Our client, a leading Financial Services provider is looking for a Head of Online Development on a 6 month contract. This position is vital in rebuilding the Online team and ensuring that they have the capability and support to deliver on the current digital strategy.  The successful candidate will be critical in raising the capability and performance of the team and building relationships across the organisation.  The ideal candidate will be a digital-first thinker with strong leadership, communication, and project management skills. You should have a proven ability to grow critical KPI’s such as views, engagement and conversions and possess an analytical mindset and profit orientation. You should also have experience of an environment of fast testing, measuring, and iterating in pursuit of goals and objectives. This role will report into the Head of Digital and Innovation and will manage a team of 11.

Responsibilities:

• Lead the development and implementation of online customer experience road map, including, user experience and content/functional website requirements for web and mobile platforms. Work cross-functionally with other product units to identify and implement best practices and establish company standards.
• Lead the development of online sales and care channels to achieve market leading performance.
• Implement company digital strategies to deliver the ‘Group Digital Transformation’ agenda.
• Set specific digital objectives and monitor progress
• Drive active and effectively management of all digital channels. Ensure that digital experiences meet or exceed minimum requirements for accessibility, SEO performance and other key metrics such as dwell times, bounce rates and overall site conversion. Drive collaborative work with Distribution and Operations and hold the central agenda for the management of digital channels.
• Lead the specification of the development programme of owned digital channels, such as web, tablet, mobile, apps, ensuring alignment with customer experience principles and business goals. This requires balancing the sales and service requirements of Distribution and Operations.
• Drive and leverage site analytics to build an evidence-based programme for the improvement of core commercial metrics e.g. SEO and conversion.
• Work collaboratively with other departments to drive through the implementation of process advancements, to ensure continuous improvements in our customer’s experience.
• Manages the Digital team in terms of the identification of risk and the design and implementation of effective governance and robust control systems to minimise risk.
• Build a high performance team through coaching, mentoring, tackling underperformance and creating an inclusive culture.
• Ensure smooth operation for all digital tools and applications (e.g. website and app)
• Generate innovative ideas to increase web traffic and deliver on line sales performance
• Train internal teams to use digital technologies
• Suggest new optimization methods to improve customer experience
• Ensure on line and app best practices are met or exceeded in all digital activities
• Create a culture of fast testing, measuring, and iterating to achieve business goals

Competencies:

• Significant experience in senior digital and/or senior ecommerce/product roles.
• Proven leadership in technology and service innovation.
• Deep understanding of digital performance metrics, and drivers of performance. They will also have excellent financial acumen and be used to developing robust business cases and managing budgets.
• Excellent understanding of digital, payments and mobile technologies.
• Experienced in test & learn approaches and rapid piloting. Can demonstrate use of data to drive management agenda.
• Marketing, Technical or Business degree.
• Understanding of digital analytics/metrics and experience with knowledge of web tracking tools. Data driven with an understanding of analytics

Additional Skills:

• Entrepreneurial mind set
• Confident in commercial data analysis. Able to consider multiple data sets, adopt test & learn approaches and make clear fact based recommendations.
• A passion for all things digital, inside and outside of work; in depth understanding of the latest Digital trends, competitive landscape, technology advances, devices and consumer insights.
• The ability to work in a matrix structure and influence key stakeholders.
• Strong and persuasive influencer and will be able to articulate complex concepts to senior audiences in an effective way obtaining buy-in. Able to build strong and productive relationships with finance, communications and IT teams.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills with the confidence to challenge supportively and effectively where appropriate.
• Board level presentation skills.
• Sound commercial acumen and strategic planning skills.

For further information please contact Joan Fahey on 01 661 8889 or jfahey@alternatives.ie

About Alternatives Group

Alternatives Group is an award winning, dynamic talent resourcing business with 3 key divisions: Alternatives Resourcing: No. 1 in the market for marketing, digital and commercial permanent and interim recruitment Alternatives Loyalty & Managed Services: On-site, performance managed loyalty, marketing and commercial solutions Alternatives Elect: Global executive search service Our flexible and dynamic business models ensure that we can provide right sized, talent appropriate solutions for our clients, who are typically medium to large Irish and global businesses with Irish hubs.