National AI Awards 2025Discover AI's trailblazers! Join us to celebrate innovation and nominate industry leaders.

Nominate & Attend

Head of IT

St Helens
2 weeks ago
Create job alert

Your new company
This role is based at a large and well-established further education college in St Helens, known for its commitment to transforming lives through high-quality education and training. The institution offers a diverse range of academic and vocational programmes, supporting learners from all backgrounds to achieve their goals.With a strong focus on staff development, the college provides a supportive and inclusive working environment, modern facilities, and a comprehensive benefits package. These include generous annual leave, a government pension scheme, professional development opportunities, and access to wellbeing initiatives. The college is also actively engaged in building partnerships with employers and the wider community, contributing to regional skills development and economic growth. Reporting to the Deputy CEO, the successful Head of IT will be joining a collaborative team where you will have the opportunity to grow and develop. Your new role
In this strategic leadership role, you will play a pivotal part in shaping and delivering the organisation's technology vision. You will assist with overall business technology planning, aligning current capabilities with future needs, and lead the identification and delivery of strategic IT projects. Your responsibilities will include analysing departmental requirements, managing a capital IT programme, and ensuring robust network and cybersecurity arrangements are maintained. You will also oversee the delivery of specialist technology to support modern teaching environments, act as project lead for internal IT initiatives, and provide leadership to the IT Service Desk, Network, and Reprographics teams. A key focus will be on driving innovation, performance management, and continuous improvement, while ensuring compliance with relevant policies and legislation. You will manage the technology budget effectively and ensure IT policies remain current and aligned with emerging technologies and legal requirements. Finally, a key part of this role will be the management and development of a well-established IT team, ensuring the team remains high-performing and that the IT service provided is of the highest level in the college.

What you'll need to succeed
In order to be successful in securing this position, you will have experience of working as an IT leader, ideally with specific experience working in the education sector and demonstrating the ability to lead a team, whilst also remaining technically hands-on. You will have the ability to build strong working relationships with senior leaders, as well as work closely with staff and students, providing an on-site IT support service. This is a progressive role which will allow you to deliver and manage an IT strategy and budget, therefore experience working at a strategic level is also essential.
What you'll get in return
In return, you will receive a salary plus an industry-leading benefits package which includes 42 days holiday (plus bank) and a local government pension scheme, therefore further enhancing the offering. The salary for this role is between £50,000 and £51,000 and this will be subject to review as your career continues at the college. You will be working as part of an experienced IT and leadership team, therefore providing you with the opportunity to further develop your own skills and knowledge.
What you need to do now

If you're interested in this role, click 'apply now' to forward an up-to-date copy of your CV, or call us now.
If this job isn't quite right for you, but you are looking for a new position, please contact us for a confidential discussion about your career.

Hays Specialist Recruitment Limited acts as an employment agency for permanent recruitment and employment business for the supply of temporary workers. By applying for this job you accept the T&C's, Privacy Policy and Disclaimers which can be found at (url removed)

Related Jobs

View all jobs

Head of IT

Head of IT

Head of IT & Digital Services - Office Based Role Trafford Park MCR

Head of IT - Hands-On - Functional & Technical

Head of IT & Cybersecurity

Interim Head of IT

National AI Awards 2025

Subscribe to Future Tech Insights for the latest jobs & insights, direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of service.

Industry Insights

Discover insightful articles, industry insights, expert tips, and curated resources.

Cyber Security Jobs Skills Radar 2026: Emerging Frameworks, Tools & Certifications to Learn Now

Cyber threats are evolving—and so must the people defending against them. As ransomware, AI-enhanced phishing, and supply chain attacks grow more advanced, UK employers are urgently hiring cyber security professionals with the right mix of strategic and hands-on skills. Welcome to the Cyber Security Jobs Skills Radar 2026, your go-to guide for the most in-demand tools, frameworks, certifications, and technologies shaping the UK's cyber workforce. Whether you're a SOC analyst, penetration tester, or cloud security architect, this annual radar is designed to help you stay ahead of the market.

How to Find Hidden Cyber Security Jobs in the UK Using Professional Bodies like BCS, CIISec & More

The demand for skilled cyber security professionals in the UK has never been higher. With threats increasing in sophistication and frequency, organisations are urgently hiring ethical hackers, threat analysts, GRC specialists, and security architects. But many of the most valuable roles—particularly in government, defence, and critical infrastructure—are never publicly advertised. Instead, these jobs are shared behind the scenes through trusted networks, private communities, and professional bodies. In this article, we explore how to uncover hidden cyber security jobs in the UK using organisations like the BCS (The Chartered Institute for IT), CIISec (The Chartered Institute of Information Security), ISACA, and ISC² UK Chapter. We’ll show you how to use membership directories, special interest groups, CPD events and informal networks to gain early access to roles most people never see.

How to Get a Better Cyber Security Job After a Lay-Off or Redundancy

Redundancy is never easy—especially in a fast-moving field like cyber security, where your skills and experience are constantly evolving. But if you’ve recently been made redundant from a cyber security role, know this: the UK cyber workforce remains in high demand, and your expertise is more valuable than ever. Whether you’re a SOC analyst, penetration tester, incident responder, security architect or GRC specialist, there are still thousands of opportunities across sectors including finance, defence, government, retail, and critical infrastructure. This guide will help you turn redundancy into a career relaunch, with a clear action plan tailored to the UK cyber security job market.