Head of Department, Technology, Resilience & Cyber in London

About the FCA

At the FCA, we are creating a fair and more resilient financial system. We are establishing more transparent relationships between financial services and customers, building trust in financial markets and protecting vulnerable consumers. We are currently on an exciting journey as we drive forward significant organisational, people, process, and technology transformation to become a more forward‐thinking, proactive regulator. We will use data more effectively to drive better regulatory decisions and build greater cohesion across our broad financial services remit. Significant improvements in digital enablement, business intelligence, market data and information management maturity are all being pursued to maintain our position as a world leader in financial services regulation.

In March 2025, the FCA launched a new 5‐year strategy to deepen trust, rebalance risk, support growth and improve lives. The FCA will focus on four priorities:

• Be a smarter regulator; predictable, purposeful and proportionate. The FCA will improve its processes and embrace technology to become more efficient and effective.
• Support sustained economic growth, by enabling investment, innovation and ensuring the continued competitiveness of the UK's world‐leading financial services.
• Help consumers navigate their financial lives by working with industry to boost trust, product innovation and ensuring the right information and support is available for people to take financial decisions.
• Fight financial crime, focusing on those who seek to use the fact they are regulated to do harm. It will go further to disrupt criminals and support firms to be an effective line of defence.

The Role

An exciting opportunity has arisen to take on the role of Head of Technology, Resilience and Cyber (TRC) department. TRC plays a central role in protecting consumers and markets from the impact of operational disruption and cyber‐attacks. The department comprises five specialist teams focused on incident response, supervisory strategy, and engagement with domestic and international stakeholders. The department is at the front‐of‐the‐line shaping regulatory approaches to technology risk, cyber security, third‐party oversight, and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing. It also leads the FCA's oversight of Critical Third Parties (CTPs) under FSMA 2023, working jointly with the PRA and Bank of England to ensure the operational resilience of key service providers to the UK financial industry.

Key Responsibilities

• Leading a large, blended department of FCA supervisors, operational and cyber resilience specialists, incident responders, policy experts and data analysts, in delivering the FCA's work helping the UK financial services industry be resilient to operational disruptions.
• Leading the FCA's crisis response to major incidents, often chairing crisis coordination meetings with HMT, PRA, NCSC and others, as part of the UK's Sector Response Framework.
• Leading the development and adaptation of the FCA's rules and standards for firms in their operational and cyber resilience, so they keep pace with emerging threats and technologies.
• Developing and delivering a long‐term strategy for the department, aligning broader divisional and organisational strategies.
• Leading on performance, capability and culture within the department, with a strong focus on operational excellence.
• Delivering through others by relying on coaching, influencing and negotiating skills with a range of internal and external stakeholders.
• Building a strong and inclusive directorate that attracts and develops diverse talent.

Minimum Requirements

• Significant experience of managing and influencing key stakeholders, including senior decision makers internally and externally.
• In‐depth experience in technology regulation, operational resilience, or evidence demonstrating a keen desire to learn more and support others' learning in the fields of cyber, technology risk, artificial intelligence and emerging challenges such as quantum computing.
• Significant experience in leading teams to deliver high quality complex work.
• Experience developing and communicating new policies and standards to firms.

Essential Requirements

• Strong communication skills, both written and oral (ability to convey complex issues in a coherent, logical and compelling way, including communicating technical issues to non‐technical audiences).
• Exceptionally strong judgement, supported by highly developed analytical skills and high levels of diligence; can demonstrate making challenging, risk‐based decisions in a complex and changing landscape.
• Experience in dealing with contentious issues in firms, taking decisive action and delivering difficult messages.
• An ability to get up to speed on new issues quickly and innovative thinking for how to deal with new complex problems most effectively.
• Experience of role‐modeling strong leadership behaviours in line with organisational values.
• The ability to inclusively lead a group of talented individuals with a wide variety of professional expertise, experience and backgrounds.
• An open and flexible management style and the ability to communicate effectively to a wide‐ranging audience with different skills and perspectives.

The job holder will be required to obtain Developed Vetting (DV) security clearance.

Desirable Requirements

• Significant experience working with financial services, or with large third‐party providers (e.g. cloud service providers) to another Critical National Infrastructure sector.

Benefits

• Our competitive benefits scheme gives you the opportunity to create a personalised benefits package, tailored to suit your lifecycle. You can use this allowance to purchase additional benefits such as dental or cycle‐to‐work, or you have the option to top up your base salary by taking this as cash.
• 30 days holiday per year plus bank holidays.
• Private healthcare with Bupa.
• A non‐contributory pension of at least 8% of basic salary each month (there are several contribution levels that increase depending on your age – up to 12% a month once you reach age 35).
• Life assurance of eight times your basic salary.
• Income protection.

Conflicts of Interest

All applicants to the FCA are required to demonstrate that they do not have other interests likely to conflict with their responsibilities as an employee of the FCA. You should declare any potential conflict of interest as early as possible in the selection process, and also disclose information or personal connections that, if appointed, might be open to misperception. Any potential conflicts of interest will not prevent candidates from going forward to interview but may, if appropriate, be explored during the interview to establish how the candidate would address the issue(s) should they be successful in their application.

Useful Information

• The closing date for this role is 23:55 on 26th April.
• Selection will be via a two‐stage interview and psychometric assessment.
• If successful, you will be required to obtain and retain DV Clearance.
• We currently operate a hybrid working model, working a minimum of 40% in the office each month (50% for senior leaders). This way of working applies in our Stratford, Leeds and Edinburgh offices. From September 2026, FCA employees will be required to spend a minimum of 50% of their working time in the office. Our Executive Director and Directors will be expected to be in a minimum of 60% per month.
• The salary range for the role is between £140,000 and £175,000 in London, and £126,000 and £157,500 nationally.
• To apply please submit your CV and cover letter.
• For further information about the role, please contact luci.bines@fca.org.uk.