At AKQA (part of WPP), 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.
Skills Required
- CTO-level technology strategy and architecture leadership across complex ecosystems
- Design and lead scalable, secure, cloud-native systems
- Champion and implement MACH architectures
- Establish engineering standards and best practices, including CI/CD and DevOps
- Experience with AI, generative AI, large language models (LLMs), and agent-based systems
- Partnering on data architecture, personalisation strategies, and real-time decisioning systems
- Senior client-facing experience, engaging at C-level and translating business ambition into technology roadmaps
- Lead technical discovery, solution design, estimation, and conversion of POCs/pilots into scaled programmes
- Proven track record leading and mentoring senior engineers and distributed teams
- Strong understanding of customer journeys, digital ecosystems, and experience design principles
- Experience working within large, complex organisations and navigating governance and stakeholder dynamics
- Commitment to responsible AI implementation including governance, scalability, and compliance
AKQA Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about AKQA and has not been reviewed or approved by AKQA.
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Parental & Family Support — Policies include fully paid parental leave for all parents, adoption support, and family leave for caregiving needs. Additional supports such as subsidized backup childcare and regional enhancements reinforce family care.
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Healthcare Strength — Health coverage offers multiple plan options with full preventive care, mental‑health resources, and dental and vision coverage. Some regions provide 24/7 virtual doctor access and supplementary healthcare budgets for services not covered by insurance.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Time‑away provisions include generous paid holidays with increases over tenure and a companywide year‑end closure. Special, study, and event‑based leave (e.g., weddings, moving) broaden the range of available time off.
AKQA Insights
What We Do
AKQA is the frontier agency, uniting imagination, design, craft and technology to create new forms of value. For more than three decades, we've helped brands imagine what’s next and make what matters, from pioneering digital to defining the next era of AI. Operating across 19 countries and 30 locations, we work with organisations to build intelligent systems, digital products, connected ecosystems and immersive experiences that shape culture, deepen brand relevance and unlock growth. AKQA is a WPP agency.
