Network Rail is on the hunt for a chief information and technology officer

Up to £126,000 on offer for an experienced IT senior management professional

Network Rail, the owner and infrastructure manager of most of the rail network in England, Scotland and Wales, is searching for a chief information technology officer (CITO).

The company is offering between £105,840 and £126,000, as well as a car allowance and benefits for the right candidate.

The candidate is likely to report in to Network Rail's group chief information officer Jeremy Vincent, who joined the organisation in October 2016, after an eight-year stint at Jaguar & Land Rover.

The permanent role, based in Milton Keynes, will involve setting the strategic direction for the company's business-aligned IT strategy, its enterprise architecture reference models and standards, its IT product technical standards and its digital business models and technologies.

As well as developing an in-depth understanding of these Network Rail business strategies, the CITO will take responsibility for setting the strategy for IT architecture, and will lead the development of a technology roadmap for the company. He or she will also be tasked with guiding transformation programmes and executives on the potential use of technologies and innovations including cloud, mobile, social and the Internet of Things.

Network Rail is looking for a candidate with substantial experience at IT senior management level in a similar-sized organisation. That could be as a CTO, head of architecture or head of strategy.

The candidate must possess good social skills, and have the ability to eloquently communicate complex technical ideas to technical and non-technical audiences. They must have successfully led an IT strategy or enterprise architecture functions, and should be able to demonstrate strong commercial acumen, with experience of running a P&L of circa £2m.

To go with high levels of what Network Rail calls "emotional intelligence", the company also wants the CITO to possess a deep understanding of the information systems industry, new technologies, information security and the implications for the wider business environment.,

Finally, they should be able to demonstrate a working knowledge of IT frameworks such as ITIL, COBIT, and Prince2.

Candidates should live within 90 minutes commuting time of The Quadrant Milton Keynes.

Network Rail is accepting applications until 18^th September 2017.