PUBLIC SECTOR

The pension may be cushy, but the looming headaches for £77K are not

His Majesty's Treasury (HMT) is looking for a new chief technology officer, offering an annual salary of up to £77,000 – less than some elite graduates might expect in their first job at a tech vendor.

HMT promises "an exciting opportunity to influence decision making that affects the whole of the UK." The successful candidate also gets a generous civil service pension, with an employer contribution of nearly 30 percent.

The salary range is from £69,820 to £77,000 for a role that can be based in London, Darlington (North East England), or Norwich (East Anglia).

"HMT is a fast‑paced, policy‑driven organisation with a diverse user base of several thousand staff, including ministers, senior officials and analysts, all reliant on secure, resilient and responsive digital services," the job ad says.

The role offers "a unique opportunity to work at the centre of government, operating at pace, influencing major decisions, and ensuring technology effectively supports ministers and the Treasury's critical role in stewarding the UK economy."

These are the kinds of users less forgiving of tech problems, as they are responsible for controlling public spending, directing the UK's economic policy, and achieving sustainable economic growth at a time when the public expects both good services and low taxes.

The incoming CTO will do all this with a "predominantly Microsoft‑based technology ecosystem, including Microsoft 365, Azure and associated security and endpoint tooling, delivered through a largely outsourced, multi‑tower operating model."

Leading technical staff and dealing with multiple strategic suppliers, the lucky individual is expected to define technology strategy, standards, and architecture, all while giving taxpayers value for money.

Weighty expectations also come with the people side of the job, since the CTO needs to be "a trusted technical adviser to enable informed decisions" both inside HMT and across other Whitehall departments.

This being 2026, the job ad mentions AI as one of the technologies the role is expected to champion.

What the ad does not mention is another looming headache: HMT must decide by December whether to move its finance and HR systems from Oracle Fusion to Workday, or stick with Oracle and diverge from the government's overarching £1.7 billion shared services strategy – which HMT signed off. No pressure, then. ®