Chief Technology Officer
- Place of work: Kentford / hybrid
- Responsible to: CEO
Reporting to the Chief Executive Officer the CTO will lead on all aspects of technology delivery from innovation, implementation and operation to support Mr Fothergills to meet and exceed its goals.
This is a broad level, leadership role responsible for IT, Systems and technology strategy across a multisite international business.
Key duties/responsibilities:
Leading and working with the IT team and colleagues across the business to:
- Define, agree, execute and evolve a technology strategy that supports the business strategy by developing an in-depth knowledge and understanding of the business.
- Lead, develop, coach, mentor and manage a growing team of technical staff.
- Ensure IT skills, tools, processes and capability are identified and in place to deliver the businesses medium and long term strategic aims.
- Management of multisite and global IT and technology strategy and roadmap.
- Provide advice and guidance on technology matters to the Board.
- Oversee the delivery of a high level of system uptime in a 7 day a week operation through delivery of high quality and tested software, infrastructure design and configuration, continuous improvement and root cause analysis. This includes leading recovery activities for IT incidents with significant business impact.
- Act as a trusted Business Partner to peers on the Leadership Team influencing and helping them to identify, form, understand and plan their technology needs.
- Identify and communicate IT costs and risks associated with business initiatives ensuring they are included in any business case.
- Identify opportunities and develop business cases for IT investment.
- Build, maintain and execute schedule of IT deliveries that meets business objectives and ensure that the agreed schedule is met, managing and communicating any deviations.
- To identify and manage all material IT risks. Define and agree mitigation plans.
- Ensure that all required steps are taken to ensure the continued security of the technical environment and the data held within it.
- Define, agree and manage against operational and capital budgets for IT expenditure.
- Ensure technology is in place to support disaster recovery and business continuity plans and are tested annually.
- Act as Data Protection Officer ensuring compliance with all regulations and contractual obligations including GDPR and PCI.
- Take ownership and drive value from key external relationships with third parties delivering IT services.
- Ensure that suitable IT processes, controls and reporting are in place and that they are appropriate for a fast growing business.
About you:
- Outstanding knowledge of FMCG related IT, E-comms, digital and technology sectors.
- Proven track record working as part of a senior, executive team and ideally at board level.
- Proven track record in international IT strategy, forecasting, budgeting and road mapping.
- Minimum 5 years’ experience in IT management.
- Minimum 5 years’ experience in developing IT systems.
- Experience of leading major IT system implementations and related change management.
- Experience of developing and implementing data strategies.
- Good understanding of data analysis, budgeting and business operations.
- Excellent leadership skills.
- Ability to develop and implement strategies and plans to help a business reach its goals.
- Good all-round business understanding.
- Strong organisational and time management skills.
- Good communication and people skills to enable effective working across business functions.
- Good analytical and problem-solving skills.
- Hold excellent knowledge of the upcoming and ongoing trends in the IT sector.
- Education – degree in computer programming, software engineering, or information systems.
