Tech Director

We’re building London’s most loved product studio and we’re looking for a Tech Director to help lead the way.

You\’ll Focus On Two Core Areas

• driving end-to-end technical leadership and oversight of high-impact projects, shaping strategy, and coaching teams
• growing the business with the leadership team, building strong relationships with clients as a technical partner

Everyone is welcome

We strongly believe in building a diverse and inclusive team. We highly encourage applications from global majority, the LGBTQ+ community, people with disabilities, neuro‑divergent people, parents, carers and people from any socio‑economic backgrounds. If you have any requirements or preferences that help you feel comfortable during the interview process please just let us know.

Where

Hybrid; we expect 2‑3 days per week in our studio in Hoxton

Interview process

3 stages with a practical element focusing on technical architecture

✈️ About Us

Planes is the product studio for the AI age, partnering with leading businesses to bring the next wave of breakthrough products to market.

We’re a team of thinkers and doers who care about building things that make it into the world. That means we prefer shipping code, listening to users and iterating quickly rather than long lunches and death by powerpoint.

We work collaboratively with our partners to produce work that we are proud of and our clients love.

• 10 year+ agency / consultancy experience, an expert in applying best practices in complex, challenging projects
• An all round team player – managed, coached and grown a whole host of different teams, and knows what it takes to make a great one
• Confident builder of trusted relationships with senior clients, able to extend projects into programmes
• Excellent understanding of technical architecture, systems and AI
• Experience working with React (Native), TypeScript, GraphQL, Cloud
• Great communication skills, able to speak to all clients, from C‑suite to their customers, and our team with ease
• Oversight of delivery of high impact work, extending and coaching our team
• Contributing to not only your projects, but the growth of Planes as a whole, part of the extended leadership team
• Excellent product intuition and vision
• Be comfortable not knowing everything, but have the desire to keep growing

Requirements

As a Tech Director at Planes, you\’ll be responsible both for providing leadership in one or more projects, supporting the project team(s), supporting and shaping the dev practice, as well as working to grow the business.

You lead with high agency. Team members will look to you for guidance and advice, and you will be able to coach them in best practice and inspire them on how to build great products.

You’ll be working alongside some of the best product thinkers, designers and engineers in London; people who challenge assumptions, push quality, and care deeply about craft. Which is why we’re looking for these things;

• Highly experienced in winning new business, including origination, proposal writing, pitching, and early stage workshops
• Highly experienced in leading and overseeing project codebases, making strategic improvements
• Confidence in shaping Planes’ overall architecture, technical strategy, and skills roadmap
• Highly experienced in growing existing client accounts successfully and spotting opportunities
• Maintain and evolve the dev function, introducing new tools, improving processes, and ensuring we stay ahead
• Champion of good feedback and coaching practices
• Highly experienced in running workshops and leading presentations with clients and stakeholders
• Highly experienced with project management, including budgets and resourcing
• Be confident being hands‑on, you’ll be expected to spend meaningful time supporting and mentoring 2–3 teams
• Experience working with or around emerging AI technologies (agents, LLMs, AI‑enhanced workflows) is a big plus

What Success Looks Like

• Clients see you as an essential technical partner, not just a supplier
• Our technical direction is clear, strategic, and aligned with business outcomes
• You’ve built trust with a host of senior clients who see you as their strategic partner
• You’ve led and won work that our studio and our clients are genuinely proud of, it’s in market and thriving, and maybe being put up for some awards!
• You’ve levelled up our dev team and have been consistently delivering first class projects
• You’ve contributed to growing Planes, bringing on new clients and sectors and growing them into high value accounts

Our Benefits

• 25 days holiday (plus your birthday off + Christmas closure)
• Optional 20 days unpaid holiday a year, for all you explorers out there
• Work from Anywhere policy
• Pension with NEST
• Learning and development budget
• Access to Cycle to Work Scheme
• Enhanced Parental Leave; 4 months of parental leave at full pay, at any time within the first 18 months of your child\’s life
• Partnership with Spill for access to therapy sessions

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