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The Opportunity

The Head of Engineering for Scott Dunn will play a pivotal role in leading, coordinating, and overseeing various technical initiatives for the company. Taking ownership for the technical direction of Scott Dunn, this will involve overseeing the development and maintenance of software products and ensuring that these align with business objectives and promote an exceptional guest service. Through managing a multidisciplinary team (supplemented with offshore resource), the role of Head of Engineering will lead business application engineering, product development, website development, and product upgrades/replacement projects.

Responsibilities

The responsibilities for this role include (but are not limited to):

• Leadership & Team Management: Provide strong leadership to the engineering team, ensuring alignment with the company’s strategy, goals and values.
• Strategic Planning: Collaborate with other department heads and executives to understand the businesses strategic objectives and translate them into actionable engineering plans
• Project Management: Manage a portfolio of projects, including business applications, product development, technical delivery of website improvements, as well as business system upgrades/replacement and integration projects
• Technical Expertise: Possess a deep understanding of software engineering, web technologies, and system architecture to guide the team’s technical decisions
• Collaboration: Work closely with cross functional teams, including Web product manager, UX Designer, SEO Manager, and business stakeholders, to ensure a cohesive approach to product engineering and system improvements
• Quality Assurance: Ensure that all developed products, systems, and upgrades meet high quality standards in terms of functionality, performance, security, and user experience
• Budget & Resource Management: Manage the engineering budget, making informed decisions about resource allocation, technology investments, and tools
• Innovation & Continuous Improvement: Encourage a culture of innovation with the engineering team, driving the exploration and implementation of new technologies and processes

About You

Combining strategic thinking, technical expertise, leadership and people management skills, and software delivery abilities, you will be able to guide an engineering team to ensure alignment with the company’s strategy, goals and values. With the ability to work both cross-collaboratively and at an enterprise level to deliver actionable engineering plans, you will bring people on a journey as you look to lead the technical direction of a market-leader in a period of significant growth. Other requirements include (but are not limited to):

• Technical expertise in Azure infrastructure and cloud services, OOP, system architecture for business applications and websites, and across programming languages (C#, .NET, JavaScript) and modern web frameworks like React for website development.
• Significant experience in leading and managing engineering teams, including fostering a collaborative and motivated team, in addition to effectively allocating resource and workload distribution to optimise team productivity
• Strong communication skills with the ability to collaborate with cross-functional teams and work with external vendors and partners to align technical efforts with business goals
• A forward-thinking mindset, with a willingness to stay updated on industry trends, emerging technologies, and best practices to continually enhance the teams efficiency and company’s offerings
• Ability to adapt to changing priorities, market conditions and business needs, while maintaining resilience and composure under pressure

Other requirements that are desirable but not essential include:

• An understanding of the luxury travel industry
• Familiarity with e-commerce concepts and best-practices for building customer-focused online experiences
• Previous experience in managing business system upgrades and replacement initiatives

Values & Behaviours 

All employees must promote, understand, and apply Scott Dunn’s workplace values. These are embedded in all roles and applicants must evidence the values as part of the application process.

• In the know - Start by listening. We take the time to understand our guests’ and colleagues needs. Be Precise. We take pride in getting every detail right. Own it. We deliver on commitments we make.
• In the Detail - Love learning. We energetically seek out and share new ideas and insights. Embrace feedback. We continuously seek to improve by sharing and accepting honest feedback. Work with the best. We attract, retrain and partner with the best.
• Inspiring - Look to the future. We constantly seek opportunities to make travel memorable and sustainable. Be more we. We work together collaboratively and value different viewpoints. Win together. We celebrate each other’s successes and have fun.

Location

We aim to find someone who would be office based at our premises in Hammersmith for at least 3 days a week. There will be an initial induction period where you may be asked to attend the office daily. 

Benefits

We offer very competitive salaries and a great benefits package including the following:

• 23 days annual leave plus bank holidays, rising by 1 day with each year of service (max 30)
• Contributory pension scheme
• 'Cycle to work' scheme
• Subsidised private healthcare
• Company loyalty scheme (Travel Fund)
• Travel insurance
• Recognition awards throughout the year
• Social events
• 1 hour per week paid learning & development / personal growth
• Paid volunteering leave