Kerry County Council Head of Information Systems 2026: guide

The Head of Information Systems leads the Council’s ICT function and advises the Senior Management Team. The post covers strategy, service continuity, cyber security, digital services, people, procurement and budgets. It is a senior management role grounded in recent hands-on ICT experience.

The four qualification routes

Candidates must meet one complete route by the deadline:

• a relevant Level 8 computing award and at least five years of directly relevant recent hands-on ICT experience;
• a Level 8 award with computing in the final year and at least six years of that experience;
• a relevant Level 7 computing award and at least seven years;
• a relevant Level 6 computing award and at least eight years.

Every route also requires knowledge of public-service organisation, or the ability to acquire it, plus significant senior management experience leading teams and stakeholders.

The booklet gives a broad description of relevant experience, including digital solutions, enterprise architecture, applications, data, infrastructure, networks, service management, cyber security, cloud and technical support. Use the areas you genuinely know. Do not turn the application into a list of every technology named.

What the Council needs from the post

The Head develops ICT strategy in line with the Corporate Plan, runs operational and service planning, sets and monitors budgets and leads the department. Duties span infrastructure, service desk, cyber security, disaster recovery, business continuity, systems and applications, procurement, contracts and external technical support.

The role also advances digital public services, citizen engagement, data sharing and business improvement. It requires communication of technical issues to management and staff, and contribution to the Council’s wider planning.

The strongest evidence connects technical action to a public-service result. A platform upgrade becomes relevant when you explain the outage risk, governance, migration decision, staff or supplier leadership and improvement experienced by users.

Write for shortlisting

Qualification certificates and transcripts must be uploaded for the route claimed. The application may then be shortlisted against essential and desirable criteria.

Use visible headings for strategy, people leadership, security and continuity, delivery, procurement and senior communication. Give scale where it matters: users, sites, services, budget, incident severity or supplier value.

The publicjobs application process is useful for checking that submission, supporting documents and later evidence stay aligned.

Are online tests confirmed?

No. Page 19 says candidates may be ranked through online assessment tests where competitions involve large numbers. It does not state that this competition will use them or name a format.

The same page offers an optional Irish-language assessment for extra marks. It is a separate competitive language interview and is not a mandatory aptitude test.

Prepare the application and monitor Review Communications. Do not assume numerical, verbal or situational-judgement testing without an invitation and familiarisation material.

Reading map

Pages 5 to 7 set out the job. Pages 8 to 10 contain the qualification routes and ideal-candidate criteria. Page 11 explains the required documents. Page 19 contains the conditional assessment and optional Irish-language wording.

This page uses the English candidate booklet checked on 14 August 2026. Verify the current official file before applying.