Automation Platform Lead

Halfords is on a journey - building the future of motoring and cycling and looking for people who want to help shape what comes next. We’re a place for cocreators: people who want to make a real impact, take ownership and be part of something that’s still evolving.

Technology at Halfords is at a turning point. We’re modernising our foundations, sharpening our delivery, and ensuring every technology decision is connected to real commercial and customer outcomes.

We're looking for people who act as trusted advisors to the business, take end-to-end accountability for outcomes, and can balance pace with long-term architectural integrity. Innovation here means practical, scalable solutions, not ideas that stay on whiteboards.

As Automation Platform Lead within our Technology Architecture function, you'll take ownership of how automation is adopted, governed, and scaled across the business. Reporting to the Head of Platform Engineering, your primary focus will be Microsoft Power Platform, building out a Centre of Excellence that gives the organisation a structured, sustainable way to identify automation opportunities and turn them into solutions that actually deliver operational and commercial value.

Day to day, you'll work with business teams and delivery squads to identify where automation can make a genuine difference, develop the standards and reusable components that make adoption safe and scalable, and provide coaching and hands-on support through Power Platform surgeries and community engagement. You'll also work closely with Architecture and Platform Engineering to ensure automation capabilities evolve in line with the broader platform strategy and enterprise architecture principles.

This is a role for someone who combines solid Power Platform expertise with the stakeholder skills to champion automation adoption across a complex organisation. If you enjoy translating business problems into practical automated solutions, building capability in others, and connecting technology to measurable outcomes, there's real scope here to establish something that grows with the business.

• →Define and lead the enterprise automation capability, establishing the vision, roadmap, and governance model for automation across the organisation
• →Own the Power Platform Centre of Excellence, developing standards, reusable components, and best practices that enable the safe and scalable adoption of Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, and related services
• →Engage with business teams to identify high-value automation opportunities, supporting the design of solutions that reduce manual effort and improve operational outcomes
• →Establish automation governance and standards, ensuring solutions are secure, maintainable, and aligned with enterprise architecture principles and security policies
• →Provide technical leadership and oversight for automation initiatives, ensuring solutions are built using appropriate patterns and integrated effectively with enterprise systems
• →Coach and enable delivery teams and citizen developers through Power Platform surgeries, training sessions, and internal community engagement
• →Identify emerging automation technologies and approaches that could enhance productivity and support broader business transformation
  
  

• Demonstrable experience designing and delivering automation solutions in enterprise environments, with strong technical knowledge of Microsoft Power Platform including Power Apps, Power Automate, and Power BI
• Experience establishing or contributing to a Power Platform Centre of Excellence or equivalent automation governance capability
• Proven ability to identify automation opportunities within business processes and translate them into practical, value-driven solutions
• Experience developing automation standards, governance practices, and reusable components to ensure solutions are scalable and maintainable over time
• Strong stakeholder engagement skills, comfortable working with business teams and technical leaders to drive adoption and articulate the value of automation clearly
• Able to coach and enable both business users and technical teams to use automation technologies effectively and with confidence
• Familiarity with RPA, low-code platforms, or enterprise integration patterns is a bonus, as is experience with Microsoft Azure services or working in retail or operationally complex environments
  
  

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