Contract - European 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 for a maximum of 50% of the working days in any one month, again providing there is no business requirement to attend the office.

Role: 
The European Digital Section Manager will play a pivotal role in implementing and enhancing common digital systems architecture for Europe to deliver an efficient web presence across the region. 

This role will take the lead in managing the European digital platform across Honda Automobiles, Motorcycles and Power Equipment supporting 17 European markets. Oversee all digital activity relating to hosting, technical development and professional services that come with managing a complex digital ecosystem. Oversee multiple suppliers which provide specialised technical services to maintain and continually improve the digital offering for Honda in line with business objectives. 

It is a very visible role throughout both Honda Motor Europe (HME) head office and each market, providing leadership for local marketing teams in the development of their own local strategies and plans.  It will require collaborative and influencing skills to ensure smooth implementation of strategy and delivery of digital functionality.

Main Responsibilities: 

 Digital Strategy
•    Drive the digital platform strategy in collaboration with partners and senior stakeholders. 
•    Contribute to the development of the overall Marketing strategy for Europe including brand and product launch strategy through the active involvement with New Business, Marketing, Product Planning, PR and local markets.

 Product Ownership 
•    Own, evolve and deliver the digital roadmap maximising the value for all Honda divisions. 
•    Develop product goals and set KPI’s to validate the success of product features.
•    Own the Agile sprint cycle and prioritise product backlog items to ensure development teams are working on features that align with the digital strategy/roadmap and deliver most value.
•    Represent the needs of all stakeholders to deliver according to business objectives.
•    Drive a customer centric product approach to deliver journeys and features tailored to customer needs.
 Team Management
•    Manage an internal team of 3 direct reports consisting of Delivery Manager, Digital Specialist, and Customer Experience Manager to support the delivery of the digital strategy and provide support to the wider business. 
Project Management
•    Manage the digital platform projects from initiation to close, applying the appropriate project management governance from scoping through to requirements gathering, budget management, deliverables, project timings, communication and change management. 
•    Act as the business leads across all project meetings such as workshops, daily stand-ups, grooming sessions, sprint planning and project washups.
•    Lead the completion of all digital systems projects working with HME ISD (Information Service Department) and manage the sign off and quality control process.
•    Manage stakeholder expectations across branch, department, divisions, and senior management providing clear communication on activity.
 Analytics
•    Maintain and evolve web analytics infrastructure across the digital ecosystem. 
•    Work with the Data Manager to drive web analytics strategy across Europe. 
Digital Operations
•    Oversee two separate Agile development workstreams working closely with the development & ideation teams throughout the development lifecycle to deliver continuous improvements to the platform. 
•    Must have good experience working with Agile scrum methodology to support the 3-week development sprint cycles. 
•    Working with a wide range of digital disciplines to aid with prioritising workload. This will consist of disciplines such as Project Managers, Business Analysists, Analytics, Data Scientists, Front & Backend developers, Design, User Experience, Account Manager, Content Management, Content Strategists and System Architects.
•    Be ‘centre of excellence’ for all 17 markets and principal contact for local digital managers and develop and maintain ‘best practice’ guidelines to support Branches.
Commercial Management
•    Manage a large digital budget which is split across BAU activities, licences, platform hosting and custom development. 
•    Responsible for driving budget value by continuously challenging suppliers on costs and requirements. 
•    Work with internal teams to forecast annual budgets and report back on current budget activity. 
•    Report back to senior stakeholders to justify budget spend and business value in accordance with the digital roadmap and business objectives.
 Agency Management
•    Oversee several digital suppliers which carry out specialised service to maintain the Honda digital platform. Owning the relationships as well as manage the delivery of activity according to Honda business objectives and quality standards. 
•    Business lead across all account governance activity including weekly, monthly, and quarterly status meetings as well as contract negotiations.

 Compliance & Security
•    Own the operational compliance activity to ensure the websites are always legally compliant working closely with Legal, Security and GDPR department to ensure regulation are applied in a timely manner.
 

Qualifications, skills and experience: Required/Desirable
Required
•    Strong digital background is essential, including development and strategy.
•    The ability to manage complex systems/architecture projects with multiple stakeholders. 
•    Strong project management expertise, 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 considerable 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 dedicated to the principle of creating equal opportunities within the workplace for all associates, agency workers, contractors, job applicants and visitors.

Central to this is Honda's commitment to be a fair, discrimination free company that accepts the uniqueness and differences of people around the world and adheres to the principle that all people are created equal and we embrace inclusion with our various policies.  

This commitment comes directly from the Honda Philosophy and belief that we all work together for a common purpose. Honda recruits, hires, trains and promotes into all levels the most qualified/experienced individuals without regard to race, colour, origin, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability or any other protected characteristic.