Head of Development / Solutions Architect (This JD is meant to show how the positions overlaps)

The Head of Development / Solutions Architect (HODev) helps to maintain and grows the client's business with the agency on an ongoing and project basis. They direct and coordinate the day-to-day agency development efforts on behalf of the client’s on assigned accounts and lead technical development, architect technology solutions, lead deployment and innovation. This person will provide technology-based strategic technology direction while assessing and informing the feasibility of creative digital solutions. In this role, the HODev insures that the agency provides:

Sound and responsible marketing counseling and planning.
Conceptual creation of ideas spanning all areas of integrated communication, branding and interactive programs.
Proper and innovative execution of work in all areas on schedule.
Deliver a consistently superior creative product.
Strategic and creative vision for technology innovation.

The Requirements

Bachelor’s Degree of Computer Science, Interaction Development or equivalent education and experience. The ideal candidate will have 6+ years of professional application or solution architecture experience for the design, development, and delivery of software applications and services with rich UI/presentation layers across a variety of technology platforms and frameworks in the embedded, mobile, desktop, web, and/or cloud spaces Interest in and aptitude for creative business and marketing solutions.
Knowledge of web application design and build.
Ability to lead front/back end development while being responsible for concrete system design and overall structure of software to be engineered and realized for delivery. Your work is a balanced mix of broad strategic thinking on technology trends and concepts, deep subject matter expertise in one or more verticals for both proactive R&D and tactical problem solving, and practical leadership experience in various phases of the software development and delivery lifecycle.
Will make fun of this position (If you can do all of this, awesome)
Well versed in both engineering solutions and managing front and back end developers
Great client-facing experience.
Great management abilities
Self motivated and willing to expand knowledge
Ability to self-manage while managing assigned teams and projects.
Ability to Provide guidance and growth opportunities for the development team and to be an advocate for the development department within the agency.
An instinctive and profound understanding of technology and a pragmatic, hands-on approach to problem solving.
Depth of technical skills and expertise in programming methodologies and practices, application platforms and frameworks, service orientation, technology standards and specifications, and technical modeling of systems and services in one or more domains relevant to current and/or future The agency services
Expertise in preparing and delivering proposals and presentations to all levels of a client organization (including executives)
Experience in both quantitative and qualitative analysis and building substantiated recommendations of appropriate technology solutions that address user experience, technical, operational, and business considerations in parallel
Demonstrated ability to lead software systems design, provide appropriate team support and maintenance of artifacts throughout the software engineering lifecycle, and collaborate with software engineers, design technologists and creative leaders on common user experience goals expressed through software realization
Capable of creating high level estimates based on limited requirements/hero flows

The HODev position requires ongoing and in-depth interactions with the following: Internal: The HODev reports to the HOD. As assigned, the HODev has overall responsibility for leading the client creative technology innovation and development effort. Within the agency, the HODev is a thought leader for the client and works closely with all agency personnel in developing and executing deliverables. External: The HODev will have direct client contact with assigned agency clients. Must be an excellent pitch person, with great written and oral communication skills. The HOD must have an instinctive and profound understanding of technology and a pragmatic, hands-on approach to problem solving.

While managing the dev team, the HODev works throughout engagements both within the external and internal engineering teams directly and across disciplines including business development, creative/design, program management, engineering and quality assurance at a project leadership level. S/he crafts application-level and/or solution-level software architecture plans and specifications including modeling of system services and interfaces, platform integration strategies and user experience realization approaches across one or more areas of domain expertise. Furthermore the HODev leads the analysis and deconstruction of use cases and requirements into an inventory of conceptual and logical software components that address both functional and non-functional requirements and goals. S/he provides relevant subject matter expertise and tactical research leading to recommendations and appropriate platforms, tools, patterns and best practices for engineering the software solution.

Responsibilities and Duties

The HODev has four areas of responsibility (specific duties of each are explained below)

Planning, Analyzing, Evaluating

Develop workable budgets, work plans and realistic timetables.
Collaborates with the HOD, Design and Creative team, Head of Account Services, President and Head of Strategy, on preparation of marketing recommendations, strategies and actions for the client.
Reviews, analyzes and evaluates the following, relative to the client’s needs and objectives: media output, creative output, research reports and client data.
Provide client platform / business updates on a regular basis to demonstrate upcoming opportunities and threats to their business
Defining development scope, works with peers in the creation of project scope, specifications and time plans.
Lead application and/or solution architecture definition on software design and engineering engagements
Lead technical requirements gathering, use-case discovery, and gap analysis efforts on relevant platforms and frameworks to drive strategic architecture and user experience recommendations
Participate in proposal generation, project planning, feature scoping, level of effort estimation, and delivery methodology tasks in both the business development and initial client engagement phases
Develop and maintain technical requirements specifications and software architecture documentation and diagrams throughout the engagement

Team Leading, Coordinating, Managing

Provides development leadership within the agency on behalf of the client.
Monitors all budget, research and creative activity.
Maintains communications with appropriate agency and client personnel to ensure positive workflow.
Educating clients and a track record of creating awesome work.
Champion internal systems for higher productivity working
Provide leadership and professional development to development department; hire, mentor and train employees; oversee and conduct yearly reviews
Lead the Interactive Department’s infrastructure, including best practices, tools, processes, staffing requirements, and management of external and vendor partnerships.
Lead best practice documentation, and management of Interactive Development projects to achieve a high-quality end product.
Coordinate quality assurance procedures to ensure error-free product.
Provide proactive thought leadership, domain expertise, and strategic problem solving to the project team throughout the design and development lifecycle

Project & Product Management

Manage client projects, involved with client projects from start to finish, ensuring successful project completion against deadlines.
Provide and maintain projects status - liaising with development teams, designers and commercial staff to provide accurate updates of project statuses
Project quality assurance - testing and review of output, reviewing outputted deliverables against scope
Participate in weekly resource assignment meetings, which include interactive, creative leads, and development leads to allocate resources based on availability
Understands: positioning development, marketing plans, manufacturing or development needs, timeline and roadmap planning, stats analysis and reporting.
Define and enforce best practices and contribute to company knowledge-sharing effort
Serve as a primary technical contact for client and third-party technical leads and domain experts during project discovery, design, and implementation phases while assisting the project leadership team in the management of client expectations regarding technology activities during the engagement

Creative Development

Strong creative approach for video, interactive and user journey experience with proven skills in interaction design, brand and campaign concepting and execution.
Management and leadership skills
Able to decipher complex communication briefs and objectives into intelligent media / technology solutions. - Master storyteller with the ability to command a room and build strong client relationships.
Evangelize and promote technology innovation opportunities across creative, strategy, and program management disciplines.
Management and mentoring of development team. Able to concept and translate a complex technology driven idea to action and drive team to successful execution.