CONNECT Support Team (CST) Lead

Job Title: CONNECT Support Team (CST) Lead

Salary: The starting salary is £59,839, which includes allowances totalling £2,928.

The salary is broken down as £56,911 basic salary, which will increase annually until you reach the top of the scale £69,342. Plus, a location allowance of £1,928 and a non-pensionable allowance of £1,000.

Location: The primary Met Location for this role is Sydenham. Travel across the Met Estate, to attend meetings as required by the business, is expected.

“Keep checking Met Careers on a daily basis for new and exciting opportunities being released to join DDaT!”

Policing London is a hugely complex challenge that evolves every day. To make sure the Met is up to the task, we need the right IT and systems across our organisation. As a connect Support Team (CST) Lead, you will help to enable us to do our best for the London area. Join us and play your part in making London the safest capital in the world and delivering ‘More Trust, Less Crime and High Standards’.

As a member of the Met, you will also enjoy great benefits including annual leave, civil service pension arrangements, maternity/paternity support, as well as being part of a continuous learning culture.

Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT)

The mission of Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) is to provide the Met with information (and specifically data), communications and technology to help frontline officers and Met staff do their jobs more efficiently, in order to deliver the New Met for London plan. In other words, DDaT is about “passionately delivering trusted technology for precise data driven policing”.

As well as keeping up to speed with developments in technology and making recommendations for new equipment and systems that will help modernise policing, DDaT also comprises the Data Office which:

Owns and drives the data compliance and analytics agenda.
Brings together the accountabilities that are currently dispersed across the Met business areas.
Consolidates and further develops existing Met data and insight services.
Enables data sharing and collaboration to serve the public and external partners.

DDaT is committed to creating an inclusive working environment. We support hybrid working, and the hiring manager will be happy to discuss arrangements for this role.

Job Purpose

The MPS provides support to Police Officers, staff members and external partners via online self-help guides and a dedicated team of specialists; the CONNECT Support Team (CST). The CST provides 24/7 user support from a single location, using a variety of software and enhanced skills.

The CONNECT Support Team Lead will be the senior single responsible person for the management of all CONNECT 24/7. This covers management of the team, the effective use of 36 FTE, CONNECT performance reviews and the overall CONNECT Support Team performance, resilience and its effectiveness.

Key Role Responsibilities

The CONNECT Support Team Lead will hold responsibility for all CONNECT information handled and processed by the CST, including user support, software platform operational performance, organisational learning, decision making, audit, security, access, system administration, risk management of covert and overt data and organisational impact. The CST Lead is responsible for identifying, negotiating and implementing advancements in technology, service delivery, and overall performance of the CST. They are also responsible for setting and driving strategy in line with the Project, Command, and Business strategies.

