Phil Pavitt has quit his post as chief information officer of HM Revenue and Customers to join insurance giant Aviva as global director of IT transformation. 

"Having completed a number of major transformations at HMRC, Phil indicated that he wished to return to his private sector career," HMRC said in a statement. "We would like to thank Phil for his work at HMRC."

Before joining HMRC in 2009, Pavitt was CIO of Transport for London, and before that was CIO of British Gas-owner Centrica.

Among his achievements during his time at HMRC was the renegotiation of the department’s gargantuan IT outsourcing contract with Capgemini, called Aspire. Earlier this year, HMRC sucessfullly cut the Aspire bill for the next five years by £200 million, and established direct engagements with many of the sub-contracts involved in the programme.

Pavitt’s remit at Aviva will include "rationalising and simplifying their IT services, and modernising and digitising the whole of their business".

Aviva is currently undergoing a strategic transformation, and earlier this week appointed a new CEO, former AIA chief executive Mark Wilson.

Pavitt will be succeeded at HMRC by current deputy CIO, Mark Hall.