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Head of Technology

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 Europe, as well as leading the engineering teams in London and Lisbon which is currently around 10 engineers, however, this will be close to double that size within the next 6-9 months. This role would have an exciting opportunity to shape the team and our technical strategy.

You will be the main point of contact for all of the technical execution across our projects, work directly with the European Executive Leadership Team and report into the European Executive Technical Director. You will also have a counterpart in our Malmö studio leading the engineering team there. This is a dynamic position requiring a broad mixture of project leadership, technical solution architecture, team leadership, studio strategy, client-facing responsibilities, working on new business opportunities and getting your hands dirty when required.

Duties and responsibilities:

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.
• A clear, confident communicator . You can convey ideas and break down concepts clearly to diverse ranges of stakeholders (both verbally and written), and you are comfortable working with senior stakeholders and presenting in client meetings.
• An experienced project leader. You can lead delivery of a software project from the 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.
• 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.

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

• Project Leadership
• Team Leadership
• 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 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, depending on the project. However, this is not a hands-on role where you would be taking on development tasks or making commits on actively running projects, because of the shared responsibility you have across studio projects.
• 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 focus will be on project work and overall team/studio strategy, not on individual line management of a large number of resources.
• The Head of Technology will have some line management-related responsibilities for a small number of our senior Principal Engineers, however, these will be focused on mentoring for craft and practice. There will be a dedicated Engineering Manager who will handle the line management responsibilities for the majority of our engineering team, who in turn will report to you.

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 or hiring for, and be one of the leading voices in how ustwo’s technology group publicly talks about it’s 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 London/Lisbon as well as the wider ustwo European Studio.

What we offer:

ustwo is a global digital product agency, meaning that we work across all sectors and from initial ideation all the way to delivery. We are independent and don’t need to answer to some other large consultancy or VC firm, meaning we can say no when projects don't align with our values or our B Corp agenda. Working here, you would get to

• Work with world known brands - name a sector, we have probably worked with most top 10 brands.
• Be part of defining meaningful products that help shape their businesses
• Get the chance to work with everything from startups to enterprise, alpha to production
• Work in an environment where people value people, diversity and openness. We might not always be perfect but we actively encourage people to speak up when we miss the mark and then try to improve even more. Make, learn, change!
• Your own yearly education budget + 5 days/year to spend on it.
• Private health cover
• Dental cover
• Life assurance
• Season ticket loan