National Crime Agency to appoint CIO

The National Crime Agency is set to appoint a CIO this summer tasked with helping to boost the organisation’s crime-fighting capabilities with the latest technologies.

The CIO will support an agency-wide transformation project aimed at introducing new skills and improving its use of technology to collect evidence, connect data and conduct analysis.

The current CIO is Gerry Cantwell, who joined in February on secondment from the Ministry of Defence, where he was director of information systems and services.

The NCA, which was launched in October 2013, is a UK-wide crime fighting agency focused on serious and organised crime, such fraud, cybercrime, drugs, weapons and child exploitation.

Its predecessor organisations operated technology “on a smaller scale than is appropriate for our future needs” and focused on cost reductions through outsourcing. The new CIO will be required to assess and if necessary adjust this structure, according to the job advert.

They will also need to improve corporate technology and bring IT across the agency onto common platforms within a “constrained” budget.

The successful applicant will “have a strong track record in delivering digital and data strategies within large, complex organisations and of being an impressive catalyst for change”.

They will have experience with modern technologies like big data and mobile, preferably within a secure environment, and have strong supplier management experience, the advert stated. They will also need “strong financial awareness”

The candidate will be a “strategic adviser to the board”, will need to be based in London and will earn £130,000, the advert said. The closing date for applications is 17 May 2015 and interviews will take place in late May/early June.

London’s Metropolitan Police, the largest force in the UK, is also looking for a new CIO.