À propos de ce poste Executive Technical Director chez AKQA

AKQA · Sur site · London

At AKQA, we believe in the imaginative application of art and science to create beautiful ideas, products, and services. We design connected experiences that transform brands and businesses through the integration of creativity, technology, and data.

We are seeking an Executive Technical Director to lead and shape technology-driven transformation for our clients. This role combines deep technical expertise with strategic thinking, client leadership, and a strong point of view on how AI is redefining customer experience, commerce, and business operations.

The Executive Technical Director operates as a senior partner to both clients and internal leadership, helping define how AI and modern technology reshape customer experience, commerce, and business operations. They translate business ambition into technology strategy, identify and originate new opportunities, and drive the creation of innovative, AI-enabled products and experiences. This role is critical in scaling AKQA’s impact by extending CTO-level thinking across key clients and engagements in the region.

ROLE REQUIREMENTS
Technical Leadership

Define and drive end-to-end technical strategy and architecture across complex ecosystems
Lead design of scalable, secure, cloud-native systems
Champion MACH architectures
Establish engineering standards and best practices
Oversee architecture, integrations, and data flows
Drive modern development practices (CI/CD, DevOps, etc.)
Partner with Data teams on data architecture, personalisation strategies, and real-time decisioning systems

Client & Strategic Leadership

Act as a senior technology partner to clients, leading strategic conversations at C-level across AI, platforms, and digital transformation
Translate business ambition and customer experience goals into clear, actionable technology strategies and roadmaps
Shape and originate new opportunities, from early-stage thinking through to solution definition and proposal
Lead technical discovery, solution design, and estimation for new business and pitches
Drive the conversion of innovation initiatives (POCs, pilots) into scaled programmes and long-term partnerships
Navigate complex enterprise environments, influencing stakeholders across business, technology, and experience functions
Proactively identify whitespace opportunities and define new AI-led use cases, propositions, and engagement models for clients

AI, Innovation & Product Thinking

Define how AI transforms client business models, customer experience, and operational efficiency
Identify and shape AI-driven opportunities, products, and services that create tangible business value
Apply generative AI, LLMs, and agent-based systems to real-world use cases across commerce, marketing, and service
Contribute to the development of AI-led propositions, accelerators, and repeatable offerings
Lead the integration of AI into end-to-end solutions, from use case definition to architecture and deployment
Ensure responsible AI implementation, including governance, scalability, and compliance

Customer Experience & Business Understanding

Strong understanding of customer journeys, digital ecosystems, and experience design principles
Ability to connect technology decisions to customer experience quality, brand impact, and business outcomes
Experience working within large, complex organisations, understanding governance, stakeholders, and decision-making dynamics
Ability to bridge strategy, design, data, and technology into cohesive solutions

Delivery & Team

Oversee delivery across multiple programmes, ensuring technical quality, performance, and scalability
Lead and mentor senior engineers and technical leaders, building high-performing, distributed teams
Contribute to AKQA’s technical roadmap, capability development, and thought leadership
Help scale technology leadership across the region by elevating senior talent and acting as a proxy for CTO-level thinking when required
Act as a senior representative of AKQA’s technology leadership in key client engagements, operating with autonomy and authority

QUALITIES & CHARACTERISTICS

Strong strategic thinker, able to connect business ambition, customer experience, and technology into clear, differentiated propositions
A client-first technology leader, comfortable operating at senior levels within complex organisations and influencing strategic direction
Deep technical credibility across platform engineering, distributed systems, and modern web/application stacks
A natural leader and coach, experienced in developing senior technical talent and building engineering capability
Passionate about engineering craft, including code quality, performance, scalability, and maintainability
Deeply fluent in AI and emerging technologies, with the ability to translate them into concrete client opportunities, products, and transformation programmes
Confident communicator, able to influence both technical and non-technical stakeholders at senior levels
Collaborative and cross-disciplinary, thriving in environments that blend creativity, technology, and data
Calm and decisive in complex environments, balancing strategic vision with practical delivery
Highly credible in client environments, with strong communication and presentation skills, able to influence senior stakeholders
Commercially minded, with experience shaping solutions that drive revenue, growth, and long-term client value
Entrepreneurial and proactive, bringing ideas and opportunities rather than only responding to briefs
Comfortable operating across strategy, experience, and technology, not confined to a single discipline

We believe great work happens when we're together, fostering creativity, collaboration, and connection. That's why we’ve adopted a hybrid approach including required in-office days. If you require accommodations or flexibility, please discuss this with the hiring team during the interview process.

