The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) is offering between £270,000 to £300,000 for a senior digital leader who will oversee more than £4.6 billion in spending and more than 3,000 specialist staff.
The Director General Defence Chief Digital & Information Officer – or DG DCD&IO – will “bring board‑level influence, commercial acumen, and the ability to drive cross‑enterprise alignment in service of national security,” according to the job advert.
Information published with the advert adds that the DG DCD&IO will work on creating a single digital strategy for defense, a digital backbone that all military systems will connect to by default and exploiting machine learning and artificial intelligence “for war-fighters’ advantage.”
The DG DCD&IO will be a UK national and will have to clear Developed Vetting, the highest of the UK’s five main security clearance levels. They can choose to work at the Defence Digital office in Corsham in Wiltshire or the MoD’s headquarters in Westminster, with frequent international travel required as part of working with NATO and Five Eyes partners. Applications close on March 2.
The pay is similar to the £285,000 recently offered by England’s Department of Health and Social Care for its head of technology, digital and data.
The MoD has a couple of officials on similar amounts with Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Sir Tony Radakin paid £315,000 to £320,000 and Andy Start, Chief Executive of Defence Equipment and Support, receiving £290,000 to £295,000 in the last financial year, according to the MoD’s 2024-25 annual report.
The DG DCD&IO will also be responsible for commercial relationships with IT suppliers. Perhaps the most prominent of these is with US security specialist Palantir, which this week held a reception in Mayfair for around 100 people to “celebrate the next chapter in our partnership with the Ministry of Defence,” according to The Times.
The MoD directly awarded Palantir a three-year data analytics contract worth £240.6 million at the end of December. ®