England’s DfE creates £200,000 digital and AI role covering data, cyber, estates, and school safety

The new Director General for Digital and Infrastructure will lead a 1,800-person DDaT function, build a data spine across education and care, and oversee high-risk capital programs including RAAC-related safety decisions.

England’s Department for Education is recruiting a new Director General for Digital and Infrastructure, with responsibility for AI, data, cyber resilience, digital services, and education estates.

England’s Department for Education is hiring a new Director General for Digital and Infrastructure, putting AI, data, cyber resilience, digital services, and school estate safety into one senior national brief.

The role carries a salary of up to £200,000 for an external appointment and closes for applications on Monday, 1 June 2026. It is a permanent Senior Civil Service Pay Band 3 post, with secondments of up to two years also considered.

The job advert describes the post as a new role created to drive “a step-change in how digital, AI, data and infrastructure capability is used to improve outcomes across the education and care sectors.” The successful candidate will lead a newly formed Digital and Infrastructure Group bringing together DfE’s digital, technology, data, and analysis functions.

AI moves from side project to department-level brief

The new Director General will be responsible for an “ambitious cross-cutting digital, AI and data strategy plan” across DfE and the wider education and care sectors.

The job description says the role will lead work to “embed digital, AI and data into every major strategy,” covering outcomes for children and learners rather than a standalone technology program.

That is a significant brief for England’s education system. The role is not only about internal DfE systems or departmental IT. It includes services used across childcare, early years, teacher recruitment, fostering, schools, colleges, local authorities, and private sector partners.

The Director General will also lead DfE’s digital and technology services, including a digital, data, and technology function of around 1,800 colleagues. The role includes delivery of DfE’s technology strategy, strengthening cyber resilience in the education sector, and improving cybersecurity across DfE systems.

Candidates are expected to show digital, AI, and data leadership at scale, including experience leading large digital, data, and technology functions. The person specification also asks for experience delivering major transformation programs with schools, colleges, local authorities, private sector partners, EdTech companies, and the construction industry.

Data spine and Single Unique Identifier sit inside the role

The job spec also puts strategic data transformation at the center of the appointment.

DfE says the Director General will lead work on “creating a powerful data spine for easier, more automatic collection and linking of data from education and care providers.” The brief says this will support insight, new services, and outcomes for children and learners.

The role also includes work on a Single Unique Identifier, a policy area linked to joining up information across education and care.

The market warning in the candidate requirements is unusually blunt. DfE says candidates need “exceptional skill in balancing huge opportunities with significant risks, calibrating engagement with a vibrant but under-evidenced and rapidly changing market.”

Susan Acland-Hood, Permanent Secretary at the Department for Education, says in the candidate briefing pack: "Strong digital, data, and infrastructure capability is now fundamental to how we deliver that mission at pace and scale - no longer simply a supporting function, but a core driver of positive outcomes across the education and care sectors."

She adds that the Director General will lead a newly formed group “at the very centre of the Department,” with responsibility for reshaping education services and modernizing how DfE operates.

School estates and RAAC risk add another layer

The role also covers England’s education estate, putting school buildings and digital infrastructure under the same senior brief.

The Director General will lead implementation of a new strategy for the education estate and help make DfE’s capital strategy more data and digitally enabled. The remit includes the School Rebuilding Programme and capital funding programs across schools, colleges, nurseries, and children’s homes.

The job description states that the estates function carries “some of the highest levels of risk and accountability in the Department - including life-and-death decisions on safety (e.g. RAAC).” It says the Director General must exercise “exceptional judgement” when managing surveying and building programs and making frequent rapid, high-stakes decisions.

The post can be based in Bristol, Cambridge, Coventry, Darlington, London, Manchester, Nottingham, or Sheffield, but the candidate pack says frequent time in London will be required because of proximity to ministers.

The recruitment timetable shows longlisting from 5 June, longlist interviews in the week commencing 8 June, shortlisting in the week commencing 15 June, and a final panel interview expected around the week commencing 29 June. Shortlisted candidates may also meet senior stakeholders, take part in a stakeholder engagement panel, and complete verbal and numerical testing.