Director of Technology & Digital

The National Lottery Community Fund is searching for a Director of Technology and Digital. Every year, the Fund distributes hundreds of millions of pounds to projects that enrich communities across the UK. Behind that sits a complex technology and digital eco-system that now requires a leader capable of delivering innovation and inspiration to a team of over 70 technology and digital colleagues.

This role offers an opportunity to shape how the organisation uses technology, digital services, automation, and AI to improve experiences for colleagues, partners, and the communities it serves. Reporting to the Chief Finance & Operating Officer and sitting on the Senior Management Team, you will lead Technology & Digital across two established teams covering infrastructure, security, operations, digital platforms, service delivery, user experience/solution design, and digital transformation.

The Opportunity

Technology and digital services are recognised as critical enablers of the Fund's strategy - It Starts with Community. The foundations are in place - established teams, structures, and strategies - but there is significant opportunity to implement leading-edge platforms, simplify processes, increase automation, and embed digital thinking across the organisation.

Your focus will centre around three strategic priorities:

• Oversight of the technology estate to maximise operational effectiveness across infrastructure, platforms, governance, and service delivery. Security over information assets and data remains paramount.
• Developing and delivering an ambitious but responsible AI and automation strategy that enables innovation and creates measurable value across the organisation.
• Leading cultural transformation by supporting over 850 colleagues to embrace new operating processes, improve adoption, and unlock better ways of working.

This is a newly created and key role for the Fund at a point where a strategic leader is required to drive with pace and poise to ensure technology and digital functions are dynamic, forward-thinking, connected, and a highly engaged strategic partner. Success will be measured by nurturing relationships across the Fund, ensuring technology and digital become genuine strategic enablers of solutions and outcomes for colleagues, grant applicants, and communities throughout the UK.

Key Responsibilities

• Set the strategic direction for Technology and Digital, ensuring alignment to organisational priorities and driving delivery of the Fund's Digital Transformation Strategy and Technology Strategy, acting as a visible leader of cultural and organisational change.
• Accountable for ensuring end-to-end grant making processes are modernised and designed with customer and colleague experience in mind. Digital services should always be accessible, inclusive, scalable, and meet the needs of communities, applicants, and colleagues.
• Ensure a secure, modern, resilient, and scalable technology infrastructure and operations, maintaining robust IT governance and service management while demonstrating value for money in the investment of public funds at all times.
• Lead the responsible adoption of data-driven analytics and the well-governed use of AI solutions which identify efficiency and improve grant applicant/holder experiences to curate a data-first culture where data is clean and reliable and drives informed decision-making.
• Provide expert advice, insight, and challenge to the Chief Finance and Operations Officer, Executive Committee, Board, and relevant Committees on technology and digital capability, performance, and risk (including cyber).
• Shape and oversee prioritisation and investment across Technology and Digital, balancing innovation, operational stability, and value for money, while building high-performing teams, digital capability, and a 'One Fund' approach to technology and digital solutions across the organisation.
• Observing the Fund's vision and values, you will be a role model leader, focused on developing and maintaining highly engaged and high-performing teams with a customer-centric mindset which adds strategic value and ensures the Fund's technology and digital landscape supports the Fund's climate commitments and net-zero plans.

Personal Profile

We are looking for an experienced technology leader who combines strategic thinking with the ability to inspire. You will bring:

• Significant experience leading technology and digital functions at scale within a complex organisation, with a clear track record of aligning capability to organisational priorities.
• Proven ability to operate at senior leadership level, contributing to organisational strategy and influencing decision-making across Executive and Board-level stakeholders.
• Experience of leading large multi-disciplinary teams across multiple sites throughout the UK, establishing clear accountability, driving performance, and enabling high-performing teams.
• Proven track record delivering major digital transformation programmes, including modernisation of technology estates, platforms, and digital services.
• Experience leading organisational and cultural change in a technology context, including embedding new ways of working across a complex organisation.
• Strong understanding of technology infrastructure, digital service design, data, analytics, and emerging technologies including AI.
• Experience establishing AI governance frameworks and leading the responsible adoption of emerging technologies at organisational scale.
• Significant experience of delivering proven cyber security risk management solutions, and of establishing governance and control frameworks for technology and digital.
• Experience of balancing competing priorities across innovation, operational stability, resilience, and value for money.
• Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills, with the ability to provide advice, insight, and challenge to senior leaders, Boards, and Committees.
• Commercial and financial management of technology investment, including contract and supplier management.
• Proven experience of high compliance with public sector (or equivalent) standards, governance, and regulatory frameworks.

Why Join?

If you have a strong sense of social purpose and responsibility and recognise the importance of developing everyone to their full potential, you will inherit experienced leadership, significant executive sponsorship, and the opportunity to shape the technology strategy that supports thousands of community organisations across the country. Few technology leadership roles offer this level of strategic influence alongside such a clear social purpose. If you are looking for an opportunity where your leadership can genuinely improve lives across the UK, we would love to hear from you.