Head of Technology Operations & Security

About this role

Position Summary

Janison delivers high-stakes online assessment at national scale, and the reliability, security and performance of our platforms directly shape the experience of millions of candidates. The Head of Technology Operations & Security is a senior leadership role accountable for the infrastructure, cloud hosting, engineering operations, information security and technology risk and governance that keep those platforms secure, compliant and performing, especially on the peak, no-margin-for-error days when exams run.

Reporting to the CTPO, you will lead a multidisciplinary function of around 12 people across four teams - DevOps, Cloud Hosting, Information Security and Corporate IT. As part of the extended leadership team, you will help shape the strategic technology vision and set the technical direction for how we build, run and secure our environments, mature our cloud and DevOps capability, strengthen our security and compliance posture, own Janison’s technology risk register and governance cadence, and develop a high-performing leadership team beneath you.

This is a business leadership role first: you are expected to operate at a senior level, translating technical risk into commercial and Board-ready language, and represent technology as a driver of trust and growth, not solely as a delivery function.

Duties & Responsibilities*

• Team Leadership & Development: Lead and develop 4 team leads and a broader team of 12, setting clear goals, coaching for growth and building strong capability and succession across all four disciplines. Model and embed Janison's values and leadership behaviours across the function, contribution as a senior voice in cross-functional leadership forums beyond technology.
• Risk & Governance Leadership: Own Janison's technology and cyber risk register, chairing a regular technology risk and governance forum and providing clear, Board-ready reporting on risk posture, treatment plans and residual risk to the CTPO and/or Executive as required. Partner closely with the Head of Legal, Risk & Governance on regulatory, contractual and third-party risk obligations.
• Cloud & Infrastructure Strategy: Set and drive the cloud and infrastructure strategy, architecture, scalability, resilience and cost efficiency across our hosting environments. Continuously benchmark maturity against recognised cyber governance and risk frameworks and drive a roadmap to close gaps.
• DevOps Maturity: Mature DevOps practice, CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure-as-code, automation, observability and release engineering that let teams ship safely and often.
• Operational Reliability: Ensure environments are engineered for the peak-load, high-availability demands of exam delivery, with robust capacity planning and performance management.
• Security Posture: Own the operational security posture - identity and access, vulnerability management, threat detection, monitoring and incident response.
• Security & Compliance Program: Lead the security and compliance program (e.g. ISO 27001, SOC 2 and relevant privacy and data-protection obligations), including audits, certifications and evidence, and act as a primary point of accountability for cyber and information security governance in customer, regulator and Government due-diligence processes (including M&A and sell-side data room requirements).
• Incident Response & Continuity: Prepare, test and lead incident response and business-continuity/disaster-recovery plans, and act as a key responder during security or availability incidents. Ensure post-incident governance (i.e. root cause, lessons learned and Board/exec notification protocols) is consistently applied.
• Corporate IT Infrastructure: Own the architecture, security and lifecycle management of Janison's internal IT infrastructure, network, end user computing, identity and workplace systems - ensuring it meets the same reliability and security bar as the product-facing environment.
• Service Delivery: Ensure the IT Service Desk delivers responsive, high-quality support against clear SLAs, underpinned by sound metrics and change, problem and incident management.
• Commercial & Vendor Management: Own the operating budget and vendor relationships, including third-party risk governance over key vendors and sub-processors, and represent technology operations and security in leadership, planning and audit forums.

Experience, Skills & Qualifications*

• Leadership of Leaders: Substantial experience leading technology operations, infrastructure or security functions, including managing other managers or team leads, with demonstrated credibility engaging at executive/Board level.
• Cloud & DevOps: Strong track record in cloud (preferably Azure) and modern DevOps - CI/CD, infrastructure-as-code, automation and observability.
• Information Security and Governance: Deep information-security knowledge and hands-on experience with compliance frameworks such as ISO 27001, GDPR and UK Cyber Essentials Plus. Demonstrated experience building or maturing a technology risk and governance program, including risk appetite, register management and Board-level reporting.
• High-Availability Operations: Proven experience running high-availability, business-critical production environments and leading incident response.
• Stakeholder Communication: Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills, able to translate technical risk and strategy for executive and non-technical audiences. Experience working with large institutional or Government clients is highly desirable. Comfortable presenting to Executive, Boards, Audit & Risk Committees or equivalent governance bodies.
• Business Leadership: demonstrated strength in managing complexity, championing innovation including AI adoption, and sound commercial judgement across budget ownership, vendor management and prioritisation of investment.
• Domain Experience: Experience in SaaS, EdTech, assessment or another regulated, high-stakes, high-scale domain (desirable).
• Certifications: Relevant certifications such as CISSP, CISM, cloud architecture/professional certifications or ITIL (desirable).
• Scaling: Experience scaling teams and platforms through significant growth or transformation (desirable).

What We Offer*

We are a purpose-driven organisation, offering a ‘flexible’ approach to work. We understand one size doesn’t fit all, so whatever works for the business, the team and your role – means endless possibilities for the flexibility you need.

We also offer

• Access to our Employee Share Ownership Program. We will match your shares of up to $2,000 per year
• A fifth week of annual leave (conditions apply), a day off for your birthday and various ‘freebie days’ throughout the year
• Parental leave benefit including paid leave, continued super contributions and more
• Flexible working
• Discretionary annual pay review and bonus program
• A focus on virtual engagement and inclusivity to support our distributed workforce across the globe
• A focus on development and upskilling opportunities (if that’s what you’re after)

For a glimpse into Janison’s culture and to see our regular employee updates, follow Janison on LinkedIn. We’d love you to be part of our community!

Next Steps*

If you are looking for an organisation that will support your growth, provide you with the flexibility you need and are looking for a greater purpose to exercise your skills, then please submit your application. We can’t wait to hear from you!

By submitting your application with Janison, you confirm acknowledgement of Janison’s Applicant Privacy Notice which you can view at this link.

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