Chief Technology Officer

A little about PTSG: PTSG is one of Europe’s leading providers of specialist services to the construction and FM sectors. It was formed in 2007 with a handful of people and a vision to deliver the full range of specialist building services from ‘under one roof’. After almost 17 years of successive growth, that vision has been achieved.

The Group’s five business divisions operate independently or combine to deliver a complete solution including: façade access and fall arrest equipment, lightning protection and electrical compliance, high-level services, fire solutions and water treatment.

To ensure efficiency and alignment with our recruitment strategy, we kindly request that recruitment agencies refrain from submitting unsolicited or speculative CVs for roles that are not currently advertised or assigned to your agency. Please note that unsolicited CVs or applications will not be considered, and we are unable to respond to individual inquiries regarding speculative submissions.

Job Purpose: The Chief Technology Officer (CTO) is a key role to ensure our current and future technology landscape helps run our business and enables our transformation strategy.

The CTO’s role is to align technology vision with business strategy by integrating company processes with the appropriate technologies. The CTO is also responsible for aligning systems development and technology initiatives across the business providing direction in all technology-related issues and keeping close to delivery to ensure the vision is delivered.

As well as a good technology leader, we are looking for someone who wants to be visible in the business, understanding our business, really able to get to the heart of challenge and opportunity for technology to make a difference and then make it happen.

Reporting directly to the CIO, the role will oversee all aspects of technology change owning the “enterprise architecture” and technology roadmap while supporting technical platform and project delivery delivered by other teams in IT. The CTO will own the technology selection and decision making process for any new / changed technology (ie non-operational) chairing a technical decision making board with key stakeholders to ensure a consultative model.

The key success targets for the role relate to maintaining and delivering a rolling technology roadmap that clearly aligns to our business strategy objectives and budget targets, identifying opportunities then delivering value from existing and future technology investment.

Key Accountabilities (major end results the job is expected to achieve):

• Strategy & Planning
  • Develop, evangelise and maintain a high level business aligned view on technology strategy and roadmap demonstrating clear links to business strategic goals
  • Support business strategic planning in both adhoc sessions and also regular planning cycles eg bringing a clear costed roadmap view into budget planning
  • Lead strategic technological planning and decision making to achieve business goals by prioritising technology initiatives and coordinating the evaluation, deployment, and management of current and future technologies
  • Collaborate with the appropriate departments to develop and maintain a technology plan that supports business needs
  • Develop and communicate business/technology alignment plans to executive team, employees, partners, customers, and stakeholders
  • Maintain resource appropriate views on “as is” and “to be” technology landscape to support planning, bidding and project activity
  • Develop and manage a model to identify and introduce innovations to PTSG to support both strategic priorities and local efficiency
• System Acquisition
  • Develop business case justifications and cost/benefit analyses for technology spending and initiatives
  • Approve, prioritize, and control projects and the project portfolio as they relate to the selection, acquisition, development, and installation of technology in line with corporate governance / financial approval model
  • Assess and communicate risks associated with technology-related investments and purchases
  • Define high level requirements for new technology implementations and communicate them to key business stakeholders
  • Support IT Business Manager to review hardware and software acquisition and maintenance contracts and pursue master agreements to capitalise on economies of scale
  • Support IT Business Manager to define and communicate corporate procedures, policies, and standards for the organization for acquiring, implementing, and operating new network systems, equipment, software, and other technologies.
  • Creatively and independently provide resolution to technical problems in a cost-effective manner
• Future Scanning
  • Conduct research to remain up-to-date and knowledgeable in regards to industry trends and emerging technologies in anticipation of new business processes and system alterations
  • Analyse and improve upon technology standards across the organization to maintain a technological and competitive edge within the market
• Financial Management
  • Good financial acumen – technology selections will have to be cost optimised
  • Own the forward looking view for IT budget planning contributing significantly to any strategic / budget / M&A planning activity
  • Ensure assigned budgets are managed and adhered to contributing to cost optimisation and forward planning as appropriate and supporting the IT Business Manager on managing down addressable spend in technology areas
• IT Controls
  • Help ensure overall IT controls are appropriate to support achieving technology and financial goals
  • Own IT processes and controls relating to: IT Strategy, IT Innovation, IT Enterprise Architecture, Application Strategy & Portfolio Management, Business Value Maximisation
  • Operate within the overall IT control framework ensuring we act as one team
  • Ensuring any audit activity and actions are delivered to schedule
• People
  • Recruit and manage appropriately skilled team available to achieve targets and roadmap whether internally or through partners
• Senior Leader
  • Team player, focussed on the success of the wider business and not just IT
  • Senior member of both IT and the wider leadership team of PTSG understanding, and living by the values and behaviours expected in such a role
  • Able to develop and implement strategies and roadmaps to envision and achieve long term improvements
  • Able to present effectively to an Exec level audience and manage very senior stakeholder relationships

