Head of IT

Position Introduction:

Applegreen Electric is seeking to recruit a Head of IT who will be responsible for the IT division of the recently formed Applegreen Electric business across all regions in which it operates. The Head of IT will manage a team of delivery leads, technical specialists, and technical 3rd party vendors. The role will span between project delivery and service management to ensure the IT suite across the EV business is managed accordingly.

This role will report into the CEO to ensure that the business has the technical capabilities to reach the success and drive growth our EV business. The role will also have a dotted line to the Group CIO.

The transition to Electric Vehicles (EV) is a key strategic priority for Applegreen, and we are embarking on significant investment in the area, given its importance for the future of our business. Applegreen have a proven track record in the design and operation of world class EV charging facilities with over 650 EV fast charging bays in operation on our estate across the USA, UK and Ireland. These bays provide over 1,000,000 fast charging sessions to its customers per year in a rapidly growing transition to more sustainable transport fuels with a range of early mover charge point operator partners including Tesla, Gridserve, Chargepoint and others. In 2019 Applegreen commenced owning and operating its own charge point operator company - Applegreen Electric . This provides a seamless customer experience to all customers and ensures all EV drivers have equal open access to fast chargers irrespective of the EV car brand they choose to own.

This role will be based in the Group headquarters office in Park West, Dublin but will require travel around the group as necessary.

Key Responsibilities:

As Applegreen Electric expands, the responsibilities will evolve and change over time. The initial responsibilities will centre around the following areas:

• Setup and evolve delivery principles, processes, and governance; ensuring the right methodology is used across the business.

• Manage capital investment and project budgets with alignment to the EV IT budget.

• Lead the overall EV IT team to guide, coach and manage the team including personal development and succession planning, ensuring the function evolves to meet future needs.

• Ensure that cross functional IT risks/issues are managed and reported on accordingly.

• Build strong working and strategic relationships with a variety of suppliers and partners, ensuring suppliers adhere to high quality on-scope, on-time, on-budget delivery

• Assessing, monitoring and upgrading business systems and processes.

• IT security and governance.

• Maintain and evolve the EV architecture as we expand as a business.

• Ability to review 3rd party statement of works and sign off.

• Ability to challenge vendors to meet aggressive roll out plans.

• Technically astute to manage technical managers, architects, security specialists.

• Able to present complex IT problems to a non-IT forum.

• Provide clear and concise updates to management around IT performance.

ESSENTIAL SKILLS, EXPERIENCE, AND EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS:

• BSc in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or related technical discipline

• Minimum of 4-5 years’ professional as a Head of IT

• Prior experience of EV specific technology/software would be beneficial

• Excellent leadership abilities

• Negotiation skills

• Analytical thinking

• Excellent communication skills

• Strategic thinking

• Experience in online payment systems in UK/USA/Ireland
• Knowledge of OCPP would be advantageous.
• Knowledge of ISO15118 (Plug & Charge) would also be advantageous.

KEY SKILLS & ATTRIBUTES:

• Clear understanding of importance of systems engineering and its relationship with other engineering disciplines

• Passionate about ensuring that a systematic approach is used and that high-quality decisions made near the start of development will reap significant benefits downstream

• Ability to serve as a technical lead throughout the full software development lifecycle, from conception to delivery and maintenance

• Capable of communicating a technical message to non-technical experts in a clear and concise way

• Highly adaptable with a strong work ethic and experience delivering to deadlines.

• A self-starter with the ability to apply a technical mindset in a commercial environment

• Capable of independently managing workload and balancing priorities.

• Ability to seek innovative solutions while working closely with development teams and interfacing with customers within tight timescales

• Adopt a sound theoretical & practical knowledge experience of systems engineering (possibly in accordance with an international standard such as ISO/IEC 15288), either in automotive or another industry.

• Understanding of automotive EV systems and technology is an advantage, but lack of such understanding will not be a barrier for the eager learner.

• Strong planning and organisational skills and attentive to detail.

• Ability to deliver on strategic outcomes and progress whilst balancing resources and costs

• Is resilient and calm under pressure.

• Willing to travel as required and be flexible with work hours to meet the needs of this role.

This job description is not an exhaustive list of all functions that the employee may be required to perform, and the employee may be required to perform additional functions. Additionally, the job responsibilities may change at any time as necessitated by business needs.