Chief Information & Technology Officer

Teaching Vacancies; Sutton Coldfield; Remote; GBP 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Academy Transformation Trust is seeking a Chief Information and Technology Officer to join our C-suite and help us build a more intelligent, effective and resilient organisation. This home based role involves regular travel across our 22 academies.

You will establish a clear information and technology direction, lead modernisation, connect systems and improve how work happens across ATT, covering enterprise architecture, cyber security, resilience and AI.

Qualifications

• Evidence of improving a technology environment at organisational scale.
• Ability to explain weaknesses, choices and results.
• Experience at CIO/CTO level or equivalent leadership.
• Willingness to learn a new context and adapt lessons to children’s services.

Responsibilities

• Lead ATT's information and technology strategy across the group.
• Oversee enterprise architecture, cyber security and resilience.
• Drive modernisation, connect systems and improve how work happens.
• Collaborate with senior leaders and manage the tech function reporting to the CEO.

Skills

Technology leadership

Enterprise architecture

Infrastructure & platforms

Cyber security & resilience

Transformation leadership

Strategic decision making

Cross-organisational collaboration

Job description

What skills and experience we're looking for

We are looking for a corporate leader with substantial professional credibility in information, technology and transformation.

You will bring substantial and current technology expertise, together with experience of applying it at organisational scale. You should be able to move confidently between corporate strategy and the technical substance of a major decision, understanding how choices about infrastructure, platforms, integration and security affect cost, resilience, usability and future capability.

We will expect evidence that you have improved a technology environment that required significant development. You should be able to explain the weaknesses you identified, the choices you made, the alternatives you rejected and the results achieved.

Your previous title will matter less than the scale and quality of your contribution. You may already be a CIO, CTO, CITO, CDIO or equivalent executive. You may have developed the necessary breadth through another senior leadership route.

We are interested in what you have changed, how you achieved it, what endured and what the experience taught you.

Experience in schools or academy trusts is not required.

We actively welcome applicants from other complex sectors, including healthcare, financial services, professional services, retail, logistics, higher education and government.

You will need to demonstrate that you can learn a new context, respect its professional expertise and make sound judgements about which lessons transfer and which require adaptation.

What the school offers its staff

Please read the full applicant pack and ATT2030, available through the accompanying links. They explain our ambitions, the role and the kind of leader we hope to appoint.

Further details about the role

Academy Transformation Trust is seeking a Chief Information and Technology Officer to join our C-suite and help us build a more intelligent, effective and resilient organisation.

This role is home based, with regular travel across our academies. Please be aware our Head Office is moving to Westpoint, Lynch wood, Peterborough, PE2 6FZ.

We serve 22 academies across diverse communities, many experiencing significant disadvantage. Through ATT20310, we have established an ambitious direction for our future. Realising it requires excellent information, dependable technology and the organisational capability to bring them together.

We should be candid about our starting point. We hold a great deal of information, but we do not yet use it well enough. Our technology also needs substantial development to deliver the capability our organisation requires.

There is important work to do, and much of it is urgent.

Our ambition is that the right people have the right information, at the right time, in the right form to act effectively. Alongside that, pupils and colleagues should have secure, accessible and reliable technology that enables them to do their work well.

You will lead both parts of that ambition.

Reporting to the Chief Executive, you will lead our existing Head of Data Strategy and IT Director. You will establish a coherent direction for information and technology, lead modernisation, connect systems and help colleagues improve how work happens across ATT. Your remit will encompass enterprise architecture, organisational intelligence, cyber security and resilience, transformation, AI, commercial strategy and the capability to welcome new academies.

As a member of the C-suite, you will also share responsibility for ATT as a whole. We expect you to contribute seriously to decisions about education, people, finance, estates, organisational design, risk and growth.

We are looking for someone who:

• Brings substantial, current technology expertise and a strong record of modernising complex systems and infrastructure.
• Has improved how an organisation uses information to make decisions.
• Can move confidently between corporate strategy and the technical substance of significant decisions.
• Leads effectively through expert colleagues, creating clarity, developing capability and sustaining delivery.
• Combines intellectual curiosity and openness to challenge with the judgement and resolve to act.
• Can establish momentum quickly while building capability that endures.

You do not need to have worked in schools or academy trusts.

We actively welcome candidates from other complex sectors. We are interested in what you have learned, what you have built and how thoughtfully you could apply that experience to an organisation serving children and communities.

At ATT, we value evidence, professional expertise and careful thought. We expect leaders to listen, welcome serious disagreement and change their minds when persuaded. We also expect decisions to lead to action and improvements to become visible in colleagues’ daily work.

This is an opportunity to shape the organisation we become.

Academy Transformation Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. Appointment will be subject to the Trust’s safer recruitment procedures and appropriate pre-employment checks.

Commitment to safeguarding

The successful applicant will undertake an enhanced DBS criminal record check, and online searches will be carried out in line with KCSIE update 2026. We are committed to Diversity, Equality and Inclusion and welcome all applications. We are open to Flexible Working.