Senior Director of Development (Job Vacancy)

"Why QS?

At QS, our culture fosters a flexible working environment that encourages our employees to own their career whilst personally and professionally thriving. We collaborate, respect and support each other – and as a company, our values underpin these.

Our mission is to empower motivated people around the world to fulfil their potential through higher education, and to ensure everyone has the same opportunity to achieve that potential. We celebrate the diversity of our teams and believe through sharing our experiences we can learn from one another and become stronger together, which enables us to achieve our goal.

At QS, you’ll be responsible for implementing real change in the international higher education landscape, full of exciting and interesting challenges where you can drive positive impact across the business.

As a Senior Director of Development, this is what you’ll be doing:

We are seeking a Senior Director of Development with a strong background in leading agile Software Development teams developing high volume leading edge B2C websites, web and mobile apps and scalable software systems. This role is part of QS’s Technology leadership team and responsible for undertaking Technology transformation leading a team of 20+ Business Analysts, UX/UI designers, Developers, QA and DevOps specialists to support our Student Recruitment focused business and product teams attracting, engaging and supporting Students with their higher education decisions.

The Senior Director reports to the CTO and is part of a Global team of 100+ Technologists using their expertise and ingenuity to deliver continuous value to Students and Institutions and make a business impact for QS.

The QS Technology team is distributed globally. The Senior Director will have direct team members in India, Pakistan, Kuala Lumpur and Ukraine, and liaise with QS team members globally.

Role responsibilities:

Playing a significant role in the Technology Leadership team and contributing to the formulation and championing of Technology strategies, Team transformation, Software and Security architectures, Software platforms, implementation good practice, automation and delivery efficiency, application resilience and scalability.

This role demands strong partnership with QS Student Recruitment business & Product teams to formulate Student Recruitment goals, innovative product roadmaps and value propositions and lead and drive Product/Technology squads to deliver and achieve the desired outcomes.

Establishing sound Software architectures that enable interaction with other systems to utilise insights and intelligence to deliver scalable personalised Student Recruitment experience across multiple end-user devices, and architecture migration and implementation roadmaps.

Leading and transforming the Student Engagement Technology architecture and delivery capability to deliver outcomes on an iterative basis utilising Agile Scrum SDLC.

• Formulating the right squad profiles and roles.

• Leading and coaching the delivery teams.

• Establishing software design and implementation standards.

• Setting and delegating standards for Code reviews.

• Championing and delegating QA Automation initiatives and working with peers to standardise on QA automation tools/platforms/approaches across teams.

• Coaching the team to learn from retrospectives and experimenting with improvements.

• Identifying and formulating solutions to bottlenecks and inefficiencies.

• Liaising with the Technology Infrastructure team to support continuous availability and uptime.

Collaborate extensively with Technology leaders to ensure successful collaboration and alignment of your team’s work with the other delivery teams.

Recruit, develop, and retain top BA, SW Development and QA talent, empowering your teams and supporting career development.

Manage the evolution of our Agile software Development processes.

• Establish and implement good practices that are measured through CMM with iterative improvement plans.

• Support the achievement of ISO27001 certification and other certifications as agreed to be required.

• Support the achievement and maintenance of Cybersecurity essentials.

• Support the achievement of Data Privacy and Information Security goals.

• Implement the agreed security architectures, processes and protocols.

• Identify and implement efficiencies that support more fluid team working, removing bottlenecks or unnecessary steps.

• Identify opportunities for automation that may reduce manual processing or manual steps and propose appropriate solutions.

Establish an ethos of accountability and continuous improvement across teams.

Ensure Technical Leads drive to achieve quality, security, delivery and uptime/availability goals.

Diagnose and resolve design, implementation, deployment and/or process obstacles that prevent your team from delivering high-quality services.

Lead the technical implementation of our data privacy, security, business continuity and disaster recovery initiatives as applied to your teams.

Efficiently handle objectives assignment, employee regular and six monthly reviews, employee career development, training, team feedback, and compensation recommendations

Key skills and experience:

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related scientific field (Master's degree preferred).

Strategic thinker with the ability to anticipate future technology needs and develop proactive solutions.

Team leader, proactive and responsive.

An excellent communicator (both verbal and written).

Well organised and can work with clear lines of delegation, responsibility, and accountability.

Technically expert to establish scalable software architectures, platforms, and processes.

Ability to build and establish passionate, motivated, and high-performance software technology teams.

Minimum of 15 years of software engineering experience with 6+ years managing multiple globally located technical delivery teams.

Understanding of ecommerce and SaaS related fields and processes including UI/UX principles, Agile working, SDLC, Payment gateway Integrations, APIs, Security protocols, Infrastructure resilience and scalability, DevOps / Sec Ops. Experience working with and managing globally distributed technical teams including a combination of overseas teams.

Have previous experience implementing software solutions that meet regulations for eCommerce, data protection and security (PCI, GDPR, ISO27001 Cyber Essentials, among other regulations across other governing bodies across the globe).

You don’t need to be an expert on the regulations, but should be able to interpret, support, establish a pragmatic strategy and drive our implementation and achievement of them.

History of managing the technical elements of large digital projects with a record of success.

Experience working with and managing distributed technical teams including a combination of overseas teams.

So, who are we and what do we do?

QS is the world’s leading provider of services, analytics, insights, and intelligence to the global higher education sector - supporting university excellence across the world. Our student recruitment and enrolment solutions enable universities and business schools to connect with talented individuals seeking to further their academic progress and career development. Our portfolio of professional services includes consultancy, student mobility and academic partnerships management, and branding solutions. We publish highly visible and influential rankings of international universities, including the QS World University Rankings® which reaches a global audience of hundreds of millions of people.

Founded in 1990, our activities span across 50 countries, working with over 2000 of the world’s leading higher education institutions and over 12,000 employers.

Headquartered in London, QS has over 750 employees globally with offices in Australia, Malaysia, India, Romania, Singapore, France, Germany, and the USA. QS keeps growing organically, through acquisition and by recruiting top talent across key regions.

Like what you’ve heard? Great, apply now!

As a candidate, we know the application and interview process can be daunting and so it’s important that you have a great experience with us. Our dedicated Talent Team will work hard to ensure you are fully informed at all stages and you are really excited by this opportunity to do meaningful work in the education space.

Equal opportunities

QS Quacquarelli Symonds is proud to be a fair and equal organisation where everyone has the same opportunity to achieve their full potential, irrespective of their background or personal attributes. We celebrate our diversity and believe through sharing our experiences we can learn from one another, be stronger together, and enable our business to thrive."