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The UK's “Chief Digital Officer” job has been open for over a year

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Re: The UK's “Chief Digital Officer” job has been open for over a year

#81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last I heard FAANG pay between 70 and 80 in London for mid-level, no? There is a big difference between US and UK salaries. (Big difference in cost of living and taxes)

As a former London based FAANG employee my experience is that base salary might be that for a relatively junior engineer, but a mid-level with 5-8 years experience would make around £150-200k total comp (base, bonus, stock, benefits). 10-15 years experience is £250-400k++ total comp range

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1228454264915271683.html Dan Abramov makes 100k + stocks at FB

Re: The UK's “Chief Digital Officer” job has been open for over a year

#83
post #22

You know what? GOV.UK used to be an amazing team. I mean, seriously, some top talent and a really productive team. They did a remarkable job of understanding the art of the possible and writing clear guides that ordinary people could understand. And then the rest of the civil service and the government saw its brand reputation as a resource to be used much the same way that slash and burn farmers view the Amazon. Mos…

What I heard through the grapevine was that the end of the Coalition government and Cameron’s resignation basically meant the GDS team lost their protection.

Re: The UK's “Chief Digital Officer” job has been open for over a year

#84

>"All of this and more, for £200,000 a year." Question for the Brits here: how long would it take someone making this salary, and supporting a family, to afford the down payment to a reasonably sized house within 1/2 hour of where they would be working (which I assume is central London)?

£200k a year you'll be very comfortable, and could probably get a mortgage on a £1million house depending on your deposit (downpayment)

A £1m house sounds big, but in central London that’s... not really big at all.

I guess it depends on expectations.

Re: The UK's “Chief Digital Officer” job has been open for over a year

#85
post #54

Hmm.. maybe I will apply.. I think the thing a Chief Digital Officer would do would be to map out each organizations data needs and mandate that their product be provided via a SaaS interface to their customers and/or exportable into something like Snowflake or Palantir or maybe a UK provider. Interfaces are the first thing that Bezos mandated for AWS. The latter is probably more risky politically but maybe there's a…

What will you do when your "mandate" is ignored?

Re: The UK's “Chief Digital Officer” job has been open for over a year

#86
post #22

You know what? GOV.UK used to be an amazing team. I mean, seriously, some top talent and a really productive team. They did a remarkable job of understanding the art of the possible and writing clear guides that ordinary people could understand. And then the rest of the civil service and the government saw its brand reputation as a resource to be used much the same way that slash and burn farmers view the Amazon. Mos…

If I remember correctly I saw an interview with one of the original people leading up gov.uk.

It came across one of the frustrations was gov.uk is a long term product, governments switch and their leaders switch every few years as do the priorities so it’s hard to work with a long term roadmap.

Re: The UK's “Chief Digital Officer” job has been open for over a year

#87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Entirely this. Don't demand a competent practitioner with the illusion of authority when you're hiring for a patsy to take the fall for failure to deliver due to politics.

Couldn't agree more with this statement. Also, professionally, if you find yourself in this environment: GTFO yesterday. It's toxic, and will take it's emotional toll over time. Especially if you're technically talented there's always a market for your skill... keep bouncing until you find a place that respects you as a professional/person.

This comment really hits home with me. I took a job similar to the one outlined, albeit in a political party and not government. It is taking an emotional toll on me. Very difficult to get any work done and expectations to perform are sky high. Difficult to do that though if you aren‘t allowed to....

Re: The UK's “Chief Digital Officer” job has been open for over a year

#88
post #51
post #22

You know what? GOV.UK used to be an amazing team. I mean, seriously, some top talent and a really productive team. They did a remarkable job of understanding the art of the possible and writing clear guides that ordinary people could understand. And then the rest of the civil service and the government saw its brand reputation as a resource to be used much the same way that slash and burn farmers view the Amazon. Mos…

I'm not sure what you're implying here. Are you saying the employees got poached to better paying jobs in other government departments?

Sadly no, more that inferior projects got foisted onto the gov.uk website and the actual project got defunded. The employees I know went back to private enterprise (and yes, made much more money).

Re: The UK's “Chief Digital Officer” job has been open for over a year

#89
post #83
post #22

You know what? GOV.UK used to be an amazing team. I mean, seriously, some top talent and a really productive team. They did a remarkable job of understanding the art of the possible and writing clear guides that ordinary people could understand. And then the rest of the civil service and the government saw its brand reputation as a resource to be used much the same way that slash and burn farmers view the Amazon. Mos…

What I heard through the grapevine was that the end of the Coalition government and Cameron’s resignation basically meant the GDS team lost their protection.

That tracks. It was absolutely bizarre to watch a successful, apolitical ongoing project like that get ruined.

Re: The UK's “Chief Digital Officer” job has been open for over a year

#90
post #66

This is the equivalent of accepting minimum wage for being CEO of a S&P 500 company, blindfolded and without a steering wheel.

> minimum wage for being CEO of a S&P 500 company, blindfolded and without a steering wheel I'd personally take that job offer in a heartbeat (And would recommend anyone else to do so as well), because I'd have ~50/50 odds of failing upwards or downwards. Heads, I win, and my next job would be the C-whatever of a S&P 500 company for real wages. Tails, I lose, and my next job would be the C-whatever of a Fortune 5000…

You'd take it because you're not qualified to do it. And neither am I. Anyone that would meet their expectations of experience would already be working in the C suite at another company for significantly more.
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