Digital Director

As Digital Director, you will set the direction for Scotland’s digital, data and technology agenda, helping public services go collectively further and faster in delivering Ministerial priorities and Public Service Reform (PSR). This is a role with national reach and visible impact, shaping how Scotland uses digital, data and AI to transform public services, improve outcomes, deliver better value, support growth in the economy and sustain public trust across Scotland, underpinned by the infrastructure, platforms and technology needed to enable reform at scale.

Working directly with Ministers and senior public service leaders, you will look across PSR and the wider public service landscape to identify where Scotland should act once, at scale, rather than create multiple local versions of the same capability. You will create the conditions for organisations to come together around shared platforms, common standards and delivery models that improve outcomes for people, places and services.

The portfolio spans national digital infrastructure, connectivity and access, including how Scotland enables secure Wi-Fi and digital access across the whole country, alongside cloud, cyber, digital sovereignty, data, AI, digital inclusion, emerging technologies, ethical frameworks, innovation and major technology delivery. You will play a critical role in ensuring these agendas are not treated as separate programmes, but as connected national capabilities that underpin modern, trusted and effective public services. This includes establishing what successful, ethical AI deployment can achieve across the public sector, reducing costs, improving services and strengthening public confidence in the use of emerging technology.

As the Scottish Government’s senior advisor on digital, data and technology, you will work with senior leaders and partners across Scotland’s public services to translate ambition into practical delivery choices and ensure investment creates visible public value. You will be responsible for enabling wide-scale improvements to citizen, business and public service outcomes through modern digital platforms, joined-up systems and solutions, and the stronger use of data to unlock PSR delivery and operational reform.

Success in this role will depend on close, purposeful working with fellow directors across digital projects, internal digital capability, and digital policy for the economy. The Digital Director will play a critical role in bringing these agendas together, ensuring that Scotland’s approach to digital, data and technology is coherent, collaborative and system-focused, with no silos between policy, platforms, infrastructure, delivery and organisational capability.

This is an opportunity to shape how digital, data and emerging technologies support Scotland’s future public services, not only by setting strategy, but by bringing partners together, making choices that matter, and delivering the platforms, standards and capabilities that allow reform to happen once for Scotland, at pace and at scale.