Interim Chief Information Officer — Recovery

The question behind every engineering roadmap

No resource in a technology function runs shorter than engineering time, and nearly every hour of it has two claimants. Existing systems need maintaining, patching and adapting to regulation; new demand arrives from every part of the business with a sponsor and a deadline. An Interim Chief Information Officer in a utility services business is ultimately answering one question, over and over: where does engineering effort stop serving yesterday's demand and start serving tomorrow's? Answering it well means being specific. Not a general shift towards the new, but this team, on this platform, released from this obligation, by this date, with this risk accepted by this person.

Authority over the engineering allocation

The appointment carries executive authority. With it you will set the rules for allocating engineering capacity, including what local technology managers may decide alone, and choose the measures that steer spending, capacity and control. Each technology commitment will run on, wait or close on your word, and you will stop any plan that shifts cost or risk onto nobody in particular. A case that cannot say who will take up the change, which systems it leans on and what happens if it fails will be declined. You will decide who leads which part of the function and how problems are raised, settle disagreements with operating leaders while the budget is still uncommitted, and agree with the board how often it sees progress, exceptions and unresolved calls.

An engineering map, then a single demand process

During the first ninety days, a map of engineering capacity across existing and new demand should be agreed with the Regional President, with an owner for every allocation. Few organisations have ever seen this map in one place, and it tends to change the conversation on its own. Around month nine, legacy technology commitments should have been reviewed, with the capacity released from anything paused or ended redirected to the agreed priorities rather than absorbed quietly. By month 24, a single demand process should allocate all engineering capacity, and the board should see its trade-offs and exceptions at a regular interval.

A technology leader who knows where local judgement belongs

You have worked across seven or more countries and can tell necessary local judgement from variation that survives only because nobody has challenged it, and you document where that boundary lies. Those organisations employed at least 900 people and brought in $470 million or more. You have kept a regulated asset portfolio running through a handover of authority, and you can tell the Regional President what is still unknown without using that as a reason to delay.

Selection will weigh your record in culture reset, digital transformation and professionalisation. The culture point is not incidental: moving engineers from familiar systems to new demand is as much about identity and pride as about allocation. Risk judgement should reach level 4; product delivery, data and AI governance, and architecture at scale level 3. If you would not close a commitment until every national head agreed, or you want influence but not two years of answering for the result, this is the wrong seat.

From the Regional President to the board, in seven weeks

In week one, the Regional President talks with you in confidence over video. By week three you will be working through, with the Risk Committee Chair, how capacity decisions carry operational risk. In week five you meet, face to face, executives who between them run the company's functions; week seven, with the full board, is the last stage. Each outcome follows within four working days.