Head of Development

About Arden University

At Arden University, our vision is to make education more accessible, engaging and beneficial to people everywhere. 2019 will be an exciting year for the University as we continue with our transformation and development programme, driving an industry-leading learner experience and further developing our innovative ‘compressed-blended’ full time degrees across 5 campus locations.

We are a values driven organisation, and in line with our values of supportiveness, integrity, innovation and ownership, we want to make sure that each of our study centres is delivering an outstanding student experience that is completely aligned to our brand promise, whilst providing a tailored and personalised experience reflective of the local needs and culture of the student and staff profile. We pride ourselves on the relationships we build with our students and the importance our staff across the organisation place on supporting students to realise their potential. We recognise that the pressures of people’s hectic, modern lives often means our students are constrained - by location, cost, family/caring commitments or simply time. By making our degrees, masters and MBA programmes available through both online distance learning and flexible on-campus ‘blended’ study, we have been able to support students ranging from 18 to 80 years old to achieve their ambitions and benefit from Higher Education. 

Vacancy: Head of Development 

Reporting to the IT Director you will have a direct impact on the student and staff experience, with a focus on leading the strategic planning & development of all aspects our in-house developed applications. You will be responsible ensuring that business requirements and priorities are clearly understood and are effectively planned within the associated product roadmaps. 

You will lead the Development team and fulfil the Scrum Master role across the full production process to ensure that effective continuous delivery practices are achieved. You will manage the relationships with key business stakeholders to ensure that requirements and priorities are clear and that product roadmaps are aligned to business strategies and objectives. You will need to be technically experienced in Software Development frameworks and their implementation and oversee the technical strategy for our development practice.  

Personal Profile

You will be a highly credible IT leader with a passion for innovation and a capability for delivering change across a complex organisation. Whilst you have strategic vision, you are exceptionally strong at specifying and delivering development activities to optimise quality and quantity dimensions.

Your leadership experience in a development environment has given you an exceptional skill in managing complex operations with a diverse mix of stakeholders to deliver improvements aligned to business needs. You understand the central nature of people in successful change management by demonstrating a collaborative, inclusive and communicative style that effectively navigates the challenging nature of a fast-changing businesses.

This is an exciting time to join a University that represents the future of Higher Education – please get in touch to receive a fuller job specification. 
If you wish to apply for the role, please send your CV together with covering letter to vacancies@arden.ac.uk