Head of Application Platforms at Dis-Chem Pharmacies

Job Description

• Dis-Chem Pharmacies has an opportunity available for a Head of Application Platforms is accountable for the end-to-end performance, stability, and delivery of Dis-Chem’s application platforms across Retail, Customer, Core, and Integration domains.
• The role is accountable for the end-to-end health, evolution, and performance of application platforms that support in-store operations, digital customer engagement, head-office functions, and enterprise integration.
• The role operates with a platform-as-a-product mindset, ensuring platforms are reliable, scalable, secure, and consumable across business units.
• The Head of Application Platforms ensures alignment to enterprise architecture, security guardrails, and governance standards while enabling speed-to-market and reuse.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in information systems, Computer Science, or related field
• 10+ years’ experience in application or digital technology leadership
• Proven delivery and operation of large-scale enterprise platforms

Responsibilities:

Strategy and value delivery

• Define and maintain platform strategies and roadmaps across Retail, Customer, Core, and Integration platforms 
• Ensure platforms deliver reusable capabilities rather than bespoke point solutions 
• Decide and govern platform ownership models (single-consumer vs multi-consumer) in line with enterprise design principles 
• Drive simplification, standardization, and technical-debt reduction

 Delivery and operations

• Accountable for outcomes delivered through platform tribes and squads
• Ensure stable, secure operation of applications, including incident, problem, and lifecycle management
• Partner with Infrastructure and Security to meet availability, performance, and resilience targets
• Coordinate with Integration & Workflow platforms to enable reliable data flow and process automation

 Governance and collaboration

• Work with Enterprise Architecture to ensure adherence to technology standards and pattern
• Partner with IT Demand Management and PMO to prioritize work within fixed capacity
• Collaborate with business product owners to define value cases, outcomes, and success metrics
• Govern vendor delivery within platform accountability frameworks 

Competencies:

• Strong product and platform leadership mindset
• Experience leading multiple Agile tribes and squads
• Ability to manage complex application landscapes and dependencies
• Strong stakeholder engagement across business and IT
• Lead, coach, and develop Platform Tribe Leads and their teams
• Set performance expectations and conduct performance reviews
• Manage team capacity, workload allocation, and capability development
• Support recruitment, succession planning, and organizational design

 Key Performance Indicators

• Availability, performance, and resilience of application platforms
• Delivery of platform roadmaps and major releases vs plan
• Adoption and reuse of common platforms across business units
• Reduction of legacy complexity and decommissioning of duplicate systems
• Business satisfaction with platform capabilities and time-to-market
• Contribution to culture and leadership outcomes, measured through employee engagement, culture index improvements, and adherence to organizational values and leadership behaviours.

Special Conditions of Employment:

• South African citizen
• MIE, clear criminal and credit
• Driver’s license and/or own reliable transport

Remuneration and benefits:

• Market related salary
• Medical aid
• Provident fund
• Staff account

Closing Date 03 October 2026