Director of IT Operations Induction
Your Induction to Northumbria
Firstly, a big warm welcome to Northumbria. We are delighted you have joined us and look forward to working with you. This induction booklet is designed to provide you with some key information about the University and your role. We hope this will be useful in your first few weeks and months. Please contact Julia Lakey and Hannah Fitton in the first instance if you wish to discuss further support.
Welcome to Northumbria event
The University holds a Welcome to Northumbria induction event. The purpose of the event is to welcome new colleagues to the University and to provide an overview of the University’s Vision and Strategy from key members of the Senior Management Team. It also provides an opportunity for new colleagues to network. Please can you book onto a welcome event as part of your onboarding tasks in NU People and Finance.
Local Induction
In your first few weeks you will meet with each member of Digital, Technology, and Transformation Senior Leadership Team as well as your direct reports, some you may already have met.
People Guide
Our People Guide is shared with all new colleagues and covers lots of information that you may find useful, including pensions, benefits, Trade Union membership and more.
Meet the Team
Link to the DTT Team pages and DTT Organisation Chart.
Dr. Simon Corbett - Chief Information Officer
Simon leads Digital, Technology & Transformation Services, the team are responsible for all technology and transformational change across Northumbria, keeping staff and students connected, working collaboratively, and unlocking potential in a digital world.
As Chief Information Officer, Simon provides strategic leadership and management of the University’s Digital, Technology & Transformation service. He works closely with the University Executive to shape and deliver the University Vision, Strategy and supporting plans.
Simon is also responsible for the vision and delivery of the Digital Masterplan and acts as an advisor and advocate with key stakeholders, to maximise opportunities for innovation and technology change across the University.
Julia Lakey - EA to CIO & Project Coordinator
Julia supports Simon by providing professional Executive Assistance, working closely with the Leadership team to support management structures, priorities and plans for the service. Julia also supports the delivery of DTT projects by providing proactive support to technical projects and work streams.
Claire Burn - Director Delivery & Governance
With over 22 years of experience in implementing and managing IT Service Management processes and functions—part of a career spanning more than 30 years—Claire joined Northumbria University in 2020.
She currently leads the Delivery & Governance functions, overseeing Business Analysis, Relationship Management, Project Delivery, and the Design, Development, and Testing teams.
Meet the Team
Steve Fletcher - Head of Portfolio Management
Steve is the Head of Portfolio Management in DTT, a new role responsible for leading the delivery of digital and estates projects across the University. He oversees a team of Project Managers and Coordinators, ensuring that projects are prioritised, effectively resourced, and aligned with the University’s strategic goals.
The team focuses on delivering meaningful outcomes that reflect the needs of customers and stakeholders. They adopt a culture of collaboration, working closely with colleagues across DTT and the wider University to support consistent, high-quality, and controlled delivery of change.
Lee Hall - Director of Digital Operations & Customer Experience
Lee leads Technical Operations & Customer Services, bringing extensive experience in TEL, AV, infrastructure transformation, and user-centred service delivery in Higher Education.
With a strong background in teaching within HE & FE, his focus is on accessibility, sustainability, and the strategic modernisation of Northumbria’s digital estate.
Gillian Hitchenes - Director of Norman Managed Services
Gillian brings over 30 years of experience in the IT sector, spanning both Customer Service and IT Operational Delivery. She is the Director of Norman Managed Services, the UK’s most successful shared subscription service.
Under her leadership, the organisation delivers cost-effective, high-quality, customer-centric IT support to more than 1.5 million students across over 40 UK universities, 24/7, 365 days a year and an income for Northumbria University.
Meet the Team
Phillip Johnson - Head of IT Infrastructure
Phill new into his role as Head of IT Infrastructure leads a team of Networking, Server, Storage, Database, End User Compute and Cloud Platform specialists covering a wide range of technical and operational skills essential for running a university enterprise-level IT environment.
Rich Martin - Head of Cyber Security
Rich leads the University’s cyber security function, ensuring the protection of Northumbria’s digital assets, data, and services across a complex hybrid infrastructure. With over a decade of experience in operational security, incident response, and risk governance, he is responsible for embedding a proactive security culture and managing strategic initiatives to safeguard both the academic and professional environments. Richard works closely with internal stakeholders, external partners, and sector-wide networks to ensure Northumbria remains resilient in an evolving threat landscape.
Richard’s focus includes the integration of security tooling across the SOC, enhancing incident response through automation, and maturing the University's cyber threat intelligence capabilities. His work supports the University's wider strategy by ensuring that security enables innovation and transformation while maintaining compliance and confidence across all digital services.
Andrew Munro - Head of IT Development
Andrew leads the Development Team to design, develop and implement strategic technical solutions for both staff and students ensuring all objectives and requirements are attained.
