Two big-city authorities advertise for top tech jobs

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City councils in Liverpool and Birmingham are each recruiting for a digital leader to help drive service transformation.

The two jobs are both at assistant director level, with the Liverpool role addressing the areas of ICT, digital and customer, while the Birmingham position covers just ICT and digital. Each position comes with a potential salary comfortably in excess of £90,000.

Birmingham claims that it has laid “the foundations… for a 21st-centrury council”, and is now looking for an experienced technology professional to oversee more ambitious transformation. To which end, the chosen candidate will be expected to “identify, drive and secure opportunities to improve and transform services”.

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Programmes that will form part of the digital role’s brief l include strategy and governance, application service recovery, service management, the Digital Birmingham online services and smart technology initiative, and the authority’s ICT transition scheme.

“Because the pace of improvement needs to be rapid and sustainable the portfolio may change over time, so adaptability and focus on delivery are also critical features,” the council said.

The successful applicant for the Liverpool role will sit at the head of a newly created division bringing together the council’s digital, ICT, and customer access functions. The unit will focus on the “customer journeys”, with an emphasis on driving increased digitisation.

“The way we interact with our customers, both internal and external, is changing, with a focus on contact via digital channels,” the authority said. “Therefore, it is important to ensure that end-to-end journeys for our customers meet their expectations and this is a key part of the city council’s transformation plan.”

Applications for the role are open until 19 July – two weeks after the closing date for applicants interested in the Birmingham position.