About this role
Over the last few years, Xantura has grown significantly. We now support a growing number of local authorities across multiple people based service areas -and are increasingly working alongside Newton on larger transformation programmes. As the business has grown, so has the number of opportunities, ideas and demands being placed on the platform. Evolving prevention maturity of clients New client requirements emerge through delivery. Newton programmes identify opportunities that could become reusable capabilities. Local Government Reorganisation, devolution, Advances in artificial intelligence All of these drivers are creating new possibilities for how public services operate and how technology can support them. At the same time, not every opportunity could / should become a platform capability and not every customer requirement should shape the roadmap. The Platform Director role will help Newton and Xantura navigate these choices. Working closely with the CEO, CTO, COO and Newton colleagues, the Platform Director will help ensure that OneView evolves in a deliberate and commercially sustainable way. They will identify where the market is moving, determine which opportunities are strategically important and help translate those opportunities into platform capabilities, propositions and investment decisions. The role sits between market insight and platform delivery. It provides a structured mechanism for converting customer needs, programme learning, technology developments and strategic priorities into a coherent platform direction. The role is accountable for platform strategy, proposition direction, capability prioritisation and platform investment recommendations. Delivery execution, engineering management, technical architecture, platform operations and platform support remain the responsibility of the CTO and Platform Delivery teams. The Platform Director will also lead a small prototyping and exploratory development team responsible for testing new concepts before larger platform investment decisions are made. Success in this role will be measured by the quality of the decisions made, the opportunities identified and the extent to which platform evolution remains aligned with the future needs of customers and the business. A key measure of success will be the ability to convert successful client innovations and transformation learning into repeatable platform capabilities that can be adopted across multiple organisations Platform strategy, capability planning and roadmap direction Define and maintain the long-term vision for the OneView platform Translate business strategy into platform priorities and investment recommendations Lead the annual platform strategy review process Maintain a view of future platform capabilities and strategic roadmap requirements Develop and maintain platform capability maps Identify capability gaps and future capability requirements Help determine what capabilities should become part of the platform and what should remain client-specific solutions Support decisions regarding platform standardisation, reuse and long-term platform consistency Assess platform maturity and identify areas requiring future investment Chair platform roadmap review and prioritisation activities Balance short-term client requirements with long-term platform objectives Help define what OneView should become over the next three to five years Market insight, proposition development and platform evolution Maintain a strong understanding of local government, health and wider public sector priorities Monitor developments in Local Government Reorganisation, devolution, prevention, service reform and emerging policy agendas Assess the implications of artificial intelligence, automation and other technology developments for clients and the platform Identify emerging market opportunities and communicate their implications across the business Build relationships across the public sector, technology community and partner ecosystem Represent Xantura at conferences, client events and industry forums Work with clients, Newton teams and internal stakeholders to identify new proposition opportunities Assess opportunities for new products, capabilities and service offerings Support proposition development, positioning and go-to-market planning Ensure new propositions align with the long-term direction of the platform Help identify opportunities to expand OneView into new service areas and markets Support the continued evolution of existing solution areas including adults, children's services, housing, financial inclusion, operational intelligence and emerging connected place capabilities Converting delivery and transformation insight into platform capability Work closely with delivery teams to understand common client challenges and opportunities Identify patterns across implementations that should influence future platform development Ensure lessons learned from deployments are reflected in roadmap decisions Work with Newton colleagues to identify opportunities where programme learning can be converted into reusable platform assets Identify successful innovations that can be scaled across multiple customers Support the development of repeatable capabilities that strengthen both the platform and future transformation programmes Ensure the platform benefits from the collective experience of delivery teams, consultants and customers Platform investment, planning and prioritisation Support decisions regarding platform investment and resource allocation Review major enhancement requests and assess strategic fit Balance customer demand, commercial opportunity, technical complexity and strategic objectives Make recommendations regarding where platform investment should be directed and where it should not Support decisions relating to technical debt, platform modernisation and future capability investment Maintain visibility of platform, roadmap and exploratory development portfolios Develop business cases and investment recommendations for major platform initiatives Work with the CTO and delivery teams to translate strategic priorities into deliverable roadmaps Support quarterly planning and prioritisation activities Provide strategic context and business rationale for major platform decisions Prototyping and exploratory development Lead the prototyping and exploratory development team Maintain a portfolio of emerging opportunities aligned to business priorities Identify opportunities for rapid experimentation and proof-of-concept development Evaluate emerging technologies and assess their relevance to Xantura's mission Explore new approaches to prevention, operational intelligence, resident engagement, artificial intelligence, connected services and public sector transformation Support the transition of successful concepts into production roadmaps Establish practical processes for experimentation, evaluation and learning Newton and commercial collaboration Work with Newton programme teams to identify opportunities where platform capabilities can support transformation programmes Support major bids, proposals and strategic client engagements Provide platform and technology input into opportunity qualification and solution design Help shape future opportunities from both a client and platform perspective Build strong relationships across Newton and Xantura Act as a senior representative of the platform in client and partner discussions Help ensure learning from consulting programmes informs future platform direction Leadership and team development Lead, manage and develop the prototyping and exploratory development team Create a culture of curiosity, learning and practical problem solving Provide coaching, mentoring and professional development Establish effective ways of working and delivery disciplines Support collaboration across product, technology, consulting and customer-facing teams