Job of the Week: MOD's CDIO hunt; AIG seeks a UK CIO

Every week The Stack will now be running a “job of the week” feature – typically featuring CIO or equivalent roles, with a UK focus. This Monday we’re starting with a brace of notable CIO vacancies for our readers – at the Ministry of Defence (MOD), and one at insurer American International Group (AIG).

The Stack's job of the week: Monday November 1, 2021

CDIO, Ministry of Defence, People.

The MOD is looking for a Chief Digital Information Officer (CDIO) for its “people function.”

At a fairly modest £90,000, the salary may not prove enough to lure aware some of the private sector crème de la crème, but the role is an intriguing one – with the MOD describing it as a “bridge and the key interface between the People Function across the whole of Defence, and Defence Digital”. (The latter, led by the CIO Charles Forte, is responsible for digital information exploitation across defence, including cyber. It has an annual budget of over £2 billion and a team of 2,500. Incidentally, it’s currently looking for a Chief Architect…)

(MOD gets a solid 4* star rating from those working in IT, Glassdoor reviews show, with positive comments on career development, job security, inclusivity and flexibility, albeit with a few complaints about bureaucracy.)

The MOD CDIO People, will “lead a team that provides the insight, knowledge and skills to deliver a transformed digital experience to our whole-force workforce” MOD said, “ensuring that we have the right vision and leadership, the right plan, and the right technical input and expertise…”

Among the key responsibilities for the successful candidate: developing and implementing a “singular, secure, and modern Digital Backbone for the People Function; demonstrating inspiring, confident, and empowering leadership of the Digital, Data and Technology team within the Defence People Team… driving integration and coherence of Digital, Data and Technology within the People Function to deliver business simplification; developing a prioritised digital roadmap for future investments” and managing cybersecurity risk.

The successful candidate will need to be able to demonstrate: “Senior leadership skills to drive digital, data and/or technology change in a large and complex organisation; [the ability to] build inclusive and high performing teams; Agile user-centred development skills combined with a detailed knowledge of package software solutions, bespoke build and software integration; drive the performance and assurance of an IT portfolio of live services and projects, ideally within a high security environment.

UK Chief Information Officer, AIG

Reporting to the Global CIO and the UK CEO, this UK CIO role at the insurance multinational is all about “building business cases for technology investment” in one of the industries most subject to ongoing digital disruption and transformation. AIG is focussing on technology to help it meet its “AIG 200” plans, described in its most recent annual report as an enterprise-wide effort focused on “underwriting excellence, modernizing our operating infrastructure, enhancing the client and employee experience, and becoming a more unified company.” (AIG expects to deliver savings of $1 billion by end-2022 against investment of $1.3 billion.)

The successful candidate will have budgetary responsibility and ownership for IT spend across the UK.

AIG did not post a salary in its advert for the vacancy, but Glassdoor shows IT Project Managers earning over £100,000, so the CIO salary should be competitive vis-à-vis the public sector (quelle surprise).

“The role is a primary stakeholder for managing UK Risk and Compliance issues and will attend and be a member of multiple committees overseeing risk specific to IT, IT resiliency and ensuring business continuity is planned for”, AIG noted, adding that the UK CIO may end up “expanding coverage over other AIG businesses located in or operated from the UK”. The candidate will be working for the General Insurance segment of the company, which spans commercial and personal insurance and which includes “one of the world’s most far-reaching property casualty networks. Responsibilities will include shaping “new IT projects and programs and assessing the priority of IT activity in line with business needs… developing and executing the UK e-Trade [a trading platform for brokers] strategy” as well as accountability for day to day IT operations.