Head of Digital

The opportunity to enhance digital innovation within the organisation. Enhancing technology to provide the best service to our customers.

About Our Client: This opportunity is with a well-established not-for-profit Housing Association that is committed to making a positive impact on communities. The organisation is dedicated to providing affordable homes across the Midlands and creating sustainable communities. We believe everyone has the right to a safe and secure home, which is the foundation for a successful life. Our values - Trustworthy, Respectful, Accountable, Collaborative and Excellent - guide our work and our commitment to creating an inclusive workplace where everyone can thrive. We have been recognised as a top employer in the prestigious Sunday Times Best Places to Work 2025.

Job Description Key Responsibilities: Commercially focused, you will use technical expertise and a sound understanding of emerging technologies to support the business with how to get the most out of existing technology and identify where greater efficiency may be gained through the use of new technical solutions. You will drive a culture of value-driven, continuous delivery and improvement that secures cost efficiency targets across the organisation, ensuring a strong return on all digital investment. You will add value to strategic and operational planning by ensuring alignment of digital, IT and data deliverables, developing, managing, monitoring and implementing the group's digital strategy in line with organisational values, objectives and priorities.

You will safeguard delivery of the principles of our digital strategy, including automation / AI and machine learning being baked into solutions from the outset, and be able to guide the organisation toward understanding the ethical, legal and sustainability considerations of new technologies. As a digital visionary leader, you will be responsible for the development and implementation of digital transformation, setting and championing the digital vision, drawing stakeholders together on this journey to ensure prioritisation of areas with the greatest opportunity for digitalisation efficiency and return on investment.

With the ability to create and embed a prioritisation approach, you will develop a roadmap for innovation and support the business in using the relevant processes, tools and metrics to realise business objectives and new growth opportunities. Working across the business, you will identify and deliver innovative digital solutions for products, services and processes, transforming the customer and colleague experience and fostering a more 'joined up' and integrated approach to digital services.

You will be a senior strategic lead and provide external representation on all aspects of digital. With your experience and expertise in delivering significant digital change, you will develop programmes that implement transformational change, enabling the organisation to deliver products and services which are highly efficient, high-quality and user-centred. You will create and support an environment of digital innovation and best practice, ensuring the use of technologies for the benefit of stakeholders and members, championing a culture of experimentation and agility that focuses on continuous improvement and creating exceptional customer-centric product experiences.

You will create and manage the taxonomy and framework for developing innovation concepts, including ideation, construction and Minimum Viable Product (MVP), adoption and feedback. Engaging with enabling capabilities to build the innovation ecosystem, including teams, tooling, and processes. Ensuring that UX, UI and inclusive design are at the heart of digital solutions and design thinking.

You will manage the process and monitor the progress of the various ongoing initiatives as well as engage with stakeholders, demonstrating that you can establish and define an innovation community across the organisation to increase communication, engagement and collaboration. Managing, evaluating and overseeing the overall implementation of top ideas from innovation structure and responding back to the community is a large part of the role.

You will work with the team to develop idea generation approaches and viable commercialisation strategies for innovations. You will bring a clear idea of how to embed Product Ownership within the business area to build capacity across the organisation and create a community whereby all product owners contribute to the ongoing development of their business applications.

The Successful Applicant Experience required: You must be a strategic thinker and leader who can motivate and inspire our organisation to build on our existing capabilities and make the most of our opportunities to grow our income, influence and impact through digital. Proven digital / technology and data experience with the ability to think strategically, collaborate effectively and work within a very broad and complex operating environment. Strong stakeholder management skills, with an agile mindset and the ability to work with the business to deliver solutions to problems.

You’ll bring experience of designing, owning and evaluating organisational transformations and delivering changes that use data and information to drive change. Proven experience of providing strategic and technical leadership to large, complex organisations. Knowledge of the contemporary digital landscape of organisations and emerging technologies, with experience of bringing leading technology and process optimisation practices to an organisation to drive sustainable improvements in business performance.

Experience of working at a Senior Manager level in a large organisation, leading on digital and information services. You’ll have a recognised programme/project management qualification, as well as an Agile qualification, or demonstrable experience of robustly managing large budgets and having built processes and people teams to deliver digital change and transformation for the future.

In addition, you will have demonstrable experience of software delivery with a sound knowledge and understanding of the software delivery lifecycle, and the tools and techniques that enhance success in software delivery. Experience in SCRUM and DevOps is desirable. You’ll need to prioritise and make key decisions to deliver value early and continuously. A collaborative leader with a passion for driving change and innovation.

Experience in managing a small, diverse cross-functional team of 8 (BA's Product Owners, Scrum Masters, UX Designers), including coaching and developing colleagues at the start of their careers. Good communication skills, including the ability to produce reports for Boards and Committees and deliver presentations and training. Experience in influencing stakeholders by providing strategic guidance on how best to position services. The ability to deliver value at pace. Good organisational skills and attention to detail.

What's on Offer: This is a 12-month fixed-term contract, with a remuneration of up to £80,000. Hybrid working is in place. Participation in the defined benefit Local Government Pension Scheme. 27 days of annual leave (plus 3 days Christmas shutdown) and bank holidays. Access to an annual leave purchase scheme. A health cash plan to enhance your wellbeing and claim back costs of prescriptions, eye care, dental and complementary therapies. Access to a car leasing scheme. A range of shopping and leisure discounts. Structured learning and development opportunities.