Contract - Digital Section Manager

At Honda we embrace inclusion in our various policies, so whilst our contracts state that the hours are as required to fulfil the role with a minimum of 35 hours per week, we offer flexibility for when you work.  The regular office hours are 08:00 – 16:00 Monday to Thursday with a half hour lunch break & 08:00 – 13:00 on a Friday.  However, we offer flexibility of when you work with our daily flex-time start of between 07:00 and 11:00 providing that there is no business requirement.
 

Whilst there is no contractual right to work from home, the flexibility we offer is that you can request to work from home 2 days per week, again providing there is no business requirement to attend the office.

Role: 
The European Digital Section Manager will play an important role in implementing and enhancing Hondas digital platform across Europe, ensuring an efficient and cohesive web presence across the region. 

This role will lead a digital team and manage the digital platform for Honda Automobiles, Motorcycles, Marine and Power Equipment, supporting 17 European markets. Responsibilities include overseeing all digital activities related to hosting, technical development, and professional services, as well as managing multiple suppliers providing specialised technical services to maintain and improve Honda's digital offerings. 

The position is highly visible within both the HME head office and each market, providing leadership and guidance to local marketing teams in developing their strategies and plans, and requires strong collaborative and influencing skills to ensure smooth implementation of digital strategies and functionality.

Main Responsibilities:
Digital Strategy

• Drive the digital platform strategy in collaboration with partners and senior stakeholders.
• Contribute to the overall marketing strategy for Europe, including brand and product launches, by working closely with New Business, Marketing, Product Planning, PR, and local markets.

Product Ownership

• Own, evolve, and deliver the digital roadmap to maximise value for all Honda divisions.
• Develop product goals and set KPIs to measure the success of product features.
• Own the Agile sprint cycle, prioritise product backlog items, and ensure development teams focus on features that align with the digital strategy and deliver maximum value.
• Represent stakeholders' needs to deliver according to business objectives.
• Drive a customer-centric product approach to create tailored customer journeys and features.
• Act as the link between business units (marketing, IT, sales, legal, etc.) and technical teams.
• Gather and refine requirements from stakeholders across multiple regions or divisions.
• Communicate platform updates, priorities, and performance clearly and regularly.

Team Leadership

• Lead a small digital team of two, including a Delivery Manager and Digital Specialist, to support digital operations and provide broader business support.

Project Management

• Manage digital platform projects from initiation to completion, applying appropriate project management governance from scoping to requirements gathering, budget management, deliverables, project timings, communication, and change management.
• Act as the business lead in all project meetings such as workshops, daily stand-ups, grooming sessions, sprint planning, and project reviews.
• Manage stakeholder expectations across branches, departments, divisions, and senior management, providing clear communication on activities.

Analytics

• Maintain and evolve web analytics infrastructure across the digital ecosystem.
• Collaborate with the Data Manager to drive the web analytics strategy across Europe.

Digital Operations

• Oversee Agile development workstreams, working closely with development and ideation teams throughout the development lifecycle to deliver continuous platform improvements.
• Utilise Agile scrum methodology to support 3-week development sprint cycles.
• Prioritise workloads in collaboration with various digital disciplines, including Project Managers, Business Analysts, Data Scientists, Developers, UX Designers, Account Managers, Content Strategists, and System Architects.
• Serve as the center of excellence for all 17 markets, acting as the principal contact for local digital managers and developing best practice guidelines.
• Drive and support tactical projects that deliver incremental improvements to platform functionality, performance, or user experience.

Commercial Management

• Drive budget value by challenging suppliers on costs and requirements.
• Work with internal teams to forecast annual budgets and report on current budget activity.
• Justify budget spend and business value to senior stakeholders in line with the digital roadmap and business objectives.
  Participate in supplier evaluations, RFPs, and contract negotiations.

Agency Management

• Oversee several digital suppliers providing specialised services to maintain the Honda digital platform, managing relationships and activity delivery according to Honda business objectives and quality standards.
• Lead account governance activities, including weekly, monthly, and quarterly status meetings and contract negotiations.

Compliance & Security

• Ensure websites are legally compliant, working closely with Legal, Security, and GDPR departments to apply regulations promptly.
• Ensure adherence to internal governance frameworks, including compliance with digital, legal, security, and procurement standards throughout project and platform delivery.

Qualifications, skills and experience:
Required

• Strong digital background is essential, including development and strategy.
• Working experience of project management, including experience of agile methodology – preferably with previous experience of being a Product Owner.
• Natural communicator and negotiator with strong influencing skills, able to build and maintain good relationships across all cultures and disciplines.
• A strong ability to construct logical arguments and present them with conviction.
• Working knowledge of Search and SEO strategies as well as digital analytics.
• The ability to interrogate ideas/concepts and work with the nominated agency to develop materials for markets to deploy locally.
• Capable of presenting to a range of audiences including internal meetings, agencies and external conferences with presence and style.
• Budget Management experience, financially and commercially astute with the ability to manage a budget position. 
• Must have a good working knowledge of web analytics tools such as Google Analytics, BigQuery, Lookers and customer engagement tools to drive the Analytics strategy.

Desirable

• Pan-European or International experience of digital platforms and digital campaigns is highly desirable.
• Experience of working with large agencies, with ideally experience of working on both agency and client sides.   
• Experience of automotive industry.
• European experience or 2nd European language.

Honda is committed to the principle of equal opportunity in the workplace for all employees, temporary workers, contractors, applicants and visitors. Honda also encourages respect for the individual differences and talents of others while making full use of one's own abilities, based on Honda's philosophy of respect for the individual.

At Honda, we value and celebrate diversity and are committed to being a fair, non-discriminatory company that promotes and welcomes the uniqueness and differences of people around the world. We recognise that a diverse workforce allows for different ideas and perspectives, and we encourage everyone to share them. We strive to foster a culture of belonging that is consistent with Honda's core values and lived out in the way we work and respect each other. For us at Honda, diversifying our workforce means increasing its overall strength by providing people with equal opportunities - regardless of personal characteristics or previous careers.

This commitment flows directly from the Honda philosophy and the belief that we are all working towards a common goal. Honda recruits, hires, trains and promotes the most qualified/experienced individuals at all levels without regard to race, origin, religion or belief, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability or any other protected characteristic.