Head of IT & Cyber Security

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Leading and developing a complex, fast-evolving IT estate and shape the future of the Company's technology.

In this key role, you will be responsible for the strategic leadership, development and delivery of our business' IT and cyber security functions; driving innovation, performance and resilience across the IT landscape to support business growth, continuity and security.

What you'll be doing:

• Developing and delivering an IT and cyber security strategy, prioritising improvements that enable business growth and operational efficiency in alignment with the organisation's goals and priorities.
• Serving as a key advisor to the Board and Senior Leadership Team on technology risk and digital capability.
• Leading, motivating and developing a lean, high-performing IT and cyber security team, identifying capability gaps and upskilling team members to meet the needs of a growing, technology-reliant business.
• Overseeing the management of IT infrastructure, systems, networks and applications to ensure optimal performance, availability and reliability. This includes delivering key infrastructure projects such as upgrading end-of-life firewalls, enhancing WiFi networks, enabling automated, remote patching processes to keep systems secure and up-to-date, as well as improving overall network resilience.
• Creating clear, effective and user-focused processes for logging, prioritising and resolving support requests to improve efficiency and visibility.
• Managing third-part technology partners, vendors and service providers.
• Owning the cybersecurity roadmap, working towards NIST Cybersecurity Framework (NIST 3) maturity.
• Overseeing the identification and mitigation of cyber risks through proactive monitoring, incident response and risk management; and acting as a senior point of escalation as required.
• Leading internal awareness and training initiatives to foster a security-first culture across the organisation.
• Ensuring IT and cyber security policies, procedures and controls are up to date and effectively implemented.
• Leading internal and external audits related to IT systems and security.
• Supporting data governance and contributing to overall compliance and regulatory efforts.
• Building out documentation, processes and governance in an agile but effective way.

What you will need to succeed:

• Proven experience in IT leadership roles, including responsibility for cybersecurity, in scaling businesses of comparable scale to World of Books (200 - 1,000 FTE). Ideally, this will include line management of geographically dispersed teams.
• Strong knowledge of IT infrastructure, service delivery and enterprise systems.
• Experience of managing budgets, contracts and third-party vendors and the ability to balance practicality, cost and impact in decision making.
• Track record of improving the user experience through reliable, responsive IT support.
• Ability to deliver outcomes in a lean, fast-paced environment with limited resources.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to influence stakeholders across levels.
• Exposure to both on-premise and cloud technologies (Microsoft 365, Teams, Linux/Ubuntu, Spiceworks, SentinalOne and Rapid7).

Please note: This role will be based in either our London or Coventry offices, with some travel to our other offices in the UK (West Sussex), US (Illinois) and Hungary.