Chief Information Officer (CIO)

• Job Title: Chief Information Officer (CIO)
• Day Rate: Contact Me
• Duration: 12 Months Rolling
• Start Date: ASAP

Role Overview

We are seeking an exceptional Contract Chief Information Officer (CIO) to lead a mission-critical technology transformation within a security-cleared on-prem data centre environment. This engagement is central to improving resilience, security posture, and operational capability across a business-critical estate where availability, control, and compliance are non-negotiable.

This is an Outside IR35 contract, requiring a senior technology leader with a strong network security background and a proven track record delivering complex change in constrained, regulated, and security-led environments.

Why This Role (Transformation Focus)

This is not business-as-usual IT leadership. The CIO will be accountable for shaping and executing a transformation programme that may include:

• Uplifting service resilience and operational maturity across a critical on-prem estate
• Driving security hardening and control compliance (including network security and privileged access)
• Modernising legacy platforms/tooling while maintaining continuous availability
• Establishing stronger governance, reporting, and delivery cadence across teams and suppliers
• Enabling the organisation to operate faster, safer, and with clearer accountability

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the end-to-end technology strategy and transformation roadmap, aligned to mission outcomes and security constraints.
• Take executive ownership of on-prem data centre operations: uptime, capacity planning, lifecycle/refresh, performance, DR/BCP readiness.
• Drive a measurable uplift in security and risk management, including control implementation, compliance and audit readiness.
• Direct network security strategy and execution: segmentation, secure remote access, boundary/perimeter controls, monitoring and incident readiness.
• Establish strong transformation governance: milestones, RAID management, dependency tracking and reporting to senior stakeholders.
• Improve IT service management performance (incident/problem/change), reducing operational friction and raising service quality.
• Lead and mentor multi-disciplinary teams across infrastructure, security, service delivery and operations.
• Manage and hold suppliers to account—commercial control, delivery quality and measurable outcomes.

Required Experience

• Proven experience as a CIO / IT Director / Head of IT (or equivalent) leading significant change programmes.
• Strong experience in security-cleared environments (e.g., defence, central government, intelligence, critical national infrastructure).
• Deep understanding of on-prem data centre architecture and operations (compute/storage/network/virtualisation, backup, DR).
• Credible network security background (hands‑on earlier career or senior leadership responsibility) within enterprise‑scale environments.
• Track record of delivering transformation while maintaining service continuity and meeting strict compliance and security requirements.
• Ability to influence confidently at senior level and communicate risk/trade‑offs clearly.

Clearance Requirement (Active)

Due to the nature of the work, applicants must already hold active UK access/clearance at one of the following levels:

• SC, DV, or eDV (Enhanced DV)
• UKIC access/clearance
• STRAP-level access (where applicable)

Active clearance is mandatory; candidates who are only “clearable” are unlikely to be considered.

Working Pattern

• On-site presence is expected due to the classified, on‑prem environment (exact pattern to be confirmed).

Are you interested? Please send me your most recent CV and contact information so that we can speak in more detail!