Job Title : Director General of Corporate IT and CIO

Organization : Department for Work and Pensions

Joe Harley has one of the top tech jobs in government as the Department for Work and Pensions’ director general of corporate IT and CIO – a role he’s held since July 2004.

It’s also arguably one of the most important IT roles in the country: the DWP has around 20 million ‘customers’ per year, paying out in excess of £124bn in benefits annually, and making around 14 million payments per week.

At the DWP Harley has been responsible for a £6bn, five-year business process modernisation programme, including the launch of services such as the Internet Job Bank and Employer Direct Online. He’s overseen an internal IT transformation programme, consolidating IT into a central department, and aiming to reduce the department’s tech spend by more than 30 per cent over seven years. He’s also a member of the government’s CIO Council.

Prior to signing up for civil service, Harley was global CIO for ICI Paints, a company he joined in 2000, and before that he was global IT VP for BP. The early part of his career was spent working for Britoil in a variety of IT and managerial positions. At university he gained a degree in IT and operational research, and has topped up his education since then with various stints at business school including executive programmes at Stanford in California.

Outside the day job, Glasgow-born Harley makes a point of flexing his football season ticket to see his beloved Celtic FC play as often as he can.