Chief Digital Officer

Your new company is a forward-thinking and rapidly growing multi-academy trust committed to high achievement and equal opportunities for every learner, with academies based in Staffordshire and Greater Manchester. We oversee a diverse family of academies and are driven by the belief that no child’s ambitions should be limited by background or ability. Our mission centres on raising aspirations, accelerating progress and enabling ambitious life goals for all pupils, underpinned by a values-led culture and a clear focus on quality, inclusion and consistency across our schools.

As we expand, digital leadership plays an increasingly critical role in supporting school improvement, operational excellence and learner outcomes.

Your new role involves reporting to the CEO, leading the development and delivery of a trust-wide digital and IT strategy, setting clear priorities, investment plans and measurable outcomes. The role will maintain oversight of the Trust’s digital landscape, establish a transformation roadmap, and drive the transition to a coherent enterprise architecture across platforms, integrations and data flows. You will champion innovation and modernisation across schools and central services while ensuring all technology decisions support educational priorities and safeguarding expectations.

The Chief Digital Officer will provide strategic advice to the CEO and Trustees, oversee core systems and infrastructure to ensure they are secure, resilient and scalable, and drive value for money through effective procurement and vendor management. You will lead the Trust’s cyber-security strategy, embedding strong risk management, incident response and digital resilience, and promote cyber awareness across the organisation. The role will also establish and embed a trust-wide data governance framework, ensuring high-quality, consistent and accessible data to support informed decision-making. You will take a responsible and forward-thinking approach to emerging technologies, with a strong emphasis on AI, identifying opportunities to enhance teaching, learning and organisational effectiveness.

Working closely with education leaders, you will ensure digital platforms and tools meet the needs of schools and have a positive impact on teaching and learning, setting high standards trust-wide. As a senior executive leader, you will provide regular updates to the CEO and Board, lead major digital transformation programmes and support the professional development of IT and digital teams across the Trust. This role offers hybrid working, with a weekly presence required at the Head Office in Staffordshire.

To be successful in this role, you must have executive experience in digital transformation, ideally within the education sector. You should have spearheaded a digital transformation across multiple sites, worked closely with a wider executive team to deliver change, and owned a digital or technology strategy. Experience developing and leading cyber-security initiatives and managing a team is essential. You should be passionate about working in education and understand how technology impacts the sector and learners.

In return, you will join an executive leadership team that is integral to the organisation, working together towards a common goal. You will receive a competitive salary of £115,000 to £125,000, a local government pension scheme, and an attractive benefits package, including 33 days holiday (plus bank holidays) and access to a retail discount scheme, a cycle-to-work scheme and employee wellbeing platforms.