Chief Information Officer

Job title: Chief Information Officer Employer: Department of Justice, Home Affairs & Migration Location: Dublin Closing Date: 3pm, Thursday, 12th November 2026 Salary: Starting at €171,517 About the Employer: The Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration has overall responsibility for public policy at a national level in respect of criminal justice, public safety, civil and family law, national security, immigration issues including international protection processing and accommodation, cyber security and data protection policy. Its vision is for a safe, fair and inclusive Ireland achieved through the organisation’s values which are to operate in an open, collaborative and professional manner. The Statement of Strategy 2025-2028 sets out six strategic goals: o Protecting our security o Safe communities o An effective and accessible justice system o A fair and firm immigration system o Increasing our influence in Europe o People, systems and technology to deliver excellence About the Role: The Chief Information Officer (CIO) leads the Change, Technology and Innovation (CTI) Division in the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration and is responsible for the successful delivery of the Department’s Digital Strategy. This includes oversight of enterprise ICT services across the Department and its shared service agencies, ensuring full alignment with Government-wide priorities such as Connecting Government 2030, the Public Service Data Strategy, Cybersecurity frameworks, and emerging EU digital and AI regulatory requirements. The Chief Information Officer will oversee a multi-disciplinary team to drive innovation, strengthen digital capabilities, and ensure technology enables the Department to meet current and future challenges The CIO has end-to-end responsibility for driving digital transformation across the Department and its wider sectoral ecosystem. Working in close partnership with An Garda Síochána, the Courts Service, the Irish Prison Service and other key bodies, the role is central to delivering more integrated, data-driven and user-centric services, with a clear focus on improving access to justice, operational effectiveness and cross-agency collaboration. A core priority of the role is to lead and embed business change alongside technology adoption, ensuring that investment in digital capabilities delivers measurable outcomes. These include improved service accessibility, reduced processing times, enhanced data sharing and decision-making, and more efficient internal operations. Particular emphasis is placed on transforming immigration services through the delivery of scalable, secure and user-focused digital platforms capable of supporting high-volume application processing. This includes advancing integrated identity management capabilities and expanding end-to-end digital and self-service channels, with measurable improvements in user experience, turnaround times and service resilience. The CIO also oversees major transformation programmes, including modernising Immigration Service Delivery and International Protection Office systems, and developing the Criminal Justice Operational Hub to improve coordination, data sharing, and real-time decision-making across the justice sector. The Chief Information Officer will lead the Department’s adoption of Artificial Intelligence and emerging technologies, identifying both opportunities and risks. They will define and deliver a clear strategic roadmap, supported by robust governance frameworks, to enable the effective, secure, and responsible integration of innovation across the organisation. About You: The successful candidate will have: • Excellent leadership and people management skills and a successful track record of leading teams and delivering results in a high-performing, fast paced digital environment. • Significant recent management experience at an appropriately senior level, including leading and managing technical/multidisciplinary teams driving significant ICT/digital enabled transformational change in a dynamic and complex environment. • Demonstrated success in building organisational digital capability and developing high performing multidisciplinary digital professions. • A proven record of delivering innovation and business process change using leading-edge, large scale ICT solutions to challenging deadlines. • Proven ICT leadership in delivering innovative and improved outcomes via online service delivery methods. • Ability to persuade and influence at a senior level, including Government, key Sectoral Stakeholders and Department Management Board. • Demonstrated capacity to provide strategic direction on digital and technology solutions, ensuring alignment with corporate priorities and identifying opportunities to improve services, enhance organisational capability and support the delivery of the Department’s strategic objectives. • A deep understanding of current information technology solutions and strategic trends. • Experience and proven ability to analyse and improve existing or planned business processes including by using technical solutions. • Experience of managing large-scale budgets, delivering returns on investments and managing relationships with external suppliers/partners. • Familiarity with or have the capacity to acquire quickly a good working knowledge of the Department’s wide range of responsibilities, strategic objectives and business requirements at sectoral, national and EU level. • A qualification at Level 8 on the NFQ major award (i.e. Honours degree), or higher, in a computing, computational discipline or other discipline relevant to this role is desirable. The closing date for receipt of completed applications is 3pm on Thursday, 12th November, 2026. We are committed to a policy of equal opportunity and encourage applications under all nine grounds of the Employment Equality Act.