Head of Technology: Emerging Markets

Job Title

Head of Technology: Emerging Markets

Job Description

So, who are we?
Hello, we’re IG Group. We are a publicly-traded FTSE250 FinTech company that runs mobile, web and desktop platforms that help our clients trade stocks & shares, leveraged products, Futures & Options and Crypto.

We are ambitious. Over 340,000 people already use our platforms. We’re global with offices in 18 countries and products in 16 regions. We’re hungry to move faster, ship better products for our customers and grow our user base. We believe in high autonomy, and we want people who are looking to do things differently in order to create better experiences for our customers.

We work in cross-functional teams and are laser-focused on increasing the number of active clients we serve to drive sustainable growth.

Your Role in the Team’s Success

Reporting to the Group's Chief Technology Officer and Chief Business Officer, this role is pivotal in driving the growth and diversification strategy of IG. As the Head of Technology for Emerging Markets, Institutional, and Prime Brokerage, you will bridge technology and business, ensuring that our technology teams deliver divisional priorities swiftly and with high quality. 

You will optimise team skills, provide innovative solutions, and accelerate the delivery of MVPs to clients. 

By implementing effective measurement and feedback mechanisms, you will align our ways of working with divisional preferences and manage dependencies across divisions and tech domains. 

Your leadership will inspire the creation of an ambitious technology and digital strategy, showcasing the art of the possible. You will champion modern practices, enabling fast feedback loops and real testing insights. This role offers the opportunity to drive engineering best practices, foster a culture of inclusion and experimentation, and lead product and capability improvements that significantly impact IG's overall business performance. 

What you’ll do

Division Accountability: 

You will provide:

• Guidance on feasibility and viability of work.

• Solution options, that enable us to ship products at speed

• Visibility of ‘work’ and progress - flagging decisions where needed to maintain progress.

• Demos and working software for feedback and testing early.

• Measurement and testing capabilities.

• Divisional Technology strategy to meet long-term goals that enhance client-centric solutions, flexibility for the division and enhance efficiency of delivery (this area will be a challenge from day 1).

Technology & Engineering: 

• Ability to inspire Engineering best practices. 

• End-to-end ownership of Tech domain including documentation of domain, SLA, KPIs. 

• Domain transformational modernisation strategy and continual Technology improvement measured through DORA (Speed, Quality and Reliability). 

• Inspiring modern ways of working standards and creating a culture of innovation/experimentation.

• Structural and team shape optimisation (typologies that are optimised for flow, empower teams, minimise dependencies with no single points of failure and skills alignment to the tech domain). 

• Optimising for delivery flow, from estimation to planning and building (big and small).

• Sets the direction for Technology direction and outcomes through architecture solutions including technology selection. 

• Operational fitness (EOL, Incidents, problems, vulnerabilities, security etc) Ensuring the day-to-day technology services within the Client Technology domain are fit for purpose and aligned to the overall IG risk appetite and are yielding the desired results for our clients.

Strategic Leadership:  

• Strong Commercial and Product knowledge, to become a trusted advisor to the marketing leadership team.

• The ability to create and articulate an inspiring vision for the Technology organisation and translate that for the Client Technology Domain.

• Stakeholder engagement and relationship advocacy through meeting needs and exceeding expectations.

• Translating commercial, business and technology strategy into actionable product and delivery outcomes whilst supporting the creation of a compelling experience for customers.

• The inclination to seek and analyse data from a variety of sources to support decisions and to align others with the organisation's overall strategy.  

• An entrepreneurial and creative approach to developing new, innovative ideas that will stretch the organisation and push the boundaries within the industry.  

• Maintains an up-to-date view of market trends and products, actively updating and sharing knowledge, building strategic relationships with 3rd party providers of technology services. 

Executing for Results 

• The ability to support teams in working together to deliver improvements for IG and at the same time create an optimal Organisation Design (structures) that meet the Run minimal requirements, optimised for value and delivery speed.

• Set the Software Engineering minimum standards, aligned to the SDLC, with appropriate controls and monitoring.

• Comfortable with ambiguity and uncertainty; the ability to adapt nimbly and lead others through complex situations.  

• Comfortable taking appropriate risks and consistently seeking data and input from others to foresee possible threats or unintended circumstances from decisions. 

• Viewed by others as having a high degree of integrity and forethought in his/her role.

• Act in a transparent and consistent manner while always taking into account what is best for the organisation as a whole.

Leadership and People development 

• Inspires the team to be ambitious in the pursuit of innovation and transformation to facilitate IG’s growth vision.

• Acting as a role model for IG’s culture and behaviours with all stakeholders to cultivate a high collaboration culture.

• Nurture top talent, motivate the team, delegate effectively and celebrate diversity.

• Self-resilient but also highly supportive of others.

