Head of Development

You will report into the Technical Director and work closely with department heads and other
Senior stakeholders across the agency to help optimise operational efficiency, levels of quality
and creative and innovate use of technologies within the engineering department and agency.
You should be passionate about technology, building effective engineering teams, have a
logical and pragmatic mindset, have outstanding communication skills and excellent industry
knowledge and commercial awareness.
You are required to be a self-driven individual who can organise your time effectively,
encourage a collaborative environment, demonstrate a flexible but methodical approach and
provide direction, support and guidance to other members of the engineering team., From a technology point of view, we expect you to have a broad range of experience with
many different platforms, services and technologies. However, we need you to be up to date
with the following:

• C#, .NET


• Azure/AWS


• HTML, CSS (latest versions)


• JavaScript/TypeScript


• React


• Modern infrastructure architecture patterns (including on-premise, hybrid and cloud)


• Modern application architecture patterns


• Enterprise software development


• Experience of using DXPS / CMSs (e.g. Umbraco, Sitecore)


• Experience developing web applications


• Software security/privacy and data compliance best practices


• Performance optimisation and testing techniques


• Experience of working to Agile and Waterfall project delivery methodologies


• Understanding of standing of SEO and accessibility


RESPONSIBILITIES
Your responsibilities as Head of Engineering are to:

• Build and support a high performing and positive engineering team


• Keep up to date with latest engineering and industry trends and technologies


• Encourage the team to think creatively about how they approach the work


• Optimise the development process to maximise quality and efficiency


• Ensure projects adhere to standards and industry best practice


• Line management of 4 Senior members of the engineering team, including regular 121's,

development plans, objectives setting and annual appraisals

• Maintain a broad and extensive knowledge of software engineering practices,

processes and technologies

• Support the New Business and Marketing department with pitches, thought leadership

through blog/news content and ideally be comfortable presenting in webinars and/or
in-person events.

• Build and maintain relationships with the key technical contacts with clients.


• Provide technical consultancy to our clients and define suitable technical strategies nd

roadmaps to help them achieve their ambitions

• Work closely with the Technical Director to help shape the future technical strategy,

service offerings and direction of the engineering department within Great State.


• Supportive, collaborative and open - always ensuring the engineering team feels

supported and always valued

• Outstanding leadership qualities - someone who the engineering team and agency

respect and look up to.

• Excellent communication skills for both technical and non-technical audiences


• Attention to detail - ensuring the levels of quality expected are achieved or

exceeded in everything you deliver, and your team delivers.

• To be an outstanding problem solver


• To have an enthusiastic and positive approach


• To have the desire, ability and willingness to pick up new skills and knowledge,

seeking out the latest tools and techniques and evaluating them

• To be proactive and show initiative


• To have an excellent commercial awareness of industry trends, best practices and

standards, and ability to distinguish which best apply to Great State.

• To share knowledge with your colleagues


• To be able to adapt at the pace of an agency where trends in software platforms

and approaches can quickly change