Head of Technology

Job Description

Head of Technology £70,000 Hybrid workingFounded in 1901, The Club is the oldest and largest in the world for all forms of camping. We are a leading UK membership organisation, providing a wealth of products and services covering all aspects of camping and caravanning in the United Kingdom andabroad.Our turnover is around £60m, we operate a network of 100 UK campsites, have over 200 employees based in our modern Coventry Head Office and an additional 500 employees based on our campsites seasonally.Reporting to the Director of Finance and Technology, the post will Lead the Club’s vision for technology and the role it can play in member experience, commercial performance and operations efficiency and will work with the entire business to promote this.We’re looking for an inspirational leader that can understand, challenge and deliver high quality solutions in line with business requirements whilst ensuring our infrastructure is up to date, secure and stable.Our Technology Department support and maintain all applications, web platforms, infrastructure, and hardware across the Club, overseeing all changes to systems, applications, and infrastructure in line with best practice and business needs in a controlled,structured and quality focused manner. This includes implementing upgrades, solutioned infrastructure changes and fixes to our live environment in a timely and appropriate way to minimise the risk of downtime.The post has direct reports in Architecture, Projects, Testing and Service Delivery and indirect reports of a further 20 employees.Your Main duties and responsibilities will include:

• To look at technology and how it is developing and its relevance to our business objectives across our applications, digital platform, and infrastructure, driving the Club forward from a technology perspective.
• Ultimate responsibility for the infrastructure architecture of the Club, ensuring that it is secure in all its IT systems, but also cost effective and up to date to support the applications, systems, and digital requirements of the Club, today and intothe future.
• Oversee and ensure best practice in cybersecurity, PCI compliance and policies.
• For our key applications, digital platforms, infrastructure or Hardware lead on the selection and management of third-party consultants / suppliers to deliver solutions / changes/ support to the Club that effectively meets our needs but with as little offmarket Customisation as possible.
• Selection and management of third-party consultants and suppliers. Delivering solutions, changes and support to the Club that effectively meet our needs.
• Promote appropriate knowledge transfer into Business Systems teams through relationships with Suppliers and technology partners. Developing individuals’ specialisms in key areas and a giving a broader understanding of our Club technology.
• To oversee the Project Management team to ensure:

o Appropriate processes, documentation and quality approval gateways are adhered to.o The communication and documentation delivered as part of change projects is of a high standard to support both those implementing the solutioned change and internal/ external end users when it moves to BAU.o Valid and robust project plans, communication plans and timetables are developed, agreed with, and then adhered to, by QAT and other stakeholders to the Change.

• Responsibility for day-to-day management of the Business Systems budget across all areas.
• Develop the QAT team to embrace new methods of testing and to ensure they become the key quality gateway before changes enter our live environment.
• Oversee the Support teams to ensure they provide high standards of customer service where issues or support requirements are raised.
• Support and develop individuals line managed to ensure they reach their potential with the Club.

Essential experience for the post:

• Experience of providing strategic and technical leadership within an IT team at a senior level
• Experience of delivering multiple and varied end to end IT solutions for an organisation across digital, infrastructure and applications.
• Experience of whole solution architecture concepts (back end, front end, and applications) with the ability to communicate and negotiate these with internal and external parties.
• Proven record as a Technical Product Owner or equivalent position in a commercially focused organisation
• Ability to work in close collaboration with Product Owners from other areas of the business.
• Strong knowledge and overview of modern development and architecture principles
• Experience of assisting in the design and development process of new applications
• Experience of managing an end-to-end development including use of code repositories and deployment plans
• Experience with public cloud platforms, such as AWS and Azure, including SaaS and PaaS offerings.
• Senior line management experience within an IT team delivering changes and improvements.
• Ability to work in close collaboration with Product Owners across multiple disciplines.

This is a key post and as such we’re looking for someone who with ability to inspire confidence in peers and direct reports, through a professional, but approachable style. The successful candidate will be able to prepare and present meaningful informationto all levels with conviction and authority.The Camping and Caravanning Club is a fantastic place to work, with a supportive and dedicated team. Weve been helping people enjoy the great outdoors for over 120 years and these days, as well as having campsites in fantastic locations we hold our ownmusic festival, Torchlight.Benefits include 28 days annual leave plus bank holidays. We operate hybrid working with 2 set days in the office and the option of working 3 days from home.If you are interested in applying for this post, please send in your CV together with a covering letter and salary expectation for the attention of Barny Baker (Recruitment Manager)