Department says new Technology Platforms for Tomorrow chief will have “huge impact across the culture of the Home Office”

The Home Office is on the lookout for a new programme director to help lead its efforts to disaggregate large outsourced contracts in favour of building in-house capability.

In common with the rest of the civil service, the Home Office – one of the largest government departments – has been working since 2010 to end Whitehall’s historical reliance on long-term, multi-million pound IT deals.

Although the department still uses a wide range of third party suppliers, its “Technology Platforms for Tomorrow” programme aims to use the expiry of multi-year contracts to either switch to smaller deals or take on direct responsibility for service delivery.

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To that end, the department has sought to bolster its own Digital, Data and Technology team in recent years, with the profession comprising more than 1700 staff at the latest count.

The Home Office is now offering up to £110k for a new programme director to take charge of TPT, with the department saying it wants someone who has “the appetite for very large scale digital transformation”.

According to a job specification posted with headhunters GatenbySanderson, the new programme director will be expected to have “a huge impact across the culture of the Home Office” with a vast swathe of responsibilities falling to the successful candidate.

Those include disaggregating all remaining service lines currently with large suppliers; decommissioning parts of the existing estate; migrating all Home Office users to Office 365; rolling out the department’s new mobile data management system; and completing the Home Office’s work to introduce a new, common WiFi infrastructure.

As the department moves away from large deals, the TPT programme director – who will report to the Home Office’s director of infrastructure and platforms – will also be tasked with creating new service models for the department “to ensure support for technical delivery is in place”.

The Home Office says the chosen candidate must be able to demonstrate experience of “having delivered complex, high-value programme in a relevant technology landscape”, as well as “first-hand” experience of shifting from a legacy technology stack to “full operational run state”.

The job specification meanwhile stresses the need for close collaboration between government and the private sector, saying the candidate must be “comfortable working with a large cross section of vendors in the mode of delivery partner as well as buyer”.

Introducing the role, the Home Office interim chief digital, data and technology officer Pete Rose said the new programme director would be joining the department at “a critical time given the enormity and potential of the current agenda as well as the determination of ministers and senior civil servants to transform the way in which government technology is being designed, built and procured”.

He added: “If you have the appetite for very large scale digital transformation, to manage the technology that supports critical solutions to our nation, and to lead the teams that will deliver it, I look forward to receiving your application.”

Those interested in applying have until September 18 to throw their hat into the ring, with final interviews slated for the end of October.