Department advertises role managing tech changes necessitated by the UK’s impending exit from the European Union

The Home Office is offering an annual salary in excess of £100,000 for a senior manager to ensure its IT systems are ready for Brexit.

The post as EU exit technology delivery lead comes with a remit to oversee “a layer of IT-enabled change that sits atop and across… existing change portfolios” being delivered by the department’s digital, data, and technology (DDaT) function. This change is set against a backdrop of disaggregation process in which the department is “letting smaller contracts, and increasingly assuming direct responsibility for service delivery and integration”.

Brexit is likely to require new transformation programmes to be launched and delivered, as well as necessitating big changes to existing technology projects, according to the Home Office. This shifting landscape will require a senior manager to provide “day-to-day effective leadership and [ensure] successful delivery”.

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“As the UK prepares to leave the EU, the demand is likely to leverage new capabilities already planned for delivery, but it could also require significant changes to existing plans, and the standing up of entirely new projects,” the Home Office said. “The activities will reach across DDaT structural boundaries, but will be most heavily concentrated within the immigration, borders, and biometrics portfolios.”

It is essential that candidates possess “a proven track record in delivering large, high-profile projects and programmes in an agile environment and managing large capital budgets”. Other must-haves include “proven experience of senior stakeholder management in a political, pressured environment”. 

Desirable credentials include good knowledge of the UK’s borders, and the immigration and citizenship landscape. The Home Office would also particularly welcome applications from candidates who have graduated from the Infrastructure and Projects Authority’s Major Projects Leadership Academy.

The department said: “This is an opportunity to work on one of the most important, high-profile, programmes in the UK, in an environment where excellence and innovation in every aspect of operations is expected.”

Applications for the role are open until 2 September. The post, which is based in Croydon, comes with an initial two-year contract or secondment agreement, and an expected salary of between £90,000 and £105,000.

A report from the Commons Public Accounts Committee late last year found that more than one in three of the 85 IT systems in use across the UK’s borders will need to be altered or replaced once the country departs the European Union. At least five new systems will also need to be rolled out, with MPs warning that “it seems unlikely that all the new systems needed to manage the border effectively after we exit the EU will be successfully delivered”.