Principal/Director of IT

Company Overview:

This firm was born out of a vision and desire to innovate the private equity industry and to capitalize on the significant financial technology opportunity. They are a specialist investment firm that invests in software, information, and investment services companies, providing mission-critical products and services across sub-sectors including Banking/Payments, Capital Markets, Data/Analytics, Insurance, and Investment Management. They seek growth equity and buyout opportunities in North America and Europe.

Our integrated approach combines Investors, Operators, and Innovators. Each division works in partnership across the workflow of the business: originating deals, performing diligence, underwriting, executing value creation plans, and ultimately exiting the deals.

Role Overview
This global role will lead the firm's internal IT function across all offices, combining strategic oversight with hands-on delivery. This person will architect and drive the technology roadmap, enhance infrastructure, ensure robust security, and lead a small team to execute and continuously improve systems, automations, and operational processes. You should be equally comfortable setting vision and rolling up your sleeves to solve challenges in real time.

This is a pivotal role within operations, enabling the firm to scale securely, operate efficiently, and respond rapidly to new demands.

Key Responsibilities Strategy & Technology Leadership:
Lead long-term IT planning and execution to ensure systems, tools, and infrastructure scale effectively with firm growth, business objectives, and operational priorities across all offices. Stay abreast of technology trends, automation, cloud innovations, security frameworks, and recommend adoption of tools and platforms.
Provide strategic insight to the executive team on IT risks, opportunities, and tech enablement.
Lead digital transformation and change initiatives to improve process, productivity, and scalability, ensuring systems are globally scalable and regionally compliant.
Stay ahead of emerging technologies (automation, cloud, AI, and collaboration tools) and selectively introduce innovations that that enhance operational resilience, automation, and data integrity, ensuring systems are scalable and resilient to future growth.
Serve as a trusted advisor to senior leadership on technology investments, digital transformation, and innovation.
Partner with the CFO/COO, CCO, and deal teams to ensure technology supports front-, middle-, and back-office functions.
Evaluate and deploy technology solutions that improve efficiency, scalability, and risk management across geographies.
Benchmark IT operations and security practices against industry best practices, and selectively introduce innovations that strengthen competitiveness and resilience.

Operational Excellence & Execution:
Lead day-to-day IT operations and implement structured asset and lifecycle management to ensure systems remain resilient, consistent, and compliant across all offices. Step in hands-on when needed (e.g. troubleshooting, configuration, integrations, automations).
Drive process automation and efficiencies across global teams (reducing manual work, integrating systems, enabling self-service where possible).
Define, monitor, and refine KPIs, SLAs, and performance metrics for IT services.
Collaborate with Operations, Finance, HR and Compliance to strengthen data governance, onboarding and offboarding controls, and process efficiency across all systems.
Centralize the contracting and maintenance of all systems, tools and programming. Work with the business owner to ensure we are negotiating commercial terms.

Security, Risk & Compliance
Proactively identify and mitigate emerging risks, including third-party and vendor exposures, ensuring the IT strategy adapts to evolving threats and regulatory expectations.
Maintain and continuously improve a global security framework: policies, monitoring, incident response, audits, and vulnerability assessments
Lead risk assessments and remediation, fostering a security-first mindset across the firm.
Oversee periodic internal IT reviews and risk assessments to evaluate control effectiveness, resilience, and compliance with evolving regulatory expectations.
SEC and FCA Regulatory IT Governance:
Ensure regulatory technology controls remain current, evidenced, and aligned with SEC and FCA expectations, maintaining readiness for examination and review. Ensure adherence to SEC Rule 206(4)-7 (Compliance Programs), Rule 204-2 (Books and Records), and applicable FCA SYSC and Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SMCR) requirements.
Ensure systems and documentation meet standards for records retention, electronic communications archiving, and data access control.
Maintain audit-ready documentation of IT policies, procedures, and cybersecurity controls for use in regulatory examinations or inspections.
Coordinate closely with the Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) to align IT controls with firmwide compliance programs.
Monitor evolving regulatory guidance (e.g., SEC Cybersecurity Risk Management Rules, FCA Technology & Cyber Resilience frameworks) and ensure continuous adaptation.
Work with Compliance to establish global data protection standards consistent with GDPR, UK Data Protection Act 2018, and U.S. privacy laws (e.g., CCPA).

Cybersecurity, Risk, and Business Continuity:
Lead the firm s cybersecurity program, including information security policy, threat detection, incident response, and employee awareness training.
Oversee regular testing and review of cybersecurity, recovery, and resilience capabilities to ensure the firm can respond effectively to disruption or threat.
Maintain a formal Incident Response Plan, leading post-incident reviews and ensuring lessons learned are embedded into future controls and training.
Ensure global deployment of multi-factor authentication, endpoint encryption, and secure remote access protocols.
Own the firm s Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and Disaster Recovery (DR) framework, including annual testing and regulatory documentation.
Report cybersecurity posture and risk metrics to executive leadership and the firm s risk and compliance committees.

Team Leadership & Collaboration:
Build, mentor, and manage the IT team and contractors/partners across global offices, fostering a culture of accountability, service-first mindset, and continuous learning. Embed Motive s values in team practice and coach others to grow and develop their skills.
Work cross-functionally with Ops, Finance, HR, Compliance, and Investments globally to support their systems and automation needs and integrate IT into business planning.
Team serves as the primary point of contact with vendors, service providers, and external partners - manage contracts, SLAs, and procurement.
Promote proactive engagement and clear communication of IT initiatives, risks, and progress to leadership and employees, ensuring alignment, transparency, and strong adoption across the firm. Develop and mentor team members to strengthen capability and build future IT leadership.
Budgeting & Vendor Management:
Own the IT budget: planning, forecasting, cost optimization, vendor negotiation, and procurement decisions.
Evaluate, select, and manage vendors, cloud providers, software licenses, and service contracts.
Ensure value-for-money and scalability in vendor solutions.
Conduct due diligence reviews on technology and service vendors, ensuring proportionate risk assessments are completed prior to engagement or renewal.
Maintain an accurate and up-to-date record of all technology-related vendors, including classifications, approvals, and ongoing monitoring outcomes, to support firmwide oversight and audit readiness.

Required Skills:
Proven experience leading IT strategy and operations in a global, fast-paced, and regulated environment, ideally across multiple offices or geographies.
Deep technical knowledge across infrastructure, cloud services, networks, cybersecurity, and enterprise systems.
Hands-on mentality; comfortable both architecting and executing solutions.
Strong experience in designing and implementing automations, integrations, and workflows.
Experience with or knowledge of security frameworks, risk management, compliance, and incident response.
Strong communication skills - able to translate technical issues to non-technical stakeholders and influence at senior levels.
.Experience managing small teams and external partners/contractors / vendor management experience
Collaborative and pragmatic, comfortable working in a lean, high-performance environment.
Proactive and resilient, comfortable balancing strategic vision with hands-on delivery in a fast-paced environment
Ethical, discreet, and accountable who is committed to upholding fiduciary and regulatory integrity in every aspect of technology governance.