Head of Digital Technology

Head of Digital Technology Retail & HospitalityLondon We’re recruiting for a Head of Digital Technology to join a major, internationally recognised consumer brand at an exciting point in its digital transformation. This is a senior technology leadership role with responsibility for the technical strategy, architecture and engineering behind customer facing digital products, including web, mobile app and MarTech platforms.It’s a particularly exciting opportunity for someone who enjoys operating at both strategic and technical level. You will help define the future digital technology roadmap while remaining close enough to engineering to challenge technical decisions, review code when required and drive exceptional engineering standards.The roleWorking closely with Product, Marketing and the wider Technology leadership team, you will take ownership of the digital technology landscape and ensure the platforms behind the customer experience are scalable, reliable and capable of supporting continued international growth.You will lead a blended engineering model incorporating internal, contract, offshore and third-party teams, while shaping how the business approaches architecture, software engineering and technology investmentA major part of the role will be deciding what should be built internally versus bought through SaaS/technology partners, ensuring those decisions deliver both technical and commercial valueYou will also play a key role in translating ambitious business and product ideas into realistic technical solutions and ensuring engineering teams have clear prioritiesThis is a technical leadership position, so we’re looking for someone who has progressed through a strong software engineering career rather than purely programme, delivery or product management.Senior technology leadership experience, ideally as a Head of Technology, Head of Engineering, Engineering Lead or senior/Staff Software Engineer, with a strong hands on software engineering backgroundStrong technical experience across front-end, back-end and mobile development, ideally including Node.js, React, Kotlin and SwiftProven experience building and scaling high-volume customer-facing digital products, such as apps, websites, loyalty, ordering or payment platforms, ideally within retail or hospitalityStrong knowledge of cloud-based microservices, CI/CD, cybersecurity and modern engineering practices, including TDD, continuous delivery and automated testingExperienced leading internal, offshore and third-party engineering teams, with the commercial and technical ability to make build-vs-buy decisions, manage SaaS partners and influence senior stakeholdersWe’re particularly interested in candidates who have worked within QSR, restaurants, coffee, food-to-go, grocery or large-scale retail environments.Experience from food delivery, marketplaces or other high volume consumer technology businesses if you have worked with complex customer facing apps, ordering, payments and loyalty platforms.This is an opportunity to have genuine influence over the digital future of a major consumer brand. You will have the scope to shape technology strategy, modernise digital platforms, influence architecture and engineering standards and build technology capable of supporting significant international growth.