Chief Information Officer

The Chief Information Officer (CIO) will be responsible for defining, delivering, and continuously optimising the organisation’s technology and digital strategy and landscape. This role goes beyond traditional IT leadership, acting as a strategic enabler of growth, ensuring that technology investments directly support digital acquisition, customer retention, operational efficiency, and revenue expansion.
The CIO will play a critical role in embedding and scaling the digital strategy and recent transformation initiatives, ensuring that platforms, data, and processes are fit for purpose, measurable, and delivering tangible business outcomes.
This individual will operate at both board and operational levels, bridging strategy and execution, and acting as a trusted advisor to executive leadership.

Salary: Negotiable

Key Responsibilities

Technology & Digital Strategy Leadership
• Own and evolve the enterprise technology and digital strategy, aligned to business growth targets and customer experience ambitions
• Translate strategic goals (e.g. digital acquisition growth, retention uplift) into clear technology roadmaps and investment plans
• Act as a key contributor to overall business strategy, ensuring technology is positioned as a value driver, not a cost centre
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Digital Transformation Delivery & Value Realisation
• Lead the delivery and optimisation of digital transformation programmes (eCommerce, CRM, billing, customer platforms)
• Ensure all transformation initiatives are:
o Cost effective, and against business case
o Adopted effectively across the business
o Measured against defined KPIs and ROI targets
• Implement benefits tracking frameworks (e.g. LTV:CAC, conversion, retention, cost-to-serve)
• Identify and resolve gaps between designed and live operating models
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Growth Enablement & Digital Performance
• Partner with Marketing and eCommerce leadership to enable:
o Scalable digital acquisition (SEO, Paid, CRM journeys)
o Conversion rate optimisation and funnel performance
o Customer lifecycle management and retention strategies
• Ensure platforms support:
o Personalisation
o Subscription management and pricing complexity
o Cross/upsell capability
• Drive a data-led growth culture, ensuring decisions are backed by insight and performance tracking
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Enterprise Architecture & Platforms
• Define and govern the target architecture, ensuring scalability, security, and flexibility
• Oversee key platforms such as:
o CRM (e.g. Dynamics / Salesforce)
o Billing & subscriptions (e.g. ChargeBee)
o eCommerce platforms (e.g. Shopify / Adobe / WooCommerce)
o Data & analytics (e.g. Azure Data Platform)
• Ensure clean integration patterns, reducing manual workarounds and technical debt
• Establish architecture governance and design authority
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Data, Insights & Performance Management
• Own the data strategy, ensuring a single, trusted view of customer and operational data
• Establish real-time dashboards and executive reporting across:
o Revenue, conversion, CPA, LTV
o Operational performance and service levels
• Enable advanced analytics and forecasting capabilities
• Ensure data supports both operational execution and strategic decision-making
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Operational IT & Service Excellence
• Ensure stable, secure, and high-performing IT operations and infrastructure
• Define and maintain SLAs, service management frameworks, and support models
• Drive automation and efficiency across business processes
• Act as escalation point for critical incidents and systemic issues
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Vendor, Commercial & Risk Management
• Own strategic relationships with technology vendors and delivery partners
• Ensure:
o Vendors deliver to contractual commitments and SLAs
o Commercial models deliver value for money
• Lead RFPs, vendor selection, and contract negotiations
• Manage technology risk, compliance, and security posture
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Leadership, Governance & Culture
• Build and lead a high-performing technology and digital team
• Establish clear governance frameworks (decisions, risks, issues, dependencies)
• Drive cross-functional alignment between Technology, Marketing, Operations, and Finance
• Champion a product-led, agile, and outcome-driven culture
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Information & Cyber Security

