Director of IT & Programmes

Job Introduction

Beside the Sea, Beyond Expectations!

Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council - Director of IT & Programmes

Salary: £121,273 (2025 Pay Award pending) plus up to £8,000 Relocation Scheme

Are you passionate about making a real difference to the strategic and organisational leadership of our IT and Programmes function at BCP Council and ensuring the delivery of a highly effective and innovative service?

Bournemouth, Christchurch, and Poole is a place where people and nature, coast and towns come together to offer a wealth of potential, and our corporate priorities are underpinned by putting people at the heart of our services. This is an exciting permanent opportunity to join a progressive large unitary authority which has recently been shortlisted by the Municipal Journal for Local Authority of the Year.

Leading by example, you will ensure alignment with the council's vision and priorities, managing the IT budget and resources and ensuring compliance with the IT strategy and standards. As part of this, you will be encouraged to stretch yourself to deliver high-quality services and transformational projects across the Council and with its partners. 

The role will report directly to the Chief Executive and be a member of the Corporate Management Board, contributing to the strategic direction and governance of the council.

We are looking for someone who has:

• Extensive experience of leading and managing high-performing IT services and programmes in a large and complex organisation, preferably in the public sector.
• A proven track record of designing and delivering innovative, successful IT transformation aligned to operating models that meet organisational requirements, with a focus on customer needs, service improvement and value for money.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence and collaborate at all levels, both internally and externally.
• A strong strategic and analytical mindset, with the ability to translate vision into action and deliver results.
• Prince 2 qualification (or other project methodology) and ITIL Service Management or equivalent experience.
• A commitment to the council's values and behaviours, and to promoting a positive and inclusive culture within the IT & Programmes team and the wider organisation.

A bit about the Team

You will be managing a large and diverse team of IT professionals and programme managers across five key functions: IT Infrastructure, Project Management Office, Governance & Compliance, Modern Office Data & Analytics (inc. GIS), and System Development, Integration & Websites.

Interviews are likely to be held in either w/c 2 June 2025 or w/c 9 June 2025

For a conversation about the role, please contact Graham Farrant, Chief Executive in the first instance via graham.farrant@bcpcouncil.gov.uk 

BCP Council is an Equal Opportunities employer. We welcome applications from all backgrounds within the community.

About BCP Council

BCP Council provides services to a diverse community of 400,000 residents and employs more than 5,000 people. Our area includes over 15 miles of beautiful world-renowned coastline. We can offer career defining roles to transform and improve services. By working with us, you can help deliver a vision of a thriving, word-class, prosperous and inclusive place for generations to come.

Our Benefits

We offer an excellent benefits package to colleagues. Find out more on our website.

As a result of the creation of BCP Council in 2019, we are working on simplifying our terms and conditions of service and will be creating a single pay structure which is to be applicable for all employees. It is important to us that we offer benefits that our colleagues value as part of their total employment package and we are reviewing these to make sure we have it right. We have been in a process of collective bargaining since 2019 and have positively worked forward to reach an agreed position with the unions for the new contractual offer. This has taken longer than we hoped and therefore we are having to consider all alternative avenues available to enable us to remove inequality in the organisation as a result of bringing together 3 councils. 

We are in the process of establishing a timescale for implementation, and all colleagues joining us will be included in these changes. We want to reassure everyone that whichever route is taken to reach the new terms and conditions, we can honour continuous service and there will not be any job reduction as a result of the implementation of Pay and Reward.  If you have any questions at all about this process, please feel free to raise this with the hiring manager.