Senior Business Applications Manager

Work with us
Our team are passionate in the pursuit of excellence and in pushing the boundaries of cancer therapy and Autoimmune disease to deliver life-changing treatments to patients.

Whilst working at Autolus you will enjoy a flexible, diverse and dynamic working environment which actively promotes creativity, leadership and teamwork – together we are ONE Autolus.

Job Description:

Job Title: Senior Applications Manager (Corporate & Commercial Applications)

Reports to Senior Director, Application Management  

Department: IT

Hours: Monday – Friday (core office hours)

Location: Mediaworks (London) Hybrid working with occasional travel to Stevenage

About Autolus

Autolus is a biopharmaceutical company, advancing innovative therapies at both clinical and commercial stages of development, focused on next-generation, programmed T cell therapies for the treatment of cancer. Using a broad suite of proprietary and modular T cell programming technologies, the company is engineering precisely targeted, controlled, and highly active T cell therapies designed to better recognize cancer cells, break down their defence mechanisms, and eliminate these cells. Autolus has a pipeline of product candidates in development for the treatment of haematological malignancies, solid tumours, and autoimmune diseases.

Why Autolus

Our team is passionate in the pursuit of excellence and in pushing the boundaries of cancer therapy and autoimmune diseases to deliver life-changing treatments to patients. Whilst working at Autolus you will enjoy a flexible, diverse, and dynamic working environment which actively promotes creativity, leadership and teamwork. In addition to this Autolus is proud to offer a competitive salary, performance related bonus as well as a comprehensive benefits package.

Our Promise

Autolus is developing complex, breakthrough therapies for a globally diverse market and equally recognises that diversity amongst our people is critical to our mission. As we draw on our differences, what we’ve experienced, and how we work, we celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.

Role Summary

The Senior Applications Manager is responsible for owning and overseeing a portfolio of enterprise applications, including systems such as CRM, ERP, HRIS, and their associated integrations, which support key corporate and commercial business functions.

This role is accountable for ensuring that these applications consistently deliver reliable, high-quality, secure, and cost-effective outcomes for the organisation. While not directly responsible for day-to-day support operations, the role provides strategic direction to service delivery teams and holds them accountable for performance, service quality, and adherence to agreed SLAs and operational standards.

A key aspect of the position is maintaining oversight of application health, performance, resilience, and stability across the portfolio, ensuring systems remain fit for purpose, compliant, and aligned with evolving business needs. The role is also responsible for establishing, maturing, and embedding effective governance frameworks and operational rhythms that support the ongoing health, stability, and continuous improvement of applications within a BAU environment. This includes implementing structured review cadences, service governance forums, risk and issue management processes, change oversight, vendor performance management, and KPI reporting mechanisms to drive operational excellence and accountability across the application landscape.

The Senior Applications Manager will chair or contribute to governance forums and ensure appropriate controls, policies, and standards are implemented across the application portfolio. This includes ensuring that application changes are assessed, prioritised, approved, and delivered in line with business priorities, regulatory expectations, cybersecurity requirements, and IT governance standards.

The role works closely with business stakeholders to understand strategic priorities, shape demand, and ensure application roadmaps, investment decisions, and enhancement activities are aligned with organisational objectives. In addition, the role acts as a key escalation and decision-making point for application-related risks, issues, technical debt, and continuous improvement opportunities across the portfolio.

Key Responsibilities

Support Oversight (via Service Delivery) 

• Partner with Service Delivery Managers (SDMs) and support teams to ensure strong application support performance  

• Define expectations for support quality, SLAs, and user experience  

• Review incident trends and ensure systemic issues are identified and resolved  

• Hold vendors and support teams accountable for outcomes, not just activity  

Business Partnering and Demand Prioritization 

• Work closely with Business Stakeholders (BSOs) to understand day-to-day operational needs.

• Translate needs into a prioritized backlog based on business impact and urgency  

• Make clear trade-offs across competing demands and limited capacity  

• Ensure delivery is high quality and cost-conscious, not just fast  

Financial Ownership & Optimization 

• Own budget for applications, including licenses, vendors, and run costs  

• Identify and drive opportunities for cost optimization and efficiency  

• Ensure the application landscape scales in a financially sustainable way as the business grows  

• Manage renewals, contracts, and commercial negotiations  

Vendor & Contract Management 

• Manage third-party vendors and partners delivering support and enhancements  

• Negotiate and manage contracts, scope, and commercial terms  

• Ensure vendors are delivering value for money and meeting expectations  

• Drive accountability and performance improvements where needed  

Data-Driven Decision Making 

• Use data (ticket trends, usage metrics, cost data, performance metrics) to guide decisions  

• Continuously reassess priorities and approaches based on new information  

• Be willing to challenge assumptions and adjust direction when needed  

Integration & System Landscape Oversight 

• Maintain visibility across integrations between systems (e.g., CRM ↔ ERP ↔ HRIS)  

• Ensure changes are considered in the context of the broader application ecosystem  

• Work with technical teams to manage dependencies and avoid downstream issues  

Demonstrated skills and competencies

E – Essential

P – Preferred

Experience

• 7–12+ years working with enterprise applications (CRM, ERP, HRIS, or similar) (E)

• Experience owning or managing application portfolios, not just individual systems (E)  

• Strong experience managing third-party vendors and commercial relationships (E)

• Experience working in environments with separate support/service delivery functions (E)
• Experience in regulated industries (e.g., pharma, biotech, healthcare) (P)
• Familiarity with compliance requirements (e.g., GxP, SOX) (P)
• Experience with systems such as Salesforce, Dynamics 365, Workday, or similar (P)

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Business Information Systems, or a related discipline  (P)
  • Equivalent professional experience may be accepted in place of a degree

Skills/Specialist knowledge

• Strong ability to prioritize and make trade-offs across competing business needs (E)

• Comfortable operating with budget ownership and cost accountability (E)

• Data-driven mindset with the ability to turn insights into action (E) 

• Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills (E)

• Ability to operate across both business and technical contexts (E)  

Autolus Core Competencies

Focus on Results: Works to meet business goals set by management and leaders

Builds Trust and Relationships: Ensures trust with internal and external partners by delivering on commitments

Resilience: Has the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness

Communicates and Collaborates: Builds partnerships and works collaboratively with others to meet objectives

Autolus is committed to the protection of the personal information that we collect & process and we are fully compliant with General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

Autolus is committed to providing an inclusive and fair workplace for all. We are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate on the basis of race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other legally protected characteristic. We also provide reasonable accommodations throughout the recruitment process.

Autolus’ success is driven by equality and inclusion; we believe all voices are of equal value and must be heard. Whilst operating with focus and integrity, we are committed to improving diversity and inclusion within our business and our industry.