• Define and lead the organisation’s Information Security and Cyber Security strategy, ensuring alignment with overall business risk appetite and regulatory requirements
• Establish and maintain a robust security framework covering:
o Identity & Access Management (IAM)
o Data protection and privacy (including GDPR compliance)
o Network, infrastructure, and application security
o Endpoint and cloud security (e.g. Azure environments)
• Implement a “security by design” approach across all digital and transformation initiatives, ensuring that new platforms (CRM, eCommerce, billing, data) are secure, compliant, and resilient from inception
• Own and oversee cyber risk management, including:
o Risk identification, assessment, and mitigation
o Maintenance of a live security risk register
o Regular reporting to the board on cyber posture and key threats
• Ensure the organisation has effective monitoring, detection, and response capabilities, including:
o Security Operations (internal or outsourced SOC)
o Incident response planning and playbooks
o Regular testing (penetration testing, vulnerability scanning)
• Lead incident and breach management, acting as executive escalation point and ensuring:
o Rapid containment and recovery
o Clear communication to stakeholders and regulators where required
• Define and enforce data governance and protection policies, ensuring:
o Customer and operational data is secure, accurate, and appropriately controlled
o Clear ownership, classification, and lifecycle management of data
• Ensure compliance with relevant standards and certifications (e.g. ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials Plus), and manage audit readiness
• Oversee third-party and vendor security, ensuring:
o Suppliers meet defined security standards
o Risks from integrations and external platforms are actively managed
• Drive security awareness and culture, ensuring all employees understand their role in protecting customer and business data
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CIO Success Measures (Scaling Business)
Growth & Commercial Impact
• Digital Revenue Contribution (%) – growth of digital channel as a % of total revenue
• Revenue Uplift from Technology Initiatives (£ / %) – measurable impact of platform improvements
• Customer Acquisition Efficiency (CAC) – reduction in CAC driven by platform, data, and optimisation
• LTV:CAC Ratio – improvement driven by better retention, personalisation, and lifecycle management
• Conversion Rate (%) – improvement across key digital journeys
Core principle: Technology must demonstrably drive revenue, not just enable it.
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Transformation Delivery & Value Realisation
• % of Strategic Initiatives Delivered On-Time / On-Budget
• Benefits Realisation (%) vs Business Case
• Time to Value (TTV) – speed from delivery to measurable business impact
• Adoption Rates (%) – usage of new platforms, tools, and processes
• Reduction in “Design vs Reality” Gaps – measured through post-implementation reviews
Core principle: Delivery is only successful if value is realised and embedded.
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Digital & Customer Experience Performance
• End-to-End Customer Journey Success Rate (%)
• Customer Retention / Churn Rate (%)
• Net Promoter Score (NPS) / Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)
• Self-Service Adoption (%) – reduction in manual/customer service interactions
• Personalisation Effectiveness (e.g. uplift in AOV / cross-sell rate)
Core principle: Technology should simplify and enhance the customer experience at scale.
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Technology & Platform Performance
• Platform Uptime (%) / Availability (e.g. 99.9%+)
• Page Speed / Performance Metrics (Core Web Vitals)
• Incident Frequency & Severity (P1/P2 reduction)
• Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR)
• Release Velocity / Deployment Frequency
Core principle: Stable, fast, and scalable platforms are non-negotiable in growth environments.
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Data & Insight Maturity
• Single Customer View Coverage (%)
• Data Accuracy & Integrity Scores
• Time to Insight (reporting latency reduction)
• Executive Dashboard Adoption (%)
• % Decisions Supported by Data / Analytics
Core principle: A scaling business must become increasingly data-led.
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Operational Efficiency & Cost Control
• Cost to Serve per Customer (£)
• Automation Rate (%) across key processes
• Reduction in Manual Workarounds (%)
• Technology Spend as % of Revenue (optimised, not just reduced)
• ROI on Technology Investments (%)
Core principle: Scale should reduce unit cost, not increase complexity.
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Architecture & Scalability
• Time to Launch New Products / Features
• Integration Efficiency (e.g. API reuse, reduced point-to-point integrations)
• Technical Debt Reduction (%)
• Scalability Benchmarks (e.g. concurrent users supported)
• Reusability of Core Services (%)
Core principle: Architecture should enable speed and flexibility, not constrain it.
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Vendor & Commercial Management
• Vendor Performance vs SLA (%)
• Build a high performing and measured vendor network (%)
• Delivery Quality (defect rates, rework required)
• Cost Optimisation / Savings Achieved (£)
• % Strategic vs Tactical Vendor Spend
• Contract Compliance & Risk Exposure Reduction
Core principle: Vendors should be accountable, high-performing, and commercially efficient.
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Information & Cyber Security
• Number of Critical Vulnerabilities / Incidents
• Time to Detect & Respond (MTTD / MTTR – security)
• Compliance Status (e.g. GDPR, ISO27001 readiness)
• Phishing / Awareness Test Success Rate (%)
• Third-Party Security Compliance (%)
Core principle: Security must scale with the business, without becoming a blocker.
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People, Culture & Operating Model
• Employee Engagement / eNPS (Technology Teams)
• Retention of Key Talent (%)
• Capability Uplift (skills development, certifications)
• Cross-Functional Delivery Effectiveness
• Business Satisfaction with IT (%)

Core principle: High-performing teams and clear operating models are critical to sustained delivery.

Benefits:
4 x Death in service cover
Single Healthcare cover
Pension salary Exchange scheme
Paid holidays

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