The CST Lead’s responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

Lead and oversee the CONNECT Support Team, planning and directing the CST work, monitoring the effectiveness of resources and taking corrective action where necessary.
Setting the strategy and direction of the team and maintaining responsibility for its execution and ensuring alignment to CONNECT and wider MPS organisational objectives.
Manage and deliver key aspects of major projects, such as the CONNECT Improvement plan, maintaining overall responsibility for successful outcomes within CST and beyond.
Lead the design and successful implementation of policy and process, encouraging adherence to best practice and wider MPS frameworks and guidance.
Review decisions or actions undertaken by the CONNECT Support Team staff. Where appropriate, support or reject a decision made and justify both verbally or in writing.
Ensure clarity around priorities and goals for the entire CONNECT Support Team to ensure that adequate resourcing is achieved, and tasks are prioritised across the team to achieve the best utilisation of staff. Ensure staff are appropriately tasked and supervised by the first line managers. Commission reports to be completed by the first line managers and provide guidance to direct reports completed by the first line managers in person and in writing.
Facilitate goal-level creation for the CST and work with the first line managers to ensure the goals cascade to all team members. Monitor the effectiveness of the CST, its strategy, operational impact, resource levels, ability to manage risk, maintain security controls and react to critical incidents. Review and direct resources where appropriate.
Report to and represent the CONNECT Product Director as and when required, requiring senior engagement and decision-making that has a broad impact on the full range of the CONNECT platform services.
Assess emerging software platform risks and issues, security incidents, performance impacts, software outages and hold accountability for any response on a daily basis.
Manage the long-term strategic relationship with key CONNECT stakeholders and act as a point of escalation if such relationships become challenging for junior team members.
Foster a culture of continuous improvement, driving high standards across the whole team.
Hold accountability for identifying and mitigating risks, acting as a point of escalation for major blockers and arbitrating where necessary.
Oversee configuration management for CST, ensuring value for MPS and adherence to MPS policies and standards.
Accountable and responsible for all changes to any CST assets to be recorded and controlled appropriately following MPS standards.
Responsible for setting policy and standards on the evaluation and establishment of requirements for the implementation of change.
Represent the MPS at quarterly national meetings to present MPS CONNECT performance, issues, risks and solutions designed and applied. Negotiate on behalf of the MPS on any issues that impact MPS software or business processes.
Provide direct Line Management to 9 Support Team Supervisors, and second Line Management to 30 SME’s.
Chair weekly CONNECT Support management meetings to monitor progress. Interrogate performance data, risk and security incidents, learning approaches and data management to guarantee compliance with strategic direction.
Attend SLT meetings weekly/monthly to provide senior accountability and input for any CONNECT user or software matters raised. Provide a briefing on user and software behaviour as a result of their analysis of performance data collected within the CONNECT Support Team environment. This will require the role holder to have the ability to engage in technical debate to secure outcomes that support CONNECT platform principles.
Sponsor the communication campaign to promote awareness and acceptance of the CST through broad senior engagement. Provide the description, mission statement, roadmap, strategy, process objectives and metrics to measure success and obtain formal approval for the CONNECT Support Team and its associated procedures. Promote the Service Management vision to top-level/ senior management. Demonstrate the MPS approach to national forums in person and in written formats.
Monitor and review the effectiveness of the CONNECT Support Team at a high-level, ensure it remains consistent with the MPS’s wider culture and IT Service Management strategy and ensures coordination with all other IT processes.
Engage with broader MPS technical support strands and suppliers on technical issues and negotiate software and infrastructure solutions to maintain and improve performance.
Engage at a senior level with Digital Policing Managers to secure effective technical performance of CONNECT with the ability to debate issues with senior MPS colleagues.
Where a connect data management incident occurs, lead the response to mitigate any operational or personal impact and reduce organisational risk.
Define and improve the audit process; monitor and review the execution of periodic audits.
Lead the collection of information and creation of recommendations for improvements.
Absorb large amounts of conflicting information and use it to produce solutions and workarounds to fit system requirements.

Additional Information

Vetting Clearance

For this role the Vetting Clearance is Force Clearance Level, Management Vetting (MV), and National Security Vetting (NSV) Level, Security Check (SC).

Hybrid Working

Hybrid Working available in line with the Metropolitan Police Service hybrid working policy.

Working Pattern

The role requires that you attend the Newlands Park office 3-days per week: Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday between the hours of 09:00 to 17:00.

How to apply

To begin your career at the Met, please click the "apply now" button below. The application process requires a comprehensive CV, a Personal Statement (1000 words maximum), and an online application form. In your Personal Statement, you should explain your interest in the position and illustrate how your skills and experiences make you a suitable candidate. Please note that you should not submit two copies of your CV, and ensure that your documents are saved in either PDF or Word format, clearly labelled as CV and/or Personal Statement.

Completed applications must be submitted by 23:55 on 27th August 2025.

Once received, your application will be reviewed against eligibility criteria, following this, your application will be reviewed by the hiring manager. The application review for this vacancy will commence early September.

Following application review, successful candidates will be invited to interview. Interview dates will commence mid-September.

www.metpolicecareers.co.uk