Announcing Jack Rigby as our new Head of Technology

Hi, I’m Jack, the incoming Head of Technology at CDPS.

I’m originally from the north-west of England and studied at the University of Leeds.

As part of the Leeds City Council graduate scheme, I first discovered my passion for bringing user perspectives to public technology. Through running innovation labs aimed at creating user-centred services and advocating for an open data approach across existing services, I saw first-hand the variety of pressures faced by local government and challenges faced using traditional IT procurement approaches. These pressures can be at least partially reduced by user-centred approaches.

Wanting to work more directly on these challenges, I moved into IT business relationship management. Here I had the privilege of working with passionate experts and I recognised that enabling others to reach their potential by working digitally was something that really made me tick. I developed positive relationships with colleagues from diverse areas, working on projects such as flood defences to traffic lights, and ensured that IT contributed to the success of business as usual and large infrastructure projects.

Before working in IT, I spent time delivering council services; working in health and social care training and in other front-end and web design teams, so I know first-hand the impact digital tools can have on the capability of staff to deliver to users’ needs.

More recently I’ve spent time in HM Revenue & Customs as an IT architect; designing changes to a new and legacy tax customer system to balance customer needs, IT strategy and technical opportunities. I’ve also been lucky enough to work in our innovation space, which is exciting as somebody who has an eye on new and emerging tech and challenging established ways of working.

The digital ambitions of Wales and CDPS really excite me. There’s an opportunity here to set the standard for coming together as a public ecosystem and I can’t wait to play my part.

The value of working together is something lots of places are catching on to, but I’ve not seen as clear a commitment to putting users at the core of services as I have at CDPS.

Ultimately, substantial change is something that people must want, and I can already see that CDPS is bringing together people from all corners of public services in Wales that want that change. 

I will be primarily embedding myself in the existing Welsh public sector and engaging with many organisations to understand their challenges and the pressures that are unique to Wales.

I will also be using my experience to address CDPS’s priorities; contributing to discussions of how to make digital identity work for Wales, opportunities presented by automation and potential benefits to taking a “Once for Wales” approach to some public services. 

In my own time, I’ve got a tendency to pick up and run with lots of different hobbies depending on what catches my attention or a recent fall down a rabbit hole. Anything from cooking, baking, walking or photography – especially where there’s a gadget or new idea to test out.

Most of the time you can catch me with some sort of Sci-Fi or fantasy novel or series on the go, but I can be convinced to branch out if you’ve got any recommendations.

I enjoy getting out and seeing new places, typically in the Dales and Highlands; the beautiful Welsh countryside is sure to play a bigger part in these trips!

If you’d like to get in touch and chat about technology in Wales, email me at jack.rigby@digitalpublicservices.gov.wales