Head of IT

Head of IT – £63,911 – £71,343

Responsible to: Director of Finance and Technology 
Responsible for: IT Operations Manager, IT Delivery Manager, Business Applications Manager  

The Royal College of Music is one of the world’s greatest conservatoires, training gifted musicians from all over the world for international careers as performers, conductors and composers. We are ranked the Global No. 1 institution for Performing Arts for the fourth year running in the 2025 QS World University Rankings by Subject. 

The Royal College of Music is seeking to recruit a Head of IT to lead the delivery of IT services for the College, supported by a team of 10. This is a pivotal role within the College, responsible for the IT infrastructure to support the needs of the College and to manage their Cyber Security. The Head of IT works with senior staff across the College, with a high degree of autonomy, with responsibility for developing the IT strategy and managing a £1m operating cost budget and a capital budget of around £0.3m.  

We are looking for candidates with the following attributes: 

• You will be an IT professional with significant skills and experience looking to further develop through a challenging and influential role.
• You will have the ability to set the IT strategy and the management skills to deliver it, including minimising the cyber security risks to the College.
• You must have experience of managing cyber security incidents and a thorough understanding of the challenges posed by cyber security and how to manage the risks and impact.
• You will have strong people management skills, developing a culture of delivery and continuous improvement.
• You will work well with Colleagues across the College and be committed to delivering an excellent service for our students.
• Strong IT skills and significant understanding of commercial IT technologies including networking, server technology, hardware, software, cloud technologies and infrastructure planning are essential. 

Terms of appointment

• 6 month probation
• 3 month notice period (7 days during probation)
• 35 days annual leave (we close over Christmas for the three days between Christmas and New Years and these days come from the annual leave entitlement) plus bank holidays. Our leave year is from August to July.
• Normal working hours are 9am-5pm with a one hour lunch break. Some variation such as 9.30am-5.30pm would be possible.
• Minimum of three days a week onsite.
• USS pension scheme, salary sacrifice optional. 6.1% employee contribution, 14.5% employer contribution
• Employee Assistance Provider, CiC, provides support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and access to a range of resources including counselling
• Interest free season ticket loan, interest free cycle loan
• There is a range of concerts taking place at the RCM throughout the weeks, staff are entitled to one free ticket per charged concert (excluding Opera and non-RCM promotions), and unlimited tickets for non-charged concerts.

The RCM is committed to nurturing diverse and inclusive environments for all staff and students to work and learn. We positively encourage applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates from diverse backgrounds, including race, disability, age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion and belief, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, and caring responsibility.