King's College School Careers in London

Required as soon as possible

Salary: £75,000 to £85,000 per annum (depending on experience)

Purpose of the role

The head of IT operations will lead the planning, delivery, and improvement of the school's IT provision, including hardware, software, networks, and staff and pupil devices, ensuring reliable, secure systems for pupils and staff. This includes purchasing, installation, operation, upkeep of all IT equipment, improving existing systems, overseeing the IT helpdesk, and planning strategically for continual upgrades.

The postholder will play a key technical and strategic role in supporting the school's digital vision and roadmap as a permanent member of the Digital Steering Group (Operations sub-group), ensuring the safe and sustainable adoption of new systems and workflows. The head of IT operations has full line management of the IT helpdesk and network systems team, including annual appraisals.

Key responsibilities

• Design, implement, and maintain a robust cyber security framework appropriate to a school, monitoring threats, managing incident response, coordinating staff awareness training and penetration testing.
• Own network and infrastructure security operationally, including regularly tested business continuity and disaster recovery plans, identity and access management, conditional access, and device trust.
• Manage the IT department's day-to-day service delivery and helpdesk oversight, ensuring reliable service, rapid issue resolution, and effective front-line support.
• Ensure staff and pupils have access to a safe, secure, and dependable system, schedule maintenance to minimise disruption, and take responsibility for out-of-hours incidents.
• Manage and develop the IT team, prioritising and allocating work, managing recruitment, training, performance, and carrying out annual appraisals.
• Plan strategically for continual upgrades of the school's IT provision, maintaining a rolling, costed three-year IT strategy.
• Report regularly to the DDST, senior management team, and governors on IT performance, project delivery, cyber risk, and budget.
• Manage the IT department's budget, providing regular forecasts and variance analysis, identifying cost savings without compromising service quality.
• Lead IT procurement, ensuring value for money and compliance with financial procedures; manage software licensing and audit usage.
• Hold overall responsibility for IT projects, including classroom installations and wider IT implementations.
• Lead compliance and assurance, ensuring IT systems store and manage data in accordance with UK data protection law.

Person specification

The successful candidate will combine strong technical knowledge with leadership and technical skills to run a school IT service.

Essential: qualifications and experience

• A relevant degree or equivalent professional qualifications and demonstrable experience.
• Experience of leading and developing an internal IT team, owning a service desk, and managing IT operations to ITIL service delivery best practice.
• A strong track record in project management, change management, process improvement, and service optimisation.
• Experience of managing an IT budget, procurement, tenders, contract negotiation, and third-party suppliers.

Essential: technical knowledge

• Microsoft 365 and Azure administration, including Entra ID, Intune, Defender, Purview, SharePoint Online, Teams, and Exchange Online.
• Identity and access management, including Conditional Access and multi-factor authentication.
• Cyber security governance and policy management, data loss prevention, and incident response.
• Enterprise networking, cloud and hybrid environments, endpoint management, and backup planning.
• Web filtering, safeguarding monitoring, and content management.
• AI security, data privacy, and risk mitigation.

Essential: leadership and communication

• The ability to lead and inspire a diverse team, supporting colleagues through coaching and collaboration.
• The ability to balance strategic thinking with a hands-on approach, translating educational priorities into a practical technology roadmap.

Essential: personal qualities

• Solutions-focused, demonstrating sound judgement and adaptability.
• Organised, reliable, and adaptable, with strong project delivery skills.
• Collaborative, committed to continuous learning, and takes ownership of decisions.

Desirable

• Certifications in cyber security, Microsoft 365 and Azure, ITIL, or project management.
• Experience in a school or public-sector setting.
• An understanding of the regulatory environment for schools.
• Experience of designing and delivering staff training on AI use.

Terms and conditions

This is a permanent, full-time, all-year round role.

Start date: as soon as possible

Annual salary of £75,000 to £85,000 (depending on experience)

Working pattern: Monday to Friday with an unpaid hour of lunch break.

Closing date: Monday 23rd November 2026 at 9am

Interviews: Week of 30th November 2026. Early applications are encouraged; interviews may be staged.

This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (ROA) 1974.

King’s is fully committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and expects all staff to share this commitment.

Applicants will be required to undergo child protection screening appropriate to the post.

King’s College School is fully committed to the principles of equality, diversity and inclusivity in its recruitment.