Reporting to the Group CEO, your role as Head of IT will be to ensure successful operation of all systems and delivery of new initiatives. In addition to this ability to execute and deliver at the pace required, you will bring an element of technology vision and leadership. The Head of IT will be responsible for delivery of digital transformation across both application development and operational IT, whilst also challenging business thinking to ensure effective use of IT capability and resources.

Responsibilities

The role will entail:

Managing the IT Team and Suppliers
Oversight of day to day IT operations across the group including E-commerce platforms and CRM, internal infrastructure and remote workers, telephony systems and service delivery
Providing leadership to the in-house development, infrastructure and service delivery teams enabling them to continue to provide excellent levels of service to the business
Identifying and plugging skills gaps within the team
Responsibility for supplier relationships with key technology partners
Implementation of a professional Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC)
Control for all IT spend and budget planning
Advising on and implementing data security measures across hardware, software and other services, ensuring the business is not open to risk

Delivering Change

Execution and on-time delivery of pre-agreed projects
Positioning technology as an enabler of business strategy, driving efficiency
Working with Group Compliance Officer to ensure systems' compliance with relevant regulations and information security standards
Enabling us to report on the effectiveness of our internal processes
Delivering an IT Strategy Plan across the coming three years, ensuring that the Plan responds dynamically to meet fast-emerging business ideas, whilst maintaining a strategic approach to IT platform development

Strategic and Forward Thinking

Working with the senior management team to distil business ideas into a strategically consistent and deliverable IT programme
Proposing new and innovative ways to take the business forward

Skills and Experience

The Group head of IT must be able to demonstrate strong knowledge of key technology areas, working at a management and planning level, but with sufficient experience to engage in some detail, with developers, suppliers and other subject matter experts and will bring:

• 5+ years of systems development (and/or development management) experience with at least 2 years in a senior technology role
• Hands-on experience in delivering moves to Cloud services such as telephony and hosting
• Strong project management skills with a track record of designing and delivering IT strategy and systems for high-growth digital businesses
• Experience of organising, managing and motivating teams to achieve results whilst growing their skills and capabilities to meet business requirements
• A degree (or equivalent) in computing or a related subject, preferably an appropriate business degree eg a technology focused BSc or equivalent
• An understanding of application development environments based on a LAMP technology stack PHP, MySQL and related technologies including Laravel and C#
• Experience of the options and technical issues involved in hosting and managing such application in order to ensure redundancy and high-availability
• Knowledge of architecture models and design principles and their application to consumer facing on-line businesses
• Awareness of the range of relevant development frameworks, applications and technology supplier

Although not a necessity, some exposure to the following would be beneficial:

• Insurance industry/FinTech
• Familiarity of CRM and call centre technology and its integration with both customer-facing web applications and "Back Office" service processes and how these best support a sales driven environment
• Ability to support enhanced data analytics and insight activity

Personal Attributes

You will be:

• A good communicator with experience of working at management level and gaining support for complex decisions/recommendations;
• Able to think and plan strategically, but act pragmatically;
• Able to balance operational risk with technology innovation
• Able to think problems, opportunities and requirements through and then provide informed opinions and recommendations for action;
• Able to make, and then take responsibility for, complex decisions with both business and IT dimensions
• Entrepreneurial and able to "get stuck in" when necessary

Computer Futures, a trading division of SThree Partnership LLP is acting as an Employment Agency in relation to this vacancy