Applications Manager (Microsoft)
Salary: circa £50,000 per annum, with some flexibility for the right candidate
Contract: Permanent, Full-Time
Location: Knowsley, Prescot, L34 9ET during refurbishment of head office, then Lower House Lane, Liverpool
Approximate re-opening of head office September 2026.


Are you passionate about making a difference in the housing sector? If you enjoy influencing how digital estates supports the business, ensuring systems are effective, user-centered and consistently improving to meet organisational needs, this is the role for you.
The Microsoft Applications Manager will be specialised in Microsoft-centric environments, focusing on optimising, deploying, and securing applications within the Microsoft ecosystem.


About the role
The way we use applications and digital services is evolving. Cobalt has fully transitioned to a modern, cloud-based technology estate, giving us the foundations to deliver our ambitious Corporate Plan and Digital Strategy. With no legacy infrastructure or technical debt, we now operate within a clean, integrated digital ecosystem where applications, data, identity and security work seamlessly together.
As part of this transformation, we are continuing to enhance how our systems interact, expanding our use of Microsoft Fabric and a lakehouse architecture to bring data from across the organisation into a single, trusted source for insight, reporting and advanced analytics. Our platforms sit on resilient Azure cloud foundations, supported by enterprise-grade security, monitoring and a managed SOC.
Within this environment, the Applications Manager plays a pivotal role. The postholder will lead the evolution and optimisation of strategic, business-critical platforms, shaping integration patterns, roadmaps and supplier relationships. The focus is firmly on driving value, adoption and continuous improvement—not on maintaining legacy systems. This is an opportunity to influence how our digital estate supports the business, ensuring systems are effective, user-centred and consistently improving to meet organisational needs.
Key Responsibilities
*As part of the Digital Transformation team, work to embed Cobalt’s vision, values and culture across the business and with wider suppliers and partners.
*Work with the Digital Transformation Director and wider Digital management team to lead on the successful implementation of strategies, business and financial plans in the team, with particular focus on delivery of the Digital Strategy.
*Consult with, influence and build relationships with key internal and external stakeholders and link with members of other functions across operational and corporate services, to address inter dependencies and ensure alignment
*Manage the product roadmap and associated projects and actions, such as patch updates, upgrades, migrations, enhancements, security measures, plug-ins and integrations.
For the full list of responsibilities and the person specification, please review the recruitment pack linked below.
What We’re Looking For


We welcome applications from all backgrounds, cultures, perspectives and experiences to support innovation, creativity, and to help us build the balanced teams that we require to serve our communities. Our recruitment and interview processes has been designed inclusively to ensure you’ll have lots of different opportunities to demonstrate your skills and capabilities. You will be working in a new and dynamic team; we invest heavily in our people, so once in the role you can expect to have access to a range of innovative and exciting opportunities to develop yourself personally and professionally.
Successful applicants will live within a commutable distance as office attendance is required on a flexible, hybrid arrangement.