Home Office on the hunt for technology chief to navigate Brexit disruption
- Summary:
- The Home Office has a huge stake in the Brexit negotiations, given that it is responsible for immigration and borders. It is looking for a technology chief to deliver on managing the systems through the change.
In a job posting, the new EU Exit Technology Delivery Lead will be paid up to £105,000 and be mostly focused on immigration, borders and biometric portfolios.
Given the nature of Brexit, the Home Office is one of the departments most impacted by exiting the European Union, along with Defra, and has already got plans in place for a new immigration system that aims to be “digital, flexible and frictionless”.
The successful candidate will work within the Digital, Data and Technology function with the Home Office, which was established in 2010 and introduced to help the department “take back control” of the design, build and/or operations of key technology services.
The job posting states:
Within the Home Office, as our large multi-year contracts expire, we are leveraging these opportunities. Whilst we still use a very large cross-section of 3rd party partners for various aspects of the systems and services lifecycle, we are letting smaller contracts, and increasingly assuming direct responsibility for service delivery and integration.
The Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) function is made up of more than 3000 staff, augmented by a large number of supplier partners.
Every year our systems support over 3 million visa applications, checks on 100 million border crossings, 5 million passport applications and 140 million police checks on people, vehicles and property.
An overview of the Digital, Data and Technology function can be seen below:
The role
The Home Office states that the job will provide applicants with the opportunity to work on “one of the most important, high profile, programmes in the UK in an environment where excellence and innovation in every aspect of operations is expected”.
The EU Exit programme at the Home Office comprises a layer of IT-enabled change that sits atop and across DDaT’s existing change portfolio.
The job posting states:
As UK prepares to leave the EU the demand is likely to leverage new capabilities already planned for delivery, but it could also require significant changes to existing plans, and the standing up of entirely new projects. The activities will reach across DDaT structural boundaries, but will be most heavily concentrated within the Immigration, Borders and Biometrics portfolios.
The successful candidate will be responsible for the day-to-day effective leadership and successful delivery of the programme of work, and for working closely and collaboratively with staff, peers, senior management and key stakeholders.
The EU Exit Technology Delivery Lead will report directly to the Immigration Technology Director.
The successful candidate will have to have a proven track record in delivering large, high profile projects and programmes in an agile environment and managing large capital budgets.
An essential skill, according to the posting, will also be a proven experience of senior stakeholder management in a political, pressured environment and will need to provide evidence of “building credible and respected relationships at board level”.
Applications have until 2nd of September 2018 to submit an application form, with final panel interviews being held on the week commencing the 8th October.