Director of Web Platform & Engineering

About the role 

We are looking for an experienced Director of Web Platform and Engineering to lead our web engineering capability, own Cision’s global web platform, and shape the next generation of our digital presence. 

You’ll lead a blended internal and external engineering team, working closely with colleagues across Brand, Growth, Content, Product Marketing, and Technology to ensure Cision’s web estate is technically excellent, commercially effective and aligned to our wider business strategy. 

The role has significant scope beyond the size of the immediate engineering team. You’ll provide senior technical leadership across a complex global web estate spanning multiple brands, markets and technology platforms.  

Your immediate priority will be leading the consolidation of multiple brand and regional websites into a single global platform. Beyond launch, you’ll own the platform strategy, technical roadmap, performance, resilience and continued evolution. 

This role combines hands-on technology leadership, people development, and platform strategy, with the opportunity to build the capability needed to support a modern, high-performing global web platform. 

What you’ll do 

Lead web engineering 

• Lead, develop and mentor a blended internal and external web engineering team, creating a culture of ownership, technical excellence and continuous improvement. 

• Set technical direction, engineering standards and ways of working for the web engineering function. 

• Plan and prioritise development capacity against business and digital priorities. 

• Provide hands-on technical leadership when needed, including unblocking delivery, guiding architectural decisions and raising engineering quality.  

• Partner with Brand, Design, Content, Growth, and Technology teams to create a cohesive digital experience across Cision’s web estate. 

• Build strong relationships with senior stakeholders across Growth, Product Marketing, Field Marketing, Content, Design and Technology.  –  

• Manage external development partners and specialist suppliers. 

Own the web technology strategy 

• Own the technical strategy and roadmap for our websites and web platforms, ensuring it provides a scalable and resilient foundation for the wider digital estate. 

• Maintain clear oversight of the architecture, development, code quality, documentation, security, accessibility, and reliability.  

• Define scalable, secure, performant and maintainable web architectures. 

• Guide technology decisions across the current estate while establishing the foundations for our future platform. 

• Champion engineering standards across architecture, development, code quality, documentation, security, accessibility and reliability. 

• Explore AI-enabled web experiences and emerging digital capabilities in partnership with Technology and Product, shaping how the Cision platform evolves over time. 

Lead a major web transformation 

• Provide senior technical leadership for our global website consolidation programme, positioning it as the immediate priority within a broader, longer-term platform remit. 

• Take ownership of the transition from a fragmented web estate to a modern headless WordPress architecture, targeted for go-live towards the end of 2026/early 2027 

• Work closely with Brand, Content, marketing and wider org stakeholders to ensure the new platform meets business and customer needs. 

• Lead technical decision-making around architecture, migration, integrations, governance and scalability. 

• Ensure the new platform is built for long-term sustainability rather than simply optimised for launch. 

• Establish the engineering model and roadmap for the platform beyond the initial transformation, including performance, resilience, governance, capability-building and ongoing evolution after launch. 

Connect technology to business outcomes 

• Partner with Growth, Product Marketing, Field Marketing, Content and Design to turn business objectives into effective web experiences. 

• Define and monitor KPIs covering performance, conversion, SEO, reliability and user experience, in partnership with the relevant teams. 

• Use data and insight to identify opportunities for improvement. 

• Ensure technology investment delivers measurable value to the business. 

• Balance technical debt, innovation, operational requirements and commercial priorities. 

What we’re looking for 

We’re looking for a technology leader who combines strong web engineering expertise with excellent stakeholder and people leadership. 

You’ll bring: 

• Significant experience leading web engineering, web technology or digital development functions. 

• Strong track record of managing and developing engineering teams 

• Experience owning complex websites or digital platforms across multiple brands, markets or technology environments. 

• Strong understanding of modern web architecture, CMS platforms and headless approaches - putting the user’s needs first. 

• Experience with WordPress, AEM (the platform we’re migrating from), AWS, Next.js and TypeScript is essential. 

• Proven experience leading major website transformation, migration, consolidation or platform programmes. 

• Strong understanding of web performance, SEO, accessibility, security and reliability. 

• The ability to influence senior stakeholders and translate between technical, creative, marketing and commercial perspectives. 

• Strong commercial awareness and an ability to connect technology decisions to measurable business outcomes. 

• A strong track record in developing people and creating a high-performing engineering culture. 

• The judgement to know when to lead through others and when to get hands-on to unblock delivery, guide technical decisions or raise engineering quality. 

What makes this role different 

This isn’t a role where you’ll simply manage a development backlog. 

You’ll be responsible for shaping the technology strategy behind a significant global web presence, leading a specialist development team and playing a central role in one of the organisation’s most important digital transformation programmes. You’ll take ownership of a new global platform at a formative stage and help define the standards, capability, and operating model that support its long term development. 

You’ll have the opportunity to take a complex, multi-platform web estate and help create a simpler, more scalable and future-ready platform, while ensuring our websites continue to perform as critical commercial and brand channels throughout the transformation.