Overview

Join to apply for the Head of IT Operations & Governance role at FILE.

Harness your tech superpowers – back the legal fight for a sustainable future.

Job Title: Head of IT Operations & Governance

Location: London. Candidates can work remotely in the UK with occasional travel to the office.

Remuneration: £80,000 - £100,000 depending on experience

Contract: Permanent

Hours: Full-Time or Part-Time (5 or 4 days per week pro rata)

Role purpose

At FILE (Foundation for International Law for the Environment), we believe technology should be a force for good – use your tech superpowers for good. To lead and carry out the day-to-day delivery of FILE’s IT Operations, we are now looking for a Head of IT Operations & Governance, ensuring systems are secure, efficient, and fit for purpose. This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who can combine forward-looking strategy with practical delivery, ready to get stuck in where needed.

This role personally manages and oversees infrastructure and digital tools, and drives forward key initiatives including governance frameworks, cybersecurity protocols, SharePoint migration, outsourced IT consultants and compliance with data retention and protection standards.

The postholder will ensure that technology effectively supports staff, streamlines operations, and meets FILE’s evolving needs, while also working with external parties, grantees, and affected communities to ensure systems are secure, inclusive, and responsive to real-world contexts.

This is very much a hands-on role: you’ll be the sole IT lead, so you must be just as comfortable managing day-to-day operations and troubleshooting as you are shaping long-term strategy. If you’re looking for a role focused only on high-level planning without delivery, this isn’t the job for you. You’ll have around 20% support from another team member, but the function will largely sit with you.

Responsibilities

• Lead IT operations and infrastructure: Oversee SharePoint Online and Microsoft 365 platforms, ensuring systems are secure, scalable, and designed for long-term usability and governance.
• Strengthen digital architecture: Shape FILE’s enterprise system design, ensuring platforms are integrated, interoperable, and future-ready to support global growth.
• Champion resilience and optimisation: Monitor network, cloud, and collaboration tools, proactively managing risks and ensuring reliable service delivery.
• Embed governance and security by design: Develop and enforce IT policies, cybersecurity safeguards, and data protection protocols, ensuring compliance across multiple jurisdictions.
• Partner with communities and the Global South: Design and manage technology with an understanding of how our systems interface with partners and communities worldwide, ensuring accessibility, equity, and cultural responsiveness.
• Drive strategic technology leadership: Anticipate future needs, advise on emerging tools, and ensure IT operations align with FILE’s mission, values, and ways of working.
• Manage vendors and providers: Act as primary contact for outsourced IT services, ensuring strong performance and user-focused support.
• Support and enable staff: Oversee onboarding, induction, and digital literacy initiatives so all staff are confident and empowered in using FILE’s systems.
• Foster a positive user experience: Maintain intranet resources, guides, and FAQs, actively seeking feedback to improve IT services across a globally dispersed workforce.
• Ensure audit readiness and risk management: Maintain documentation, conduct risk assessments, and prepare systems for external and internal audits.

Qualifications and skills

• Deep knowledge of IT Governance, risk and cyber security
• Expertise in enterprise system architecture, integration, and cloud infrastructure
• Microsoft 365 Ecosystem (Teams, SharePoint), Vendor & Service Provider Management
• Project & Change Management and Adaptability
• Cross-cultural communication and ability to work in project-based environments
• Strategic thinking and demonstrably builds trust with a diverse pool of partners from a range of backgrounds, viewpoints and cultures
• A collaborative, solutions-focused leadership style and stakeholder management
• Understands principles of justice, equity, diversity and inclusion, and can apply them within their role
• A hands-on approach which combines strategic thinking with a willingness to roll up sleeves and deliver directly

About FILE

The Foundation for International Law for the Environment (FILE) is a not-for-profit philanthropic organisation working to accelerate legal action on climate change. Through grant-making and in-house legal expertise, we empower our partners to deliver strategic, innovative legal interventions and we support lawyers in their own countries to bring their own cases.

Legal action can unlock the systemic changes in finance, policy and social systems needed to protect all of us from climate change. The power of the law is both direct (changing policy and practice) and indirect (signalling the wider shifts taking place across these systems).

FILE is a ‘regrantor’ - this means we do not bring legal action in our own name. We receive grants from our philanthropic donors and make onwards grants to partners who align with FILE’s charitable aims and purposes. We do not seek to make any profit from our activities either in a relevant financial year or in the longer term.

Location and application

We are advertising this role for candidates based (and with the right to work) in the UK and in the Netherlands. Please note that you will see this role advertised in multiple locations but that we are only hiring for one position based in either location, and that we are able to offer collaborative working spaces only in the Netherlands and the UK.

Please apply to the job post for your preferred location. Applications are open immediately and are accepted on a rolling basis. The role will close on 3 October 2025. For questions, please email careers@filefoundation.org.

Working at FILE

FILE is a collaborative community of individuals who share a passion for climate, nature, and justice. Our people are empowered to lead their work both individually and as part of a wider team to make impactful change. We are committed to challenging systemic injustice and to building a diverse and inclusive workforce. We offer generous leave, private healthcare, enhanced parental leave, sick leave, flexible working (including remote and abroad), and pension contributions.

Equal opportunity

FILE recognises the under-representation of historically marginalised communities in climate, nature and philanthropy spaces. We are committed to building policies and practices that ensure no current or prospective employee is discriminated based on disability, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, gender identity, or marriage and civil partnership.

Seniority level

• Director

Employment type

• Full-time

Job function

• Information Technology
• Industries: Non-profit Organizations

This role is advertised for London, England, United Kingdom.