Overall description
I am looking for an inspirational Head of Technology to join an award-winning multidisciplinary team. Someone with a passion for exploring emerging technology, long-term experience working within the digital agency space as a (Senior) Technical Lead or higher, and have been hands-on as both developer and manager.
The role is the touchpoint for all things technical, providing direction on project solutions and guiding the technical execution of client and internal projects. The individual will be a client-facing technology evangelist able to inspire colleagues and clients, offer strategic and technical direction, and be at ease explaining solutions to people of all levels. You will be as comfortable scoping an E-commerce project as creating a technical solution for an iPhone app, or figuring out an interactive physical installation.
We’re after someone with a natural enthusiasm for finding innovative ways of engaging audiences through technology, and enabling surprising new methods for delivering digital experiences and stories. You will identify interesting technical solutions using digital, mobile and physical technology, and be able to articulate the implications of these to wider teams.
As part of the role you will also be responsible for managing, recruiting and inspiring the internal front-end technology team, along with identifying and directing third-party production partners where required. You will also sit on the agency’s internal Innovations team.
SKILLS & abilities
The focus of the role is to deliver and oversee the technical scoping, technical design, development and QA process within the agency:
Technical skills – these should include hands-on experience of:
- HTML / CSS / HTML5
- AJAX / Javascript / jQuery
- SOAP/XML/JSON API integration
- Back-end technologies (PHP in particular)
- Mobile development (iPhone SDK, Objective C development experience, Android SDK)
- Working with Content Management Systems
- Familiarity with E-commerce systems (e.g. Magento) would be a distinct advantage
Commercially-aware – able to conceive, scope, plan and control technical projects from inception to completion. Gauge the technical validity and viability of proposed ideas and advise how they can be executed.
Communication and leadership – able to present and defend brilliant technical solutions, and inspire colleagues and clients. Good verbal and written communication skills and be commanding in front of clients.
Conceptually adventurous – work with the Creative Department to conceive, develop and execute creative ideas and solutions in innovative ways.
Curious – forward-thinking, keeping ahead of new trends and technologies, finding ways of transferring new ideas and knowledge to your team. You know the next big thing before everyone else and how creative agencies and clients might use it to their advantage.
Management – Managing and growing the internal technical team, and identifying suppliers and managing third party relationships with technical partners. Also work with the project management and development team to deliver budget estimates, project planning, technical documentation, and devise technical development processes and infrastructure.
