IT Director / Head Of IT Job in Manchester, North West UK
Head of IT – Job Description
The responsibilities outlined in this Job Description may well need to be amended from time to time, in order to reflect changes in business requirement.
JOB TITLE: Head Of IT DEPARTMENT: IT
RESPONSIBLE TO: Chief Executive Officer
Responsibilities
The role of Head of IT is responsible for the definition and execution of the Technology Strategy and is a member of the Senior Management Team, with collectively accountable for the delivery of the business strategy.
This position is directly responsible for:
- Defining and communicating the Technology Strategy and Roadmap
- Envisaging Technical Architecture, including the Product Platforms, Operational Business Systems, and Internal IT.
- Directing the activities of the Product Management, Project Delivery, and Technology Operations functions to deliver products and operational services
- Creating true business partnerships between the company and its IT Business Partners (internal and external)
- Managing the technology budget and resources to plan
- Being the IT Advocate for the company and managing the alignment with the wider global technology strategy
Ultimately the role acts as the trusted technology advisor to the Sales Marketing, Product Proposition, and Operations departments to ensure they can achieve their respective business objectives.
Person Specification
§ Minimum of 10 years in IT, of which at least 5 years should have been in software development environments.
§ At least 7 years in similar roles (a blend of Technical Architecture, Business System Management and/or Programme Management).
§ At least 5 years in a Technology Product Development environment
§ Experience of managing internal and external suppliers
§ Line management experience of project delivery, operational, and technical staff
§ Experience of large scale e-commerce/internet projects and/or technologies
§ Extensive business background in commercial enterprises, preferably online.
§ Experience of managing a cost budget of at least £3M
Technology Strategy
• Responsible for the development of the technology strategy and roadmap, including:
– Technology Platform
– IT Organisation
– Governance Framework
§ Attend and contribute to Senior Management meetings to ensure consistent and up-to-date understanding of business strategies, issues and priorities
§ Produce annual IT Development Operating Plans and longer term IT strategic plans for the business.
§ Aligning and prioritising execution resource with strategic demands
• Resource planning and management
§ Ability to convert the business strategies, issues and priorities into a strategic roadmap and disseminate the information to the team.
§ Suitability of the defined technology strategy to support business objectives
§ Execution success against the defined strategy
§ Creation of a full risk analysis that takes account of the commercial and technology issues and priorities.
Architectural Direction
• Accountable for the Technical Architecture including:
– Product Platforms
– Business Systems:
– Internal Collaboration Tools
• Ensuring that the system platforms are flexible and future proofed from a technology and business model perspective.
§ A fully documented technical architecture that fully reflects the current situation
§ Definition of a target technical architecture, where required
§ Convergence with global technology roadmap and leveraging inter-divisional synergies
§ Quality assurance of all major technical deliverables
Stakeholder Management
§ Responsible for managing the expectations of the directors and senior managers of the various departments, with respect to technology delivery
§ Ensuring that stakeholder needs are met by a responsive and robust delivery function
§ Working collaboratively to find creative technology solutions to business challenges
§ Senior Business Leaders regard the individual as a trusted advisor.
Project Delivery and PMO
§ Direct the activities of the following teams:
o Project and Programme Management teams
o Partner and internal Resource Management
o Quality Assurance Testing of all partner and internal software development
§ Accountable for the Project Portfolio and prioritisation process, representing delivery of all strategic and base initiatives
§ Responsible for the selection of any third party business applications software
§ Identify measures to improve delivery and customer satisfaction.
§ Timely delivery of major deliverables, to agreed scope, quality, and budget
§ Ensure appropriate level of internal and external resourcing to support business demands
§ Availability of appropriate Management Information to make informed decisions
Technology Operations Service Management
§ Overall accountability for service availability for all systems
§ Direction of Technology Operations teams to provide incident and change functions to control the system environments
§ Accountable for technical support of key functions
§ Service support and application development for operational systems
§ Development of an appropriate service strategy to ensure maximum system and resource efficiency
§ Capacity planning and performance management of all systems
§ Platform uptime and performance KPI attainment
§ Incident Resolution KPI attainment
§ Capacity plan creation and execution
Partner Relationship Management
§ Establish strong partnership with internal and external providers
§ Drive partner technology roadmaps to meet the needs of the business strategy
§ Responsible for ensuring the quality of the IT Business Partners deliverables
§ Proactively manage the partner budgets and resource allocations
§ Create and manage outsourcing or insourcing opportunities as appropriate
§ Ensure partners are appropriately resourced to meet business demand
§ Ensure IT Business Partners meet committed deadlines to required quality and budget
Budget Responsibility
§ Management of a cost budget including:
o Headcount
o Hardware, Software, Data
o Divisional Recharges
o 3rd Party Services
§ Forecasting of technology budget: capex and opex
§ Accuracy of cost budget forecasting
§ Attainment of budgets to agreed plan
§ Identifying and executing on cost efficiency opportunities
Key Skills
§ Leadership, ability to motivate and build strong cross-functional teams
§ Commercially aware
§ Client and results focused.
§ Outstanding interpersonal skills – must be able to communicate and influence at all levels
§ Ability to create a communications ‘bridge’ between IT and non-IT departments
§ Excellent listening and interpreting skills, with the ability to remain objective
§ Able to drive business change
§ Strong analysis and problem solving ability
§ Self-motivated, pro-active, and tenacious
§ Diplomacy, gravitas, and credibility