Head of Tech Ops and Resilience
Working hours: This role is available on a part-time, job-share or full-time basis.
Salary: Lucrative compensation package depending on experience
Location: Swindon, hybrid working
Closing date for applications: 25th June 2026
The opportunity
Zurich UK’s technology services sit at the heart of how we serve customers and support colleagues every day. As Head of Technology Operations & Resilience, you’ll provide strategic leadership and operational oversight for the technology capabilities that keep Zurich UK running ensuring our services are stable, reliable, secure and resilient.
Reporting directly to the Chief Technology Officer (CTO), this is a high-impact leadership role where you’ll shape the direction for Technology Operations, strengthen cyber and operational resilience, and ensure high-quality, uninterrupted services across core platforms and workplace technology.
This is a highly visible leadership role, acting as a senior interface to Executive Committee stakeholders, Group Technology, and where required, regulators and auditors. You’ll play a key role in enabling the CTO to engage externally while providing confident, credible leadership across risk, control and operational resilience internally.
You’ll be the senior escalation point when it matters most leading responses to major incidents, cyber events and operational disruption, and driving continuous uplift in resilience, control maturity and organisational readiness.
This role offers exceptional exposure across the UK and Group leadership landscape, with the opportunity to influence strategic direction, challenge constructively at C-suite level, and lead critical infrastructure modernisation and resilience including across third-party ecosystems that will shape the future of Technology at Zurich UK.
Many of our employees work flexibly in a variety of different ways, including part-time, flexible hours, job share, an element of working from home or compressed hours. This is because we want the best people for our roles, and we recognise that sometimes those people aren’t available full-time. Please talk to us at interview about the flexibility you may need.
What will you be doing?
In this role you’ll lead across technology operations, resilience, cyber defence, and control effectiveness building strong governance and driving measurable improvements in risk and service performance.
Alongside leading core technology operations, you will operate as a senior leader across risk, controls and audit bringing together responsibilities that traditionally sit across multiple roles into one integrated leadership remit, including increasing focus on third-party resilience and control effectiveness.
Key areas include:
- Setting and uplifting resilience strategy across critical IT services, building organisational readiness, continuity capability and recovery maturity.
- Embedding a comprehensive approach to third-party resilience, ensuring key suppliers and partners meet Zurich’s standards for continuity, recovery and operational robustness.
- Leading complex cybersecurity risk management, ensuring effective implementation of controls, policies, standards and continuous improvement programmes.
- Owning and maturing the technology control environment, embedding clear accountability, governance, and a strong risk-based control culture across the organisation and across third-party providers.
- Driving control effectiveness across internal and external services, ensuring controls are not only designed appropriately but operate effectively in practice, including within supplier ecosystems.
- Acting as a key point of engagement for regulators, auditors and senior stakeholders, ensuring robust audit readiness and effective navigation of regulatory expectations, including third-party risk and outsourcing requirements.
- Partnering across the business to align resilience, operational priorities and security requirements with broader organisational strategy.
- Leading strategic initiatives across cyber maturity, operational resilience, risk and control effectiveness, and operational governance.
- Leading cyber operations and defence, driving rapid threat detection and response while reducing vulnerabilities and strengthening overall cyber posture.
- Ensuring stability, availability and performance of IT services, including oversight of incident, problem, change and service management disciplines.
- Driving service excellence across workplace technology, delivering secure, reliable and seamless end-user experiences.
- Overseeing infrastructure, applications and operational support, ensuring high-quality incident response and remediation.
- Leading strong third-party oversight across suppliers and vendors, ensuring service delivery, resilience capability, control effectiveness, compliance and risk management expectations are consistently met.
- Acting as the senior escalation lead for critical incidents and cyber events, ensuring coordinated response and clear executive communication.
What are we looking for?
We’re looking for a credible, hands-on technology leader who can operate at pace, influence senior stakeholders and build resilient, well-controlled operational services in a complex environment.
This role requires gravitas and confidence to engage at the most senior levels both internally across the Executive Committee and externally with regulators and auditors.
You will have:
- Extensive leadership experience across IT operations, service management, resilience, cyber security and workplace services.
- Deep expertise in core service management disciplines, including incident, problem, change, infrastructure and service design management.
- Strong experience across risk, controls and audit, with the ability to design, implement and govern enterprise-wide control frameworks, including third-party and outsourcing environments.
- Proven track record of leading large-scale operational, resilience or cyber programmes, delivering measurable improvements in risk and control maturity.
- Strong stakeholder engagement and influencing capability, with experience operating at C-suite, Board and Group level.
- Experience operating in a regulated environment, ideally within financial services or banking, with a strong understanding of third-party risk, outsourcing and regulatory expectations.
What will help you thrive
- A pragmatic, outcome-focused approach with strong operational judgement.
- Confidence to make decisions under pressure and lead through ambiguity.
- A collaborative leadership style that drives accountability, clarity and pace across teams and partners.
- The ability to bring resilience, credibility and challenge to senior conversations, influencing direction and driving meaningful change.
What will you get in return?
Everyone’s different. That’s why at Zurich, we offer a wide range of employee benefits so our people can choose what fits them and their life. Our benefits provide real flexibility so our people can make considered choices and tailor their benefits throughout the year. Our benefits include 12% defined non-contributory pension scheme, annual company bonus, private medical insurance and the option to buy up to an additional 20 days or sell some of your holiday, alongside a range of other flexible benefits
You can find out more about our wide range of employee benefits on our website.
Who we are
At Zurich we aspire to be one of the most responsible and impactful businesses in the world. Together, we’re creating a brighter future for our customers, our people and our planet.
With over 65,000 employees, you’ll feel the support of being part of a strong and stable company that is a long-standing player in the insurance industry.
We’ve made a promise to each other and every employee: to focus on sustainable impact, to care about each other’s wellbeing, to use our diverse expertise to be curious and optimistic and to develop the skills needed for our future.
If you’re interested in working in a dynamic and challenging environment where your creativity, ideas and contributions are recognised and rewarded, Zurich could be just the place for you. Be part of something great.
Our culture
At Zurich, our strength comes from the diverse experiences, perspectives and talents of our people. Our goal is to create a workplace where every employee can flourish and where everyone feels valued, heard and respected.
Over a quarter of our employees are members of at least one of our inclusion communities (Employee Resource Groups), with groups focused on areas such as social mobility and cultural awareness. We’re proud to have received numerous industry awards recognising our diversity and inclusion policies and initiatives.
We’ve created an environment that places real importance on our people’s wellbeing from a physical, mental, social and financial perspective. We work with our wellbeing partners and industry experts to provide practical advice and access to a wide range of lifestyle support, alongside opportunities to learn, grow and develop the skills needed for the future.
We actively support our employees to give back to their communities through volunteering and charitable activity. Our charitable arm, Zurich Community Trust, is one of the longest‑established corporate trusts in the UK. Together, we’ve supported causes across the UK through grants and volunteering, contributing over £100 million in funding and volunteered time.
Your application
We’re committed to treating all applicants fairly and with respect, irrespective of their actual or assumed background, sexual orientation, disability or any other protected characteristic.
As an inclusive employer we also want to ensure that all candidates feel comfortable and are able to perform at their best during the interview. You’ll have the opportunity to let us know of any reasonable adjustment or practical support needed when you apply.
We’d love it if you could submit your application online. If you require an alternative method of applying, please send an email to
[email protected]
So, make a difference. Be challenged. Be inspired. Be supported. Love what you do. Work for us.
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