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Practice Lead, Applications & Integration

Location: Palmerston North | Full-time | Highly respected institution

Join an innovative technology leadership team driving impactful change across a nationally recognised organisation with global reach.

The Role

As the Practice Lead for Applications & Integration, you’ll lead a critical practice within a highly respected New Zealand institution. Reporting to the Head of Technology, this role offers a rare opportunity to shape the systems, services, and solutions that underpin enterprise applications and digital integration across a large, complex organisation.

This is a key leadership role where you'll be responsible for the day-to-day operations, continuous improvement, and strategic direction of the Applications & Integration team. You’ll oversee the development, support, and integration of core business and enterprise systems—ensuring they are secure, available, and aligned with evolving user needs and institutional priorities.

Your remit includes championing modern practices in software development and configuration, guiding platform optimisation, enabling better use of automation for user support, and ensuring integrations support a seamless digital experience. You’ll be working alongside other Practice Leads and third-party vendors, contributing to a culture of collaboration, continuous improvement, and service excellence.

Specific responsibilities include:

• Leading the application development, integration, and support functions.
• Implementing robust solution development, configuration, and integration practices.
• Managing enhancements, change requests, and vendor relationships.
• Ensuring service availability targets are met, and issues are proactively resolved.
• Supporting automation initiatives and improved end-user experiences.
• Driving team culture, knowledge sharing, and practice maturity across Digital Services.

The Person

You’ll bring a strong background in enterprise applications, systems integration, and team leadership. You’re as comfortable discussing technical roadmaps as you are guiding performance, nurturing capability, and delivering results.

Your approach to leadership is collaborative and people-focused—you lead by example, build trust quickly, and value shared success. You’re future-focused, resilient, and motivated by the opportunity to make a difference at both strategic and operational levels.

You’ll likely have:

• Proven experience leading application or systems teams in a large, complex environment.
• Deep domain knowledge in application development, SaaS platforms, and integration technologies.
• A track record of delivering scalable, secure, and user-centric technology services.
• Confidence managing vendor relationships, performance targets, and technical delivery.
• A passion for continuous improvement, innovation, and mentoring others.
• An understanding of how digital services support organisational outcomes, especially in education or public sector environments, would be advantageous.

The Organisation

This is your opportunity to contribute to a highly respected institution known for its research excellence, innovation, and global impact. The organisation is deeply committed to Te Tiriti o Waitangi and seeks to embody its principles in all aspects of its work. You’ll be joining a team that values integrity, future-thinking, and meaningful collaboration.

The Information Technology Services (ITS) team plays a vital role in enabling teaching, learning, research, and operations across campuses. This role, based in Palmerston North, sits at the heart of that effort—supporting thousands of users, and contributing to systems that influence outcomes at scale.

Apply now if you’re ready to take on a leadership role with real scope, meaningful purpose, and the chance to leave a legacy in a future-focused digital environment. Questions? Contact me - [email protected]