Chief Technology Officer Ref. 1789

Stonewall Top Employer AwardSocial Mobility Foundation AwardThe Times Top 100Disability confident leader

Technology Roles
London
Up to £125,000 dependent on skills and experience demonstrated in the process

MI5 operates in a challenging and fast paced environment.  Its technical capabilities are central to its mission to keep the country safe.  It constantly needs to revolutionise the technology that it uses,
the ways in which it delivers technical capabilities and how it works with partner agencies in the UK and overseas.

MI5 is in a period of significant technological change:
•    Delivering a new generation of mission applications engineered for agility through use of components, micro services, log-file integration and Machine Learning.
•    Moving mission and business capabilities to a hybrid cloud architecture, using its capabilities to enhance agility, productivity and replace legacy infrastructure.
•    Experimenting with and developing innovative capabilities.
•    Constantly improving our engineering practices including the adoption of enterprise scale agile practices.
•    Creating and adopting technology solutions across the spectrum from niche operational capabilities through to core underpinning corporate systems (ERP).
•    Working with UK intelligence partners on technology collaboration and common infrastructure platforms.

As CTO your role will be to shape and drive these changes, helping to ensure that MI5 can respond effectively to a rapidly changing threat landscape.

Reporting to the CIO you will:

•    Be a focal point within MI5 for technology innovation, determining how mainstream and emerging technologies can be used to advance MI5’s mission.
•    Be responsible for setting MI5’s Technology Strategy, ensuring alignment with other UK intelligence partners in areas such as standards and policy.
•    Ensure that investment decisions reflect and implement the overall Technology Strategy.
•    Provide leadership to the community of architects, systems engineers and technologists across MI5, enabling and empowering them to implement the Technology Strategy.
•    Be part of the leadership team responsible for running the technology organisation, developing the skills of the wider team and fostering talent to build the next generation of technology leaders.

As CTO, you will be supported by a dedicated team and have call on the architects across the wider organisation.

Key Responsibilities

•    Drive the definition of MI5’s Technology Strategy working with thought leaders from across MI5, UK Intelligence partners and industry suppliers.
•    Work with engineering functions and programme teams to embed the Technology strategy into their delivery plans.
•    Identify opportunities for collaboration with intelligence partners where it enables MI5 to better fulfil its mission or reduce technology-related costs.
•    Monitor technology trends relevant to MI5 including identifying and assessing mature and emerging technologies.
•    Ensure that the enterprise architecture being developed across MI5 is fit for purpose, consistent and without material gaps.
•    Commission component strategies and architectures to provide insight into the future technological landscape and context to design decisions and product selections.
•    Work with the Chief Information Security Officer to ensure that MI5’s technology provides appropriate protection to its information, operating capability and people.
•    Work with the Chief Data Officer to ensure that MI5’s technology supports MI5’s broader compliance and information management needs.
•    Ensure that our Innovation Labs are used effectively to explore how new approaches enabled by technology might assist MI5 fulfil its mission and to de-risk novel technologies ahead of them being used by delivery projects.
•    Lead the architecture community, sponsoring recruitment and skills development to strengthen the architecture cadre within MI5.
•    Take accountability as senior responsible officer for selected technology delivery projects.

About You

•    You should have experience of successfully taking a complex enterprise through the journey to cloud.  Ideally, this will have been gained outside of the UK Intelligence community.
•    This is a technology leadership role, requiring a combination of strong core and technical competencies.  As part of the CIO leadership team, you will be helping to redefine policies, reshape the way we work and ensure that our people have the right skills.
•    You should be an accomplished technology leader and have a passion for technology.  You should be an excellent team player and communicator who cares deeply about people and works to foster and develop talent.
•    You will want to invest time with the business to develop your own personal understanding of the associated challenges and how technology can drive real operational benefit.

You should have broad IT experience and credibility combined with understanding and experience of:

•    Leading a complex enterprise through the journey to the cloud, with first-hand knowledge of the policy, technical, process and people challenges.
•    Identifying mainstream and emerging technologies enabling achievement of mission and  business outcomes.
•    Defining and implementing technology strategy in a complex and fast moving environment.
•    Defining and implementing cloud-centric policies, architectures and practices addressing security, compliance, resilience and business continuity concerns.
•    Implementing technology governance across both agile and waterfall developments.
•    Using enterprise architecture to shape major technology related decisions.
•    Cyber security threats and mitigations (gained in a high risk environment)
•    Employing enterprise identity and access management solutions to provide granular control over access to capabilities data.
•    Agile software engineering principles, methods and tools.
•    Defining enterprise ontologies, data standards and integration patterns.
•    Defining enterprise capabilities and platforms using big data and traditional technologies for streaming, batch and ad-hoc analytics.
•    Assisting Executive Boards to take informed decisions about complex technology issues.

Recruitment Process

Initially, we will ask you to complete our pre-screening questions to find out if you meet our initial criteria.  If you do meet these criteria, we will then ask you to begin an application.

You will need to log in and provide your full name, email address and a memorable password.  Once you have successfully created a personal account, you will be required to complete an initial registration form, providing contact details and equal opportunities monitoring information.

You will then be invited to upload your CV and covering letter; as well as complete an online application form.  Our recruitment team will conduct a sift of your application.  Successful applicants will be invited to a telephone interview, which will provide you with an opportunity to understand the role & organisation in greater detail.

Following this, you will be required to attend a face to face interview at MI5.  If successful, this will be followed by a security interview with a vetting officer.  You should read about the vetting process and satisfy yourself that you meet the criteria outlined in the vetting pages of the How to Apply section prior to submitting an application.

Giving misleading information or omitting or concealing information during the recruitment and vetting process is viewed very seriously.  You should ensure that you follow our guidance from when you apply.

Equal Opportunities

Mi5 is committed to equal opportunities and to reflecting the society we protect.  All applications are welcome, but we particularly welcome applications from women, and Black, Asian and minority ethnic candidates.  All appointments will be made on merit.

Guaranteed Interview Scheme

As part of our commitment to the “Disability Confident” scheme, we offer an interview to all candidates with a disability who meet our minimum criteria for the job vacancy they are applying for.  This is known as the Guaranteed Interview Scheme (GIS).

Along with the standard eligibility requirements for this post, your application will be assessed on how far you meet the job requirements.  Your application must score the minimum amount of points set.  On successful completion of this stage, you will be invited to interview.  This will normally be a telephone interview and is our guaranteed interview.

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible to apply, you must meet our residency criteria.  You must be a born or naturalised British citizen and one of your parents must be a British citizen or have substantial ties to the UK.

Candidates must normally have been resident in the UK for nine out of the last ten years.  This is particularly important if you were born outside of the UK.  However, we will still consider you if you’ve served overseas with HM Forces or in some other official capacity as a representative of Her Majesty’s Government, studied abroad, or lived overseas with your parents.

Due to vetting requirement, you l need to be 18 years old, or above, to apply.  Your application may take around six months to process.

Owing to the sensitivity of our work, we do not publicly disclose the identities of our staff.  Discretion is vital.  You should not discuss your application , other than with your partner or a close family member.

MI5 is committed to reflecting both equal opportunities and the society we protect.

This Program / Vacancy is closed to applications.