 subsidiary companies. Technology has become central to how the group competes. Having moved out of the data centre and into a modern, Azure-native estate, the organisation has reached a strong position and moved from buying capability to building it, running a growing portfolio of platforms developed in-house. The focus now is growth and innovation on that foundation.
The Group IT Director sets the technology strategy for the group, and is seeking to appoint a Head of Technology and Architecture to lead its architecture and delivery. This is a senior role with genuine scope to grow, and for the right person the potential to take on greater seniority within the function over time. The appointee will translate that strategic direction into the design and build of the estate, with real authority over how it is delivered and over the team that delivers it. With the estate in a strong position, the role is about driving growth and innovation on top of it, and putting the right structure and people in place to do so. The appointee will play a central part in shaping both the technology and the team as they move forward together. It is a senior appointment for an architect ready to take significant technical authority across a complex, product-led estate, in a business that treats technology as a source of advantage rather than a cost.
The appointee will own the technical coherence of everything the function builds. The role spans the design of new platform capabilities, the integrity of integrations across the wider estate, the technical direction of the teams, and ownership of the most consequential technical decisions. It calls for someone who has not lost the ability to design and review, and who can hold a board-level discussion and a deep architectural one with equal authority.
Much of the value of the role lies in translation: understanding what the business genuinely needs and interpreting that into the right technical solution, rather than accepting a requirement at face value. The strongest people in this role interrogate the brief before reaching for the technology, and are as ready to determine that something need not be built as they are to design the thing that should.
The estate is Microsoft-centred and built on Azure, with an Azure-native communications and intelligence stack and a portfolio of owned products, including an in-house Azure-based vendor management system that operates across the group. Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform underpin the core recruitment platform alongside it.
The successful candidate will bring genuine, current architectural depth, strongest in Azure, sufficient to command the respect of capable engineers and to challenge them properly. A background in software engineering is welcome. This is a build-led function, and the capacity to work hands-on when a problem genuinely warrants it is valued, alongside the judgement to know when to lead rather than to do. Candidates are likely to be operating today as a principal architect or senior engineering lead, with leadership scope already established and the ambition to step fully into it.
Certifications such as Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305) and DevOps Engineer Expert (AZ-400) are a strong indication of the level the role requires. In all cases, demonstrable architectural judgement matters more than certification, and depth in Azure is the priority over exposure to Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform, which is welcome rather than essential.
With the estate in a far stronger position after the recent transformation, this role is about building on it: driving growth and innovation in the technology while putting the right structure and people in place around it. The appointee will have real influence over how the function is shaped, through recruitment where new capability is needed and through training and mentoring to develop the talent already in place, building the team as the platform itself continues to grow. For the right person, the role offers real scope to grow in seniority and influence as they establish themselves. The organisation supports continued professional development, including Microsoft certification, and offers work centred on growth and innovation across both the technology and the team, on a modern estate with substantial and forward-looking problems to solve.
The group operates from a number of locations, and there is flexibility over which the appointee is based at. A base close to our Meriden head office in the West Midlands is preferred, but the essential requirement is that the appointee can spend part of each week in Meriden, so candidates will need to be within reasonable reach of it.
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