Head of Technology - Nordics

We are an award winning digital product studio with 125 people in 5 different studios across the globe (London, Malmö, New York, Lisbon and Tokyo) and 30 people within our Nordics studio. For almost 20 years we have been helping our clients grow by creating innovative, engaging and beautiful digital products that evoke an emotional response. Humans are at the heart of everything we create and our processes and culture reflect this.

Overview:

We are seeking an experienced technology leader to join our fast-growing engineering team as Head of Technology. You will be responsible for project leadership responsibilities for clients across our studios, as well as leading the tactical agenda and people within the engineering team. This role will be an exciting opportunity to shape the team, technical strategy, and activities for our Nordics team, who are building innovative and impactful products in the digital space.

You will be the main point of contact for all of the technical execution across our projects, work directly with the Executive Leadership Team and report into the Executive Technology & Product Director. You will also have a counterpart in our London studio leading the engineering team there as well as a team in Portugal. The Nordics Technology team currently consists of 9 permanent employees (across iOS, Android, full-stack, and test), as well as freelancers.

This is a dynamic position requiring a broad mixture of project leadership, technical solution architecture, team leadership, building team culture and cohesion, client-facing responsibilities, working on new business opportunities and getting your hands dirty when required.

Location

We have a wonderful studio in central Malmö which is very close to station Triangeln. We have two universal studio days a week but lots of the ustwobies work from the studio 3-4 times a week anyway. We would expect that you would live in a commutable distance to the studio and if you are based in Copenhagen then we also offer a competitive commuter bonus in addition to your salary to account for the difference in living costs.

Who are we looking for:

You will be;

• Current in your practice. You have solid software development fundamentals and a working understanding of modern, best-practice software architecture and software development practices and workflow. You keep up with the latest trends in technology. Our projects span full-stack web/backend development (with a heavy focus on full-stack JS/TS), and mobile (both native and cross-platform in React Native, Kotlin Multiplatform, and Flutter), and the role will require demonstrated grounding in one or more of these areas, as well as closely related concerns such as modern build practice, CI/CD, automated testing, cloud infrastructure, etc.
• A clear, confident communicator. You can convey ideas and break down concepts clearly to diverse ranges of stakeholders (verbally, written, and using diagrams where appropriate), and you are comfortable working with senior stakeholders and presenting in client meetings.
• An experienced project leader. You can lead delivery of multiple software projects from initial scoping and solution architecture all the way through implementation to launch and continuous improvement.
• An experienced team leader. You know how to lead, coach, mentor and inspire. You have experience leading and hiring technical teams. You know what a highly-functioning, cohesive team looks like, and have an idea of how to grow such a team.
• An engineering leader that has emerged organically. Technical credibility is important to our team, as well as for your efficacy in project oversight. A demonstrated track record of increasing responsibility, starting from engineering, up through tech leadership and management over a series of years will be necessary to be successful in the role. Our clients’ environments vary significantly from one to the next, so it’s important you have a breadth of experience to draw on in your support of projects and the team.
• Resilient. You can handle pressure and work in a dynamic and fast-moving environment.
• Adaptable. You can handle ambiguity, are comfortable switching contexts and able to apply your practice across a range of industries, different project types and deliverables. You know how to work collaboratively with multidisciplinary teams of designers, developers and product managers using Agile and Lean principles.
• Human. And you recognise humanity in others. This means both learning together and being able to speak to others, regardless of level/position, and empathise with their concerns
• Visionary. You want to make great products that affect real people’s lives, at scale. You want your work, and the work of your team, to tell a compelling story.

The role breaks down into three big areas of leadership responsibility:

Project Leadership, Team Leadership, One Studio Leadership

Project Leadership:

• You will have shared responsibility across all of the projects within the studio, and you will be accountable for how projects are scoped, architected and executed by the technical members of each team.
• You will be responsible for ensuring our projects are staffed with appropriate people for the jobs to be done, weighing individual expertise and experience against project needs and budgets
• You must be comfortable participating in new business development activities, including scoping technical work and teaming shapes, pitching to clients, as well as working on contractual details for delivery and scope.
• You should be comfortable being hands-on to varying degrees (across architecture, high-level design, and development), depending on the project.
• Once projects are running, you are expected to be an informed and guiding voice providing technical oversight. Working with our Principal and Lead engineers, you will actively participate in major project technical decisions, while also being a leading voice in our interactions with clients.

Team Leadership:

• This role has a heavy component of team leadership, team direction, and thought leadership.
• While there will be a lot of time spent with the team and this role does have support of the team at its core, this role’s primary leadership focus will be on the overall team/studio strategy, not on individual line management of a large number of resources. This role will likely involve direct line management of approximately 3-5 senior members of our engineering team, and setting the tone for line management, growth goals, and progression across the whole team
• Overall, the Head of Technology is responsible for the Nordic engineering team’s health, ensuring a sense of community and camaraderie, shared learning, innovation, and collaboration is thriving within the team. The Head of Technology will act as the touchstone for engineering values for the team and ustwo, acting as a point of escalation and direction, and representing the team both internally and externally.

One Studio Leadership:

• You will be part of the studio team that determines how we position our offering to the market as well as who and what we should hire for. You will work closely with the Executive Leadership Team regarding what skills we should be growing, and be one of the leading voices in how ustwo’s technology group publicly talks about its work and participates in the broader technology community.
• You will also be part of the team determining the types of work we pursue, and be a lead in new business development. This gives you an important voice in the type of work ustwo will be doing and how we will be delivering to our clients, both in Nordic studio as well as the wider scope of ustwo studios.

Our full benefits package is available to all permanent employees, please see further details here.

Interested but think your experience doesn’t perfectly align with this job description? That’s ok. Research shows underrepresented groups in particular are less inclined to apply for jobs where they don’t meet 100% of the requirements listed. We’d still love to hear from you if you feel passionate about this role! We are committed to creating an inclusive environment for our colleagues, clients, community, and the users of our products. We don’t have all the answers but we’re on a journey, and we are learning together.