Senior Director, IT Development & Delivery

Kensington delivers the world’s most personal travel experiences. We bring to life each client’s desire to travel in a way that’s tailored specifically for them, in the company of local private guides who ensure that they enjoy the authentic best of their destination. The result is a unique journey rich in memories that last a lifetime.

We achieve this because of our extraordinary people, experts with deep knowledge of their destinations. For over 120 countries worldwide, and across each of our brands – Tours, Cruises, Villas, Yachts, Jets, and Air – their expertise powers our steadfast promise: See the world, differently.

To learn more about Kensington, visit kensingtontours.com 

Job Summary:

We are seeking an experienced and versatile Senior Director, IT Development and Delivery, to guide our team of software developers, UI/UX experts and technical analysts in delivering high-quality digital experiences across our website and digital portals, broader marketing tech stack and our CX ecosystem. This role combines seasoned technical and project delivery leadership, hands-on development experience and cross-functional collaboration skills, ensuring seamless delivery and ongoing support for software solutions that support business growth, customer engagement, and operational efficiency.

The ideal candidate has a strong background in web and mobile app development, digital marketing systems, exposure to wider customer experience platforms (e.g., CRM, Omnichannel) and to extensive third-party software integrations, with the ability to manage internal teams and external vendor partners to drive results.

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Key Responsibilities:

People Leadership

• Lead, motivate and mentor a team of software and platform developers, UI/UX experts and analyst roles working on websites, CMS platforms, marketing technologies and CX platforms (e.g., CRM, Omnichannel, automation platforms, analytics tools).
• Set team goals, demonstrate an ability to delegate and to measure / support individual and team achievement through ongoing coaching and learning supports.
• Cultivate a culture of customer service and accountability, ensuring continuous improvement and a focus on linking actions and decisions to targeted business outcomes.

Technical Leadership & Strategy

• Define, implement and enforce development lifecycle standard practices and procedures that ensure scalable, flexible, reusable, secured, and maintainable codebases.
• Define best practices and drive automation of testing and change management processes.
• Partner with marketing, product, and IT leaders to align technical solutions with business goals.

Project & Vendor Management

• Oversee end-to-end delivery of digital projects, including scoping, planning, development, testing, and deployment.
• Manage vendor relationships, ensuring third-party development and integration efforts align with internal standards and timelines.
• Coordinate across internal teams and external partners for successful system integration and support.

Platform Ownership and Delivery

• Take technical ownership of and be accountable for full development lifecycle and technical delivery aspects related to the company’s web/digital properties and related MarTech stack, while also supporting other IT leaders with the development and integration needs related to the broader ecosystem of CX platforms (CRM, Omnichannel, Data Environment).
• Support definition of, and manage architecture, design patterns and enterprise standards, enforcing standardization and reusability of assets.
• Enforce enterprise security standards related to data security and data governance processes.
• Ensure best practices are implemented regarding code / branch management, environment management, IT testing, change/release management and end user / operational support (e.g., UAT support, stakeholder communications and post release/BAU systems/platform support)
• Create and manage project artefacts support project / task definition, risks, actions, issues and decision management and progress reporting.
• Ensure platforms are optimized for performance, security, accessibility, and SEO.
• Drive innovation in personalization, lead generation, and user experience enhancements.

Cross-Functional Collaboration and Stakeholder Accountability

• Work closely with stakeholders in product, marketing, sales, IT, and other business support teams to gather requirements and translate them into technical deliverables.  Provide day-to-day support to Business/IT Product Owners and QA/Testing resources that depend on the solid partnership inherent with this role.
• Facilitate sprint planning, backlog grooming, and retrospectives with a clear focus on business impact and team velocity.
• Be accountable to keep stakeholders updated on the progress of deliverables, facilitate regular validation / reprioritization conversations and publish relevant KPIs for the team and its delivery commitments.

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Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Software Engineering, or a related field; equivalent experience considered.
• 7+ years of professional development experience with at least 4 years in an equivalent leadership or managerial role managing teams of 5-10 people in similar roles.
• Expertise in modern web development technologies (e.g., HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, Python frameworks, Angular, APIs) and ability to work with legacy technologies (PHP, .Net) and cross-platform/mobile applications development (e.g., C#, XAML, .Net Maui).
• Experience with CMS platforms (e.g., Contentful, Cloudinary) and MarTech tools (e.g., HubSpot, Google Analytics, Tag Manager).
• Proficiency with technology stack, version control systems, code libraries and frameworks reflective of Kensington’s standard (e.g, GitHub, Data Federator, SQL, Redis (Cache), SOLR (Search))
• Strong understanding of software integration concepts and working with vendor-managed systems.
• Ability to identify, analyze, and solve complex technical problems.
• Strong debugging and troubleshooting skills.
• Experience with CI/CD, DevOps, and cloud platforms (e.g, Azure).
• Familiarity with testing frameworks and automated testing tools.
• Experience with API development and integration.
• Proven experience leading agile development teams.
• Excellent communication, collaboration, and project management skills.

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Preferred Qualifications:

• 5+ years of direct software development experience, ideally with web and mobile platforms.
• Experience with other mobile development frameworks (e.g., Xamarin, React Native).
• Knowledge of database management and data storage technologies.
• Familiarity with privacy and compliance standards from USA, Canada and Europe (e.g., GDPR, CCPA).
• Exposure to eCommerce platforms and custom software development is a plus.

We are committed to providing employment accommodation in accordance with the Ontario Human Rights Code and the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. If you require accommodation due to a disability at any stage of our hiring process, please advise us when completing your application.

We thank all candidates for their interest however only those selected for an interview will be contacted.