Job Context / Key Challenges:

PTSG is a fast growing Private Equity backed organisation. It is highly acquisitive and the demand for IT service and support is high.

Although structured in 5 Divisions there are over 25 operating businesses making the business landscape complex and challenging.

IT is a critical part of the current and future success of PTSG and the CTO is a key role in the success of IT. Reporting to the CIO and with visibility at all levels of the organisation including CEO and Exec team, this role will be at the centre of activity to deliver our technology transformation journey.

At present, IT is several distinct environments supported by multiple teams that has developed as the company has acquired but often not technically integrated companies over recent years. This will be brought together as one organisation / budget at start 2025 and then a process of integrating IT infrastructure and systems will take place building a standard platform for future growth. Not everything will be integrated depending on the ROI. A key part of the CTO role will be to plan and oversee the delivery of, and migration to, a modern platform to help underpin future business growth. Some decisions have been made eg Google Cloud Platform for hosting, data / analytics and API’s; Microsoft for office productivity and CRM; Sage in short term for Finance, with plans to gradually coalesce on a handful of operational / engineering systems including Dynamics integrated into the standard back office platform. The CTO will own the decision making process on how we do this from a technology perspective aligned to the business strategy and recognising the pragmatic need to build from what we have rather than throw everything away and start again, collaborating with the CISO / Director of IT Operations to ensure operational fit.

Role Dimensions:

• Ability to work independently and as part of a team depending on need
• Excellent communicator
• Comfortable in a key role that will support over 2,700 employees across the Group (now a £300m turnover business) today and with high levels of growth expected
• Responsible for own workload, however this role will work closely with the CIO and fellow members of the IT Leadership Team to ensure the smooth running of the department within the company
• The role holder must be prepared to own delivery of complex problems as well as keep numerous smaller items progressing
• The CTO will need to bring stakeholders and the IT team “on the journey” but with a clear focus on results and outcomes
• The role is hybrid so much of the work can be performed remotely with expectation of occasional visits to UK sites (2-3 days per week in general) but essentially the role will be measured on delivery rather than office presence

Person Profile (Qualifications, Knowledge, Skill and Experience):

• Substantial experience of working across a medium sized (c3,000 employee) organisation
• Experience in strategic technology planning and transformational delivery
• Experience in all key areas of technology and bringing those threads together into a compelling , achievable vision clearly aligned to business strategy
• While all aspects of technology need to be covered, a key target is better use of data across our business
• Real world experience of major technology transformation with evidencable business benefits
• Experience of IT leadership within an office based and hybrid environment essential
• Budget management experience over several years
• Ability to react to a changing landscape and adapt to get the job done
• Good level of IT skills with modern tools eg Office 365
• Excellent communicator able to engage and influence
• Takes an active interest in how current and emerging technology can benefit PTSG
• Experience working within private equity welcome
• The role will require regular contact with CEO and Exec team and so high levels of trust and confidentiality are essential
• Successful candidates expected to have high levels of emotional intelligence