Technical Director

About the Role

Appnovation is seeking a Technical Director to lead solutions architecture, delivery excellence, and AI-driven transformation across our Americas portfolio.

This is a senior leadership role with real ownership. You will be a technology leader for the majority of our Americas delivery portfolio, responsible for client outcomes, team performance, and the operational standards that keep a global consultancy running well.

Who you are

• You have a solutions architecture background - you can design systems, lead pre-sales, scope engagements, and ensure technical quality from sprint zero through to delivery.
• You see delivery discipline as a competitive advantage, not overhead. You have strong views on agile maturity, sprint cadence, quality gates, and Jira/Confluence hygiene - and you've built or reformed these systems before.
• You're genuinely excited about AI and have moved beyond experimentation. You've operationalised AI tooling (GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, AI-augmented QA, or similar) across real engineering teams at scale - not just run pilots.
• You communicate complex technical concepts clearly to both engineering teams and non-technical stakeholders, building consensus and driving decisions.
• You have experience presenting solutions to client architecture review teams and are comfortable estimating engagements at multiple levels with clear rationale.
• You're comfortable navigating ambiguity - fragmented requirements, evolving scopes, distributed teams across time zones - and you bring structure without rigidity.
• You take ownership of outcomes, not just deliverables. If a project is going off track, you see it early and act.
• You balance idealism with pragmatism, knowing when to advocate for the ideal solution and when to make strategic compromises.
• You lead people as well as technology - you're comfortable managing, mentoring, and growing an engineering team, and you care about the people as much as the platform.

The Essentials

A strong mix of the following skills will make you an excellent candidate:

• 10-15 years of experience in enterprise digital delivery, with a track record leading complex, multi-team technology programmes
• Solutions architecture experience - you've designed systems, led technical pre-sales, written proposals, and presented to client leadership
• Demonstrable experience operationalising AI tooling across engineering teams (not just personal use or R&D)
• Strong delivery management background - you've run or reformed a delivery function, PMO, or equivalent; you understand what good agile maturity looks like and how to get there
• Experience with modern web and cloud technologies including MACH architectures, headless CMS platforms, cloud-native infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or Azure), and CI/CD pipelines
• People leadership - you've managed engineering teams of meaningful size, handled performance, hiring, and career development
• Commercial awareness - you understand utilisation, margin, and how to grow accounts; you can have a commercial conversation with a client without needing someone from sales in the room
• Strong documentation skills: architecture diagrams, ADRs, technical specifications, and estimation rationale
• Pre-sales capability - scoping, estimation governance, RFP/proposal technical input, proof of concepts

Nice To Have

Experience in the following areas is a plus:

• Cross-pod or cross-capability coordination experience - you've been the connective tissue between multiple technical teams or disciplines
• Experience setting and enforcing delivery standards across distributed teams (onshore/offshore models)
• Health-tech, financial services, or other compliance-heavy industry experience (HIPAA, GDPR, SOC 2)
• CMS platform experience (Contentful, Sanity.io, Builder.io, Strapi, or similar)
• DevOps and infrastructure-as-code experience (Terraform, Pulumi, Kubernetes)
• Experience with AI-powered client solutions - not just internal tooling but client-facing AI features and products
• Data integration experience including data pipelines, ETL/ELT, and cloud data warehouses
• Legacy system migration and modernisation experience

What This Role is Not

To help you self-select, here's what we're not looking for:

• Not another pure architect. We have deep technical architecture covered. This person needs to lead delivery and operations, not just design systems.
• Not an AI researcher. We need someone who operationalises AI adoption across teams, not someone who builds models or runs experiments.
• Not a hands-off manager. You must be willing to get into solutions, review architectures, join client calls, and lead from the front.
• Not reactive. This role is about building repeatable standards and processes that prevent problems, not responding to them after the fact.

What Appnovation Offers 

• Challenging and rewarding work with real impact
• Direct Access to Cutting-Edge AI Platforms
• Diverse and Inclusive Culture 
• Growth opportunities for personal and professional development
• A collaborative and innovative work environment where your ideas are valued
• Exposure to exciting projects and high-profile clients
• Supportive work environment with access to company leaders
• Hybrid working model
  
  

What Benefits Appnovation Has to offer

• Private Medical Insurance
• Dental Plan
• Registered Retirement Savings Plan
• Wellness Allowance
• ME Days
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Fertility and Menopause Leave