Imagination is looking for a technical lead to join our team as the Director of Technology. You will be responsible for project technical oversight in the context of the organization as a whole, and also develop solutions that have a positive impact beyond the scope of current projects. You will be responsible for providing team leadership and innovation. The ideal candidate is fluent in understanding effective and creative technology solution and systems design as well as the ability to create, test and deploy efficient, elegant code that drives the interface and backend. You have demonstrated ability to guide and direct developers to keep them on budget and schedule--while continually inspiring them to innovate. You have solid understanding of digital production processes; thrive within a fast-paced, creative, deadline-driven environment; have direct experience and skills in brand marketing and understanding of online marketing tactics. You will be required to: - Communicate effectively and openly with business owners, ensuring the web technology team effectively and efficiently translates business requirements into high-performing web applications - Work in close concert with web design and development team to ensure underlying technologies for web applications are easy and efficient to implement for client and content managers - Deploy technology appropriately to achieve company goals in web analytics and search engine optimization - Work closely with magazine publishing team to develop/enhance systems that ensure easy content re-purposing from print to web and vice versa. - Ensure systems and features are developed with technical standards that result in code that is maintainable, easily enhanced, and consistent with architectural goals. You will lead a team using agile development methodologies to build content-rich, media rich interactive web sites. These sites are involved in all aspects of web publishing including content management, social networking, search engine optimization, blogs, ad serving, and more. We build our digital solutions using these technologies: Java EE, PHP, Python, .NET/.ASP, JavaScript/CSS/AJAX and object-relational databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL). We love open source – using it and contributing to it. We have some ColdFusion legacy sites we maintain and look forward to refactoring as time/budgets allow. Your experience includes technical and systems architecture, a strong understanding of web servers, database servers, general networking, protocols, HTTP, FTP, etc.; web development (emphasis on PHP and MySQL) and of programming logic; and have experience with C#, VB.NET, ASP.NET, MS SQL Server, XML-driven architectures (Schemas, XSLT, Xpath), HTML, JavaScript, AJAX, Ruby, etc. Ideally, you’ll also have experience working with Drupal and Textpattern. 5-7 years experience in an agency or similarly creative/marketing environment desired. Interested candidates should send a resume, cover letter and salary history to our Director of Talent, Andrea Scott at ascott@imaginepub.com. Imagination is an EOE. Check out our site at www.imaginepub.com. About Us: Imagination is the leader in content-driven relationship marketing. Tell us who you’d like to reach, and we’ll show you how to establish or strengthen that relationship in order to achieve your business goals. We’ll engage your clients, members, employees or prospects with the right content delivered the right way: print or digital, audio or video, podcasts, webcasts, blogs or email, magazines or digimags. At Imagination, we are passionate about delivering innovative and quality work to our customers. We work hard, and we’re proud of what we create. But we also like to relax and celebrate our accomplishments. Whenever our new business development team lands a new account, our president bangs a gong and we grab our champagne glasses and head to the conference room for some bubbly. Throughout the year, we go to baseball games, walk for charity, work out in our private on-site gym, and throw the best annual holiday party in the West Loop. We know how to work together and how to play together; it’s obvious that there is an energy and camaraderie here that makes us a cohesive team. We hope that you’ll explore employment opportunities with Imagination. After all, how many offices do you know of that have a gong in their foyer? At Imagination, we grow relationships so you can grow your business. Come grow with us.
Expectations include: • Define and implement best practices and review development work to ensure adherence to standards and methodologies • Define and implement departmental process improvements and quality review • Create, review, and approve all technical architecture documentation relating to the solution • Research tools, technologies, and training programs • Provide oversight and guidance to multiple accounts and/or multiple projects and delivery teams • Client facing and supports the New Business Development as necessary • Assist in the estimation and proposal process • Take a lead role determining implementation strategies for emerging Web technologies • Ensure continual effective operation of Imagination’s Web sites. • Manage cross-functional departments work queues based on business priorities. • Participate in company due diligence and vendor selection Knowledge/Technical Skills: • Broad Technical Knowledge • Specific skills with Java-based solutions and open source solutions • Programming experience with .NET, .ASP, and ColdFusion languages • Management skills, successfully managed teams of 5+ members • Consulting experience related to interactive solution development • SDLC Process experience • Architecture experience creating solutions for high volume, public-facing interactive solutions • Strong understanding of web analytics and search engine optimization Abilities: • Proven Leadership skills • Proven communication skills • Proven ability to guide teams through innovative experiences • Stays in touch with leading edge technology • Writing technology-related opinion papers • Excellent people skills • Excellent estimation skills • Has the capability and credibility as a consultative technical leader to establish relationships at the top of major corporations and achieve results • Has a keen intellect and superior analytic skills • Bright, conceptual and a quick learner - able to quickly assess a situation and generate new insights and usable ideas • An optimistic can- do philosophy and a proven history of instilling this in others is valued • Media/Publishing experience a big plus