Interim Chief Information Officer — Infrastructure Supplier Recovery

Rebuild a support chain operations can rely on

Trace a selection of important services through internal teams and external providers. Establish who diagnoses, who restores, who communicates and who can authorise an exceptional action. Use actual service behaviour to identify gaps rather than assuming that contractual descriptions reflect working practice.

Govern the whole service

Reorganise operational governance around end-to-end service outcomes. Set common incident priorities, escalation routes and evidence requirements while preserving clear supplier accountability. Resolve disputes that block restoration and separate immediate recovery action from subsequent commercial allocation of responsibility.

Resource the response and correct the contracts

Review support capacity against operating hours, specialist availability and simultaneous incident demand. Identify excessive reliance on a named individual or inaccessible subcontractor. Where a contract change is required, work with procurement and legal teams to make the operational requirement explicit and testable. Do not accept a new reporting metric as a substitute for additional capability.

Establish a model that survives supplier changes

Leave a functioning service-integration model, tested escalation paths and a realistic view of support capacity. Require joint reviews of incidents that crossed provider boundaries and make corrective commitments visible to the permanent service owner. Establish a practical method for adding or replacing suppliers without recreating the same gaps.

The CIO holds executive responsibility for technology service management within delegated commercial authority. Procurement approvals and operational interruption decisions remain with their designated owners. Success will be visible in faster coordinated diagnosis, fewer disputed handoffs and support arrangements that remain effective under pressure.

Commercial and operating judgement sought

Qualified candidates will have led outsourced or multisupplier technology operations in infrastructure or another availability-sensitive environment. Demonstrate responsibility for correcting systemic service weakness across commercial boundaries, including occasions where every supplier could claim compliance with its own agreement.

The assignment requires commercial confidence, technical fluency and an ability to work constructively with operating leaders. Explain how you have decided between supplier remediation, partial insourcing and service replacement. Evidence should address transition risk and the resources needed to sustain the chosen arrangement, not just the negotiated contract position.