Whilst fostering a culture of innovation and continuous improvement the team closely collaborate with many other areas both internally within DTT and wider across the University. By adoption of best practices the developed technical solutions are enhanced and maintained ensuring compliance with legal and regulatory requirements whilst complying with internal frameworks.
Vision and Strategy
The Northumbria University Strategy 2030 is a bold and ambitious statement of our future. At its core is the impact that the University has in changing lives, by enabling people from all backgrounds to succeed and supporting businesses and communities to thrive in the North East, London and beyond. It builds on both our heritage and our transformation over the last fifteen years, focusing on three Strategic Ambitions that will be delivered through our world-leading research and transformative education.
Our strategy has three interconnected Strategic Ambitions of equal priority:
» Powering an inclusive economy- more of our graduates work in highly skilled professions.
» Creating new knowledge- world-leading research with a pervasive impact in every subject area.
» Driving Social Mobility- student from all backgrounds succeed after they graduate.
Strategic Delivery Plans
Our three Strategic Ambitions will be delivered through a set of high-level Strategic Delivery Plans (SDPs). These 11 plans set out at a high-level the core, enabling and cross-cutting initiatives that will deliver our three Strategic Ambitions, over a rolling two-year basis. Please find links below to the plans.
» Research
» Education
» Knowledge Exchange
» Size and Shape
» International
» People
The Digital & Technology SDP
» Reputation and Relationships
» Campus
» Financial Sustainability
» Digital and Technology
» Cross-cutting
Context: The Digital and Technology Strategic Delivery Plan is one of the enabling SDPs. Our ambition is to provide world class, trusted, user focused facilities that support our education and research, driving collaboration and innovation. Digital inclusion will be at the heart of everything we do, so that all students, staff, and partners at Northumbria have an equitable digital experience. This plan will help us attract and retain top talent and achieve our commitment to sustainability.
Timeframe: This SDP covers years one to three (2024/25 - 2026/27) of the six-year strategy period (2024-30).
Updates: This is a two-year rolling plan which will be reviewed and progress reported on an annual basis. Progress updates and revised plans will be shared on the strategy SDP pages of the intranet.
Points of contact: If you have any queries regarding the SDP process or the SDP strategy intranet pages, please contact Claire Graham or Marie Foalle in the Strategy Team.
Digital Masterplan
The Digital Masterplan 2030 is ambitious and will set a digital roadmap to ensure Northumbria remains at the forefront of digital and technology use across the Higher Education Sector.
Sixteen Digital Initiatives have been defined to deliver on the Digital Ambitions and Digital Foundations outlined in the Digital Masterplan in line with the university commitments. The Digital Initiatives assigned to your role will be confirmed very soon.
HR Support
HR support for DTT is Hannah Fitton, please reach out to her if you have any queries.
Governance Services is not responsible for the development and review of the wide range of policies which provide a framework for University business. It does however provide a framework in which policies should be formulated, structured, approved and reviewed, as well as one-stop document library through which the University’s key policies and regulations can be accessed.
University Policies
Technology and Digital
Portfolio Updates and All Staff
Briefings
Members of the Senior Management Group (SMG) and other colleagues in key leadership positions send regular updates to all staff throughout the year on the latest developments and challenges in their portfolios. All previous portfolio updates are available to view.
The Vice-Chancellor holds regular briefings both virtually and in person for all staff to provide key updates on the University’s progress towards its Strategy and Vision 2030. Recordings are made of these presentations and are published on the intranet for colleagues who were unable to attend.
Mandatory Training
As a new employee of Northumbria you are required to complete our suite of mandatory training in your first few weeks of employment. Mandatory training can be accessed through NU People and Finance, the link for which you will find on the Human Resources and Organisational Development Intranet site
Acronyms
You will find that a range of acronyms are used across the university. Please see below some of they key acronyms.
CAB – Change Advisory Board
DI – Digital Initiative from Digital Masterplan
DMDM – Digital Masterplan Delivery Meeting
DTT - Digital, Technology, and Transformation
DVC - Deputy Vice-Chancellor
FPVC - Faulty Pro Vice-Chancellor
GMB - Global, Marketing and Business
HR - Human Resources
NSS - National Student Survey
NSU - Northumbria Students’ Union
PRO – Project Reference in ServiceNow
PRP – Project Proposal in ServiceNow
PVC - Pro Vice-Chancellor
RIK – Operational or Strategic Risk in ServiceNow
RIS - Research and Innovation Services
SLAS - Student, Library and Academic Services
SLT – Senior Leadership Team
SR – Strategic Risk
TEF - Teaching Excellence Framework
UE - University Executive
VC - Vice-Chancellor
View the full the list of acronymns.
Useful Campus Information
Below are our two Newcastle campus maps and here is a catalogue of AccessAble guides