• Humility and modesty with great interpersonal skills.

• Values-driven behaviours, ethics and leadership (especially integrity and transparency).  

• Ensure effective communication at all levels both internally and externally, providing briefings to all team members on business strategies, performance, and priorities. 

• Leads by example to continuously increase the quality, resilience and efficiency of the technology function, championing diversity and inclusion of ideas, and approaches.

Relationship Management 

• Naturally connects and builds strong relationships with others, demonstrating strong emotional intelligence and an ability to communicate clearly and persuasively.  

• An ability to inspire trust and followership in others through compelling influence, powerful charisma, passion in his/her beliefs and active drive.  

• Encourages others to share the spotlight and visibly celebrates and supports the success of the team.  

• Creates a sense of purpose/meaning for the team that generates followership beyond his/her own personality and engages others to the greater purpose for the organisation as a whole.  

Innovation – new fresh ideas nurtured and realised:  

• Encourages technology innovation, researching new technologies that may potentially increase our company's competitive advantage. 

• Partners with other teams to find new ways to use of technology and create opportunities.

• Is open to new ideas from outside IG.

What you’ll need for this role:

Person specification 

• A people-centric leader with a passion for working as part of a team to build an amazing culture and team.

• Visionary but also able to improve the day-to-day.

• Passionate about continuous improvement.

• Highly collaborative approach.

• Able to engage effectively at all levels of the organisation. 

• A broad and comprehensive understanding of how technology can help businesses to improve.

• Strong communication skills, verbal and written, able to represent vision, inspire and motivate colleagues and teams.

• Comfortable operating at pace but also knows when to take a break.

• Always look at what matters to clients and keep an eye on the long term.

• Great interpersonal skills to build strong relationships.

• Clear thinker, able to explore a range of solutions.

• Passionate about technology with a keen awareness of current IT trends and the ability to see the potential application of new technologies to drive business value. 

Background & Experience

• Extensive experience leading at a senior level with a comprehensive understanding of the latest technology and platforms – specifically B2C and B2B technology used for full end-to-end client servicing and fulfilment journeys. 

• Extensive hands-on experience creating and designing user/customer-centric technology strategies and architectures, software engineering & IT leadership. 

• Customer/Client experience grounding – able to lead teams in designing and developing customer-centric experiences throughout the customer journey.

• Demonstrable experience in leading the prioritisation of a significant product change portfolio through applying industry good practice – ensuring the right balance between customer/client value and business value for money. 

• Demonstrable use of technical knowledge and commercial acumen to influence business strategy, with first-hand Product management/life-cycle Experience. 

• Has experience of introducing and influencing change within organisations.

• Experience managing IT teams globally and across IT disciplines, identifying and nurturing talent. 

• Experience in managing and working with 3rd party suppliers as part of hybrid, blended delivery teams – with an understanding of how different commercial models can be used to best achieve value for technology and the business.  

How we work

We try to take a thoughtful approach to our ways of working as a company. We follow a hybrid working model with 3 days in the office – which we think balances the need to collaborate effectively and connect with each other. When it comes to how we deliver, there are 5 things we want everyone to do to drive high performance, better learning and career satisfaction:

Lead and Inspire: Drives trust, alignment, and enthusiasm

Think Big: Focus on the problems that most impact commercial outcomes

Champion the client: Understand and prioritise the client's needs

Deliver at pace: Push for fast, sustainable growth

Raise the bar: Take ownership, be accountable and share feedback

We believe that diversity is vital to success, it fuels creativity, drives innovation and sets us up for global success. We’re committed to building teams with a variety of perspectives and skills to help us realise our vision and strategy, that’s why we encourage applications from people with diverse backgrounds and experiences to join us on this journey.

Learn more about our D&I approach here.

The Perks

Your growth fuels our success!

Thrive with tailored development programs, mentoring opportunities with leaders, and clear career progression. Expand your network through committees, sports and social clubs. Enjoy extra time off for volunteering and community work.

• Competitive salary

• Flexible Benefits Package on top of your salary (12%)

• Private medical cover for you and your family

• Life insurance

• Contribution to gym memberships

• 27 Days holiday, with 1 additional day off to celebrate your Birthday & 2 additional days off a year for voluntary work (28 in total

• The option to buy or sell holiday days.

• Unlimited access to the LinkedIn Learning Platform

• A comprehensive global and local onboarding process

• Employee-led LGBTQ+, Women’s, Black and Parents & Carers networks with an annual budget for organising events & projects that foster an open, diverse and inclusive culture

• Option to participate and create ESG initiatives based on IG Brighter Future Fund

• Enhanced primary (maternity), secondary (paternity), and shared parental pay and leave, as well as a range of support and benefits for parents

Learn more about the Perks here!
 

Join us for this exciting journey.

Apply now!

Number of openings

1