Interim CIO
Posted 2 weeks ago by JSS Transform
Negotiable
Undetermined
Undetermined
London Area, United Kingdom
Summary: The Chief Information Officer (CIO) in a tech services business is responsible for leading the organization's IT and digital transformation efforts, ensuring alignment between technology infrastructure and business goals. This role encompasses strategic planning, service delivery, client engagement, governance, and team leadership. The CIO also drives innovation and oversees the implementation of emerging technologies to enhance operational resilience and security. Ultimately, the position aims to deliver value to clients while fostering a culture of continuous improvement within the IT team.
Key Responsibilities:
- Define and execute IT strategy in alignment with overall business objectives.
- Shape and execute an enterprise IT strategy that enhances operational resilience, scalability, and security.
- Drive digital transformation, automation, and modernization initiatives.
- Ensure reliable and scalable IT operations to support internal and client-facing systems.
- Collaborate with business development teams to support sales and solution design.
- Lead governance efforts around IT policies, risk management, and compliance.
- Oversee the management and optimisation of enterprise-wide IT infrastructure and applications.
- Build and lead high-performing IT teams and tech consultants.
Key Skills:
- Proven experience as a CIO, CTO, or senior IT leader.
- Strong communication skills to convey technical information to non-technical colleagues.
- Experience in managing an IT organisation in a split Enterprise IT/Product Engineering model.
- Ability to align IT initiatives with business goals.
- Strong foundation in infrastructure, software development, cybersecurity, and cloud platforms.
- Budget planning, cost optimization, and ROI analysis skills.
- Experience in driving organizational change through technology.
Salary (Rate): undetermined
City: London Area
Country: United Kingdom
Working Arrangements: undetermined
IR35 Status: undetermined
Seniority Level: undetermined
Industry: IT
A Chief Information Officer (CIO) in a tech services business plays a critical strategic and operational role. The CIO leads the organization's information technology and digital transformation efforts, ensuring that the technology infrastructure and services align with business goals and deliver value to clients. Here’s a detailed overview of the CIO role in a tech services business:
Core Responsibilities
- Technology Strategy & Innovation
- Define and execute IT strategy in alignment with overall business objectives.
- Shape and execute an enterprise IT strategy that aligns with business objectives and enhances operational resilience, scalability and security.
- Define and govern enterprise architecture to ensure IT infrastructure, networks, and applications support core business functions and meet current and future operational needs.
- Drive digital transformation, automation, and modernization initiatives.
- Evaluate and implement emerging technologies (e.g., AI, cloud, cybersecurity, DevOps).
- Service Delivery & Operations
- Ensure reliable and scalable IT operations to support internal and client-facing systems.
- Oversee managed services, support, and infrastructure (cloud, on-prem, hybrid).
- Implement ITIL or similar service management frameworks.
- Client Engagement & Pre-Sales Support
- Collaborate with business development teams to support sales and solution design.
- Present IT capabilities and solutions to clients and prospects.
- Serve as a strategic advisor to clients on technology architecture and digital strategy.
- Governance, Security & Compliance
- Lead governance efforts around IT policies, risk management, and compliance.
- Ensure cybersecurity best practices and regulatory compliance (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA).
- Oversee vendor management and third-party services.
- Team Leadership & Talent Development
- Oversee the management and optimisation of enterprise-wide IT infrastructure, networks, cloud services and enterprise applications.
- Execute a legacy system modernisation roadmap, transitioning the business towards scalable, high-performance enterprise platforms, ensuring IT changes are managed in a risk-aware, cost-effective way to avoid disruption to business operations.
- Build and lead high-performing IT teams and tech consultants.
- Foster a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous learning.
- Guide professional development and upskilling in emerging tech areas.
Key Skills & Experience
- Proven experience as a CIO, CTO, or senior IT leader, with a focus on enterprise IT, infrastructure, and service management.
- An articulate and impactful communicator who can ask challenging questions and share technical information in an easy-to-understand way to non-technical colleagues and present a compelling vision for the future.
- Experience in managing an IT organisation in a split Enterprise IT/Product Engineering operating model.
- Ability to align IT initiatives with business goals.
- Proven experience managing cross-functional teams and large-scale projects.
- Strong foundation in infrastructure, software development, cybersecurity, and cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP).
- Ability to interact with enterprise clients, articulate value, and understand industry-specific challenges.
- Budget planning, cost optimization, and ROI analysis.
- Driving organizational change through technology.