Director – Information Technology (IT)

Buckinghamshire Council is recruiting a visionary leader to drive our IT services to the next level. This pivotal role is crucial in driving transformational organisational change and ensuring the delivery of high-quality services to our residents. We’re really proud of everything we have achieved since becoming a Unitary Council and we’re now looking to accelerate those innovations further.

As the Director of IT, you'll provide strategic leadership in our Information, Communication, Technology, Data Management and Artificial Intelligence (AI) space. You'll be at the forefront of transformational change, fostering a customer-focused culture and building strong partnerships in one of England’s largest County Unitary Authorities.

If you're passionate about all things technology and ready to make a significant impact, this role is for you!

Salary is up to £125,000.

About us

Our organisation is dedicated to delivering exceptional services to our community. We value innovation, efficiency, and effective service provision. As part of our senior leadership team, you will play a key role in promoting the values and behaviours of our council, fostering strong relationships with members, customers, and partners. We strive to embed a customer-focused culture, ensuring that employees and partners keep the customers’ needs at the forefront of what they do.

About the role

As the Director of IT, you will be responsible for:

• Providing strategic leadership and direction for the IT service areas.
• Managing and planning operational activities of the IT services.
• Driving forward the Council’s technology capability and developing innovative, efficient, and effective services.
• Leading the delivery of technology solutions that support the Council’s future transformation programs.
• Ensuring compliance with industry standards and maintaining a comprehensive cyber resilience strategy.
• Managing and monitoring service and technology-related budgets, costs, and income.
• Building cross-partner alignment across the County and beyond, using well-developed interpersonal skills to create strong, positive working relationships.
• Staying abreast of new trends, legislation, best practices, and demographic factors to develop innovative solutions.
• Challenging the status quo and setting challenging goals that focus on step-change improvements.
• Proactively building an environment that values staff creativity and innovation.

Please see the job summary attached for further information on the role.

About you

You are recognised as a great leader and as someone who has a record of creating professional engaged teams who are committed to delivering the best possible outcomes.

Ideally you will possess a relevant degree or professional qualification, or equivalent professional experience. You will have substantial experience in leading a successful IT service provision for a large, diverse organisation. Your strong leadership skills will enable you to set a clear direction and convey a persuasive future vision at all levels. Additionally, you will have significant commercial and contract management experience, managing relationships with key partners and service providers.

You will be digitally literate and capable of effectively engaging with technical staff, suppliers, and stakeholders to define the best approach to service design to achieve business and user objectives. Your experience in developing sound technology strategies and managing senior stakeholders, both internally and externally, will be crucial in this role. You will also have a high degree of political awareness and sensitivity, with strong diplomatic and interpersonal skills.

And finally you are highly collegiate: you understand the benefits of working across services within the organisation, partners in Buckinghamshire and the broader Sector to drive better outcomes.

This post is covered by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore applicants are required to declare:

• All unspent cautions and/or unspent convictions

We reserve the right to close the vacancy once we have received sufficient applications, so please be advised to submit your application as early as possible.

Our values and culture

We have a set of values, which our employees have chosen, that represent what we are – Proud, Ambitious, Collaborative and Trustworthy.

By joining Buckinghamshire Council, you can expect:

• a fair and inclusive culture
• the chance to really make a difference to those around you
• health and well-being initiatives including an Employee Assistance Programme, Mental Health First Aiders and mindfulness workshops
• a unified voice through our Employee Representative Group
• ongoing support, and the opportunity to develop and progress in your career with us
• opportunities to take part in fun activities such as fundraising and social events

At Buckinghamshire Council, we know that our biggest strength comes from the people that work for us, and that’s why we’re working hard to ensure we continue to be an accessible and inclusive organisation.

From dedicated staff networks overseen by our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Steering Group, to proudly standing as a Disability Confident employer, it’s important to us that all our colleagues feel engaged, listened to, and valued. Our offer of flexible working empowers a productive and happy workforce and allows employees to combine work with other responsibilities and commitments.

We believe our workforce should reflect the diverse communities we service in Buckinghamshire, and are looking for like-minded individuals to join us in promoting equality, fairness, and inclusion for everyone.

About the Business Unit

Resources cover a wide range of specialisms, including Human Resources, Finance, ICT and Business Operations. Our main focus is supporting the other directorates to provide the best possible service to our residents. To do that, we have to make sure we have the right people in the right roles across the organisation. From our finance teams, working strategically to ensure the best value from public money; to HR keeping our employees healthy and happy, each service is vital in making sure Buckinghamshire Council has what it needs to run effectively and efficiently.

As well as providing high quality services to other areas of the Council, you could also be helping us build on the revenue which comes from our external clients. If you are ambitious, customer-focussed and bursting with new ideas, we want to hear from you.

We recognise and reward you

Hard work and success deserves recognition. That’s why we pride ourselves on the benefits we give our people. We actively encourage a good work-life balance and promote flexible and agile working arrangements. We provide discounts on various Cafés, restaurants, shops and auto enrolment onto our generous Pension Scheme. In addition to the opportunity to gain membership to Costco, we have discounted gym memberships, travel discounts with Arriva and much more.