In short…

A leader who believes that digital should be used to solve problems that actually matter.

Someone who can take the lead on our most complex projects, develop solutions with the team, and build a development team capable of doing the same. Who can take ownership of the technical solutions we propose and ensure the team can deliver them on time and on budget?

As a social enterprise, we’re driven by our mission but operate in a competitive, commercial environment. Hence, we need a multi-skilled individual who can balance their passion for delivering socially positive projects with an ability to drive organisational performance.

You must have experience and a track record in a similar role, and a genuine commitment to our work and to Tech for Good.

Your main goal is to help Reason achieve the greatest social impact through digital. You will be someone who:

• Is hungry to build and lead a world-class team.
• Enjoys the nature of agency work.
• Has an entrepreneurial spirit and is excited by the opportunity to grow.
• Is driven to deliver high-quality work and team results.
• Is confident, personable, empathetic, trusting and trustworthy.
• Has excellent communication skills, and can lead on technical discussions with client.

Salary: £44,000 – £47,000 (dependent on experience)

Responsibilities

Leadership

Participate fully in all Development Team duties.

Play a central role in development of the quality of our work (beyond just the development output).

Work with other members of the Development team to ensure that services are delivered in a joined up manner.

A high level of enthusiasm, personal drive and energy and a capacity for sustained effort and performance.

Technical Quality

Accountable for all the quality of our development work / outputs

• Ensure that we’re working in line with our development process and agreed ways of working.
• Ensure that we’re taking the right technical approach, planning and estimating well and writing high quality code for all our projects.
• Ensuring all outsourced work meets Reason’s standards through a transparent and repeatable process.
• Keep up with modern technology and industry trends.

Team Management

Responsible for people, quality, and targets within the Development team

• Responsible for people, quality, and targets within the Development team
• Line Management of the Development Team (including setting and monitoring targets)
• Continuous development of Development tools, processes and culture
• Direct work on Projects as required.
• FED: Vue JS, Vanilla JS, HTML & CSS, knowledge of templating engines (e.g. WP and Twig)

Commercial

• Supporting on pitches & proposals as required
• Supporting on technical consultancy with clients and potential clients

What success looks like for this role 

• An excellent Development team of passionate individuals working together to hit their team and revenue goals.
• The Development Team constantly develops their individual skills, and collective practice.
• The Development Team exemplifies Reason’s values.
• A delighted set of clients benefitting from our technology implementation.

Working Style

We expect all our team to hold and demonstrate the following values…

We Radiate Good Energy

We give the best of ourselves and bring out the best from others

What this means

• Focusing on a great outcome (even in difficult situations)
• Keeping our promises; owning our contribution
• Knowing when to lead and when to follow; when to critique and when to just roll up our sleeves and pitch in
• Actively sharing our own knowledge; actively seeking the views of others;
• Being mindful of our own and other people’s wellbeing

What we don’t do 

• Toxic positivity – putting on a mask of positivity at a personal cost
• Siege mentality – creating an ‘us vs them’ atmosphere
• Burnout – working (or pushing others) to the point of burnout

We Take Pride in our Craft

We love doing great work; we love learning how to do it even better.

What this means

• Working to high standards and expecting the same from others
• Setting learning goals and finding learning opportunities in the work we do
• Talking with pride about what we (and they) have achieved
• Reflecting on our work and learning from our successes and failures

What we don’t do 

• Dogma – working to a process simply because ‘that’s how it’s always been done’
• Self-indulgence- prioritising learning or development over project outcomes

We See the Bigger picture

We understand that Reason exists to make biggest human impact possible

What this means

• Seeking to understand the problem and the possibilities at the heart of the work
• Demonstrating care for our clients, passion for their causes and understanding of what their beneficiaries value
• Understanding the boundaries and how they shape our approach

What we don’t do 

• Academic – only getting excited about the problem in theory at the expense of working towards a practical solution
• Unrestrained – diving into tangential problem areas for simply for personal satisfaction

We’re Unafraid to challenge

We push boundaries and take part in difficult conversations when necessary

What this means

• Trying new approaches to get better outcomes (without losing ownership of your work)
• Challenging others to do better
• Speaking up when something isn’t right or doesn’t make sense

What we don’t do 

• Neophilia – prioritising quick or exciting ideas over the best project outcome
• Straw-manning – debate for debate’s sake, or at the expense of the outcome
• Domineering – challenging for the sake of increasing status

We’re Down to earth

We’re honest, authentic & dependable.

What this means

• Delivering effective solutions based on evidence and good judgement
• Communicating simply and effectively
• Asking the right questions and challenging assumptions
• Actively building relationships and understanding people

What we don’t do 

• Lack ambition – using pragmatism as an excuse not to offer the best solution to the problem
• Lack imagination- being constrained by what we know or what we’ve grown comfortable with
• People pleasing – shying away from difficult conversations out of fear

For this role, we place particular emphasis on someone who can 

• Work Ethically
• Works inclusively – challenges biases (including their own) and makes ethical decisions in line with client needs and our values
• Build a great team
• Challenges team to meet the right standards and own the team targets
• Encourages autonomy by setting clear goals and delegating fairly, clearly and effectively
• Encourages learning, progression and development of individuals
• Creates a safe environment that encourages open communication; counsels team members through challenges and sensitive concerns
• Communicate brilliantly
• Communicates clearly and explicitly; delivers the right messages at the right time in the right way
• Holds difficult conversations in an open and positive way

Track Record

Direct Experience of:

• Working within an agency or a comparable environment (multiple constrained
• projects / multiple unconnected stakeholders)
• Both Agile / Waterfall delivery methodologies
• Leading teams or departments towards a vision
• People management (listening, directing, developing, coaching)
• Direct accountability to senior figures on client side
• Working with clients of varying digital maturity, technical knowledge and
• organisational seniority
• Direct experience of working in the non-profit or social good sector is not
• essential, but some experience of designing for social change is essential
• Direct experience of working with a commercial team to win new work is desirable
• What we’re working on right now…

This is an exciting and varied role, with no two days the same. Below gives you a flavour of some of the stuff we’ve worked on, and what you could expect to be doing.

• High-performance websites
• Cutting edge accessibility
• Semi-custom SSG with custom optimisations
• Utilising CloudFlare’s infrastructure more fully
• Dynamic islands to blur the boundary between SPA and SSG

Benefits

Our bright and airy office is right in the heart of Manchester’s Northern Quarter within easy walking distance of all major train, tram and bus stations. We offer a competitive salary based on experience and give you the choice to work on either a Mac or a PC.

There are other great benefits you will have access to such as:

• Flexible working hours
• 9 day fortnight scheme available
• Flexible working (home/office based)
• 28 days holiday and the ability to purchase up to 5 more days through a salary sacrifice scheme
• Paid sick, emergency, and compassionate leave
• Company pension
• Cycle to work scheme and other salary sacrifice schemes providing tax efficient ways to pay for parking, gym memberships and more…
• Paid volunteering leave
• Childcare vouchers
• Eye care vouchers
• Access to training, materials, and the ability to attend conferences and networking events where relevant
• A staff Perkbox package offering free mobile phone insurance and money off high street and online shopping, technology, motoring, travel, food, experiences and popular attractions

You will get involved in working on a diverse range of interesting projects working with charities and other organisations to deliver social good, in an environment where your ideas will be heard and you will have input into key decisions, contracts and policies.