AKQA is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to particular characteristics. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers.

About WPP

WPP is the trusted growth partner for the world’s leading brands. We unite cutting-edge media intelligence and data solutions, world-class creativity, next-generation production, transformative enterprise solutions and expert strategic counsel in a single company – powered by exceptional talent and our agentic marketing platform, WPP Open, to help our clients navigate change, capture opportunity and deliver transformational growth. For more information, visit WPP.com.

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À propos de AKQA

CORE VALUES

Our founding values guide our work and the philosophy of our firm:

Innovation – pioneering ideas combined with the application of technology, to achieve lasting improvements in performance for our clients.

Service – outstanding service to our clients and colleagues, so we retain exceptional people and create trust-based relationships with clients.

Quality – adhere to the highest professional standards and superior quality.

Thought – recommending the best solutions through the most rigorous thinking process.

TEAMWORK

AKQA provides the highest quality ideas and innovation services to clients around the world. Our consistent track-record of results achieved for clients have set our firm apart. Through our focus on our core values, thought-leadership, rigorous delivery, and industry initiatives, AKQA is today one of the world’s most influential companies. Our goal is to become a high-performance environment where the most talented people flourish. With our perfectionist approach, people join AKQA for the opportunity to do the best work of their careers.

We create digital products, services and immersive experiences that are useful, usable, delightful and enjoyed by millions. We employ a rapid ideation and prototyping process that focuses on getting pilots into market quickly, helping clients make a sustained impact, increase their relevance and expand their connection. By embracing a pioneering approach that continues to lead and define the industry, we deliver cohesive blueprints that fulfil audience needs and surpass business goals.

LONG-TERM COMMITMENT

AKQA is committed to helping our team develop into the best possible practitioners and to providing them with an unparalleled foundation for their career. We help develop well-rounded professionals acquire leadership skills more quickly than at other organisations. Our employees benefit from the trusted long-term nature of our client relationships as well as the cultural alignment between the client and our own organisation, creating an optimum environment to deliver the work without any compromises.

ORGANISED TO SUCCEED

The core motivation at AKQA is product excellence. Although we are part of WPP, AKQA operates as an independent firm. Organically grown, our team works as a single firm, without geographic division. This means we can bring the best resources from our network to provide solutions for our clients.

In addition to our own Future Lions initiative, we have formed partnerships with many of the world’s leading universities so we can hire their best graduates. We combine youth and energy with maturity and experience to form a community that has a unique diversity of knowledge and exceptional professional judgement.

DEVELOPMENT

In addition to on-the-job training, AKQA offers a menu of training through the AKQA Academy and WPP Professional Development. This comprehensive curriculum of formal training is designed to equip our team with the substantive creative, engineering, business acumen, communications, management and analytical skills required to have professionally rewarding careers. AKQA Academy and WPP Professional Development courses are taught by leaders in their fields including AKQA’s own senior team and respected external experts.

To maintain the continuous focus on our core values, and provide a clear career path for our team, all of our Managing Directors and Executive Partners are promoted from within AKQA.

All AKQA employees and clients are invited to participate in the AKQA Insight and AKQA Tech.Insight thought leadership programmes. These comprise a series of informative lectures and Q&A sessions with authors, artists, athletes, scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs who are recognised leaders in their respective disciplines.

DIVERSITY

We believe that diversity is vital to AKQA’s ability to provide our clients with the best recommendations and are committed to fostering a varied and inclusive work environment. We provide our employees with the canvas, tools and confidence to help them advance their careers in a way that best suits them.

SUSTAINABILITY

At AKQA we believe everything a company does should be about taking the responsibility to be respectful towards the community and the environment. We consider community and pro-bono work to be an important commitment of our employees. We encourage our team to devote their skills to a broad range of pro-bono and community activities, working with myriad charitable and not-for-profit organisations. AKQA is part of WPP’s Sustainability initiatives. WPP is ranked no. 49 in an annual round-up of the World’s Greenest Companies.