Head of IT Infrastructure

Head of IT Infrastructure

Location: Reading (Homeworker)

Employment Type: 6 Month FTC, Full Time

Grade: Senior Consultant

Remote

REQ
003455

XPS Group is a prominent and growing UK consultancy and administration firm within the pensions and insurance sectors. As a FTSE 250 company with over 2000 employees, we leverage expertise alongside advanced technology to serve over 1,400 pension schemes and their sponsors. Our goal is to foster a workplace where diverse talents thrive.

XPS Group IT provides IT services to all XPS offices located across the UK and Ireland. XPS currently employs 2,000 employees across multiple business areas. XPS has an in‑house IT Service Desk, 2nd line, 3rd line and infrastructure engineers. There is a dedicated Cyber Security Team monitoring the security of the network and servers. There is a primary and secondary data centre which uses Hyper‑V servers.

Around 200 virtual and 19 physical servers exist across the business.

We are looking for an experienced interim Head of IT Infrastructure to lead the delivery, optimisation, and reliability of our infrastructure estate. The role will oversee day‑to‑day operations, team leadership, vendor management, and ensure robust governance, security, and resilience across our on‑premise technology platforms.

This is a hands‑on leadership role suited to someone who can balance planning and team management with operational delivery in a complex, regulated environment.

• Lead the Infrastructure team, Networks, Servers, Storage, and End User Computing.
• Execute infrastructure strategy aligned with XPS' technology roadmap and business goals.
• Enforce ITIL based processes and best practice around Change Management, Problem management and Incident management.
• Provide leadership, coaching, and direction to the infrastructure team, ensuring high performance and continuous development.

• Ensure the availability, stability, and security of all infrastructure services across on premise and cloud environments (Azure is a must).
• Oversee capacity management, monitoring, patching, backups, and disaster recovery processes.
• Drive improvements in automation, standardisation, and operational efficiency.
• Own incident, problem, and change management processes within Infrastructure.

• Work closely with the Information Cyber Security team to ensure alignment to security frameworks and standards.
• Ensure infrastructure meets regulatory, audit, and compliance requirements (including FCA, ISO
  27001, and GDPR).
• Lead risk identification, mitigation, and remediation activities.

• Oversee delivery of infrastructure elements of IT projects (cloud migrations, data centre improvements, network upgrades, endpoint modernisation).
• Collaborate with Architecture and Applications teams to support wider IT change initiatives.
• Ensure projects are delivered on time, to scope, and with strong documentation and governance.

• Manage third party vendors, ensuring strong performance and value for money.
• Oversee infrastructure budgets, forecasting, and procurement activities.
• Evaluate new technologies and suppliers to support strategic developments.

• Proven experience leading an IT Infrastructure function within a medium‑large organisation.
• Strong technical background across:
  • Azure and M365 cloud services
  • Networking, firewalls, VPN
  • Windows Server, Active Directory, Group Policy
  • Storage, backup, disaster recovery
  • Endpoint management and MDM (Intune preferred)
• Experience in regulated or professional services environments.
• Strong stakeholder engagement skills, able to influence at senior levels.
• Experience leading teams through change, modernisation, and transformation.
• Excellent vendor management and contract negotiation skills.

• Experience with in pensions, financial services, or similar regulated industries.
• Relevant certifications (Azure, ITIL, etc.).
• Experience with hybrid on prem + cloud models.

Enjoy a competitive salary, annual discretionary bonus, and 25 days' holiday with buy/sell flexibility. Benefits include pension…