Systems Director

Description:

We are looking for a new Systems Director to join our successful, family owned-and-run retail business, Pavers. This role will be based at our head office in York but can include an element of home working, flexible hours, and/or working from our satellite offices if desired.

Many parts of our systems estate are aged, and we are in the exploratory phase of a full modernisation project designed to take advantage of the automation and simplification opportunities that now exist for modern retailers. A strategic and people-focussed leader, experienced in high-growth environments, is required to drive these technological advancements. You will be expected to define a strategy, articulate a vision, and engage a rapidly expanding team of over 50 technical colleagues, including multiple development squads. We will give you the trust, autonomy, and investment to succeed.  In return we ask you to be friendly, work hard, and act with humility.

Whilst a retail business at our core, our systems are a key source of competitive advantage, and one we have, and are continuing, to invest heavily in. This key role is the most senior Systems leader in the business and is crucial in our future success. You will sit on the Senior Leadership Team and will be responsible for developing and maintaining a systems estate that delivers our organisational objectives, as well as helping to direct the wider business’ strategy.  You will report directly to the ambitious Managing Director, a 3rd generation member of the family. You will have responsibility for a System team that includes, IT Operations, Data, Software Development and System Modernisation teams.

Pavers has been trading for over 50 years and is a highly profitable and fast growing family business with a strong balance sheet and a turnover over £200m. We also own the Jones Bootmaker, Herring Shoes, and Padders / Van Dal footwear business’, remain acquisitive, and employ over 1850 people. We were recently recognised as one of the Top 5 employers in Retail (Best Companies), are Carbon Neutral, have donated more than £2m to charity in the past 5 years, and are imminently undertaking a significant expansion and modernisation of our York head office.

Key responsibilities:

Develop and lead our long-term systems strategy to help deliver our company goals

Provide inspirational leadership, support, and guidance to the team, motivating them to hit delivery deadlines and communicating progress in the appropriate senior forums

Improving departmental productivity through effective prioritisation, and the use of automation and LLMs

Lead the Heads of Departments managing development, infrastructure, data management and support teams

Help identify and define business improvement, cost-reduction, and growth opportunities through technical innovation

Deliver business-wide technical improvements

Ensure C-Suite/board level stakeholder engagement

Set cost-conscious budgets, define objectives, monitor workflows, identify and fill resource gaps, and implement and refine processes as required

Establish and monitor key performance metrics

Ideal candidate:

Experience working as an IT Director / Head of IT (ideally with a matrix structure) at C-Suite/board level, with a history of delivering significant commercial competitive advantage

Experience leading large, multi-team IT functions ideally within an established business who have undertaken a modernisation programme

A proven track record of motivating technical teams to deliver outperformance, including the deployment of productivity tools and automation

Evidence of delivering business improvement through technical change and innovation

Excellent team leadership capabilities and familiarity with the Agile development framework

Positive, engaging, inclusive attitude and management style

Significant experience working within a Retail and/or family business

Possess the ability to influence others and drive their team’s development

Is gritty, resilient, candid, and operates with honesty, integrity, and a willingness to share learning and knowledge

Champions personal and team development

Adapts quickly to change and juggles con?icting demands calmly when under pressure

Has a passion for footwear, a sense of humour, and a general drive to just get things done!

Technical awareness

Microsoft SQL

Javacript

VB.NET, C#, Javascript (REACT, Nuxt)

Windows Server

VMWare

IP Networking

Linux

AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure

Shopify / eCommerce platforms

Snowflake / Data warehousing

Tableau

Telephony

Benefits/Package:

Salary: £Generous plus LTIP, annual profit related bonus scheme, PMI cover, car allowance, death in service plus:

Generous Staff Discount

Holiday Entitlement (Increases with service)

Company Contribution Pension

Access to RetailTRUST (Wellbeing Support)

Access to RetailCURE (Financial Support)

Access to the Pavers Foundation: an employee-led grant application and charitable giving scheme

About Us

We are passionate about providing comfort and happiness to our customers, and we make sure to employ people who are as passionate as we are. We always look for happy, confident, upbeat people, and we provide great jobs in a supportive family environment for them. We know that without our colleagues there is no business, and so the better we look after you, the better service you will provide our customers. We always try and do the right thing by our people.

We strive for diversity of thinking across the business and believe strongly in supporting our local communities. In 2018 we donated over £2.2m to establish the Pavers Foundation, with the specific purpose of providing grants for causes important to all our colleagues in the areas of health, education, and community. In terms of the environment, we are constantly seeking to reduce our impact. Since 2021 we have been fully carbon neutral, and we also have one of the largest solar arrays in the North-East of England on our warehouse generating clean energy. Because every year we give a percentage of our annual profits to our Foundation, our overarching aim is to be financially successful, but to achieve this in an environmentally and socially responsible manner