Digital Innovation Lead

ROLE LOCATION: As a global team, we aim to have associates be able to work from anywhere. However, there may be some situations where relocation will be required. The location of the positions and whether or not relocation benefits are provided will be discussed at the time of offer. In instances where relocation is provided, current mobility policies will apply. All policies are subject to amendment, revision, or discontinuance at the sole discretion of the Company.

Job Description Summary

Responsible for leading innovations and building capabilities in the mobile, digital and IoT space, specific to solutions that integrate with connected devices. Desire and skills to develop quick proof-of-concepts and take success to a commercial ready state.  Team leader with the ability to collaborate with business and customer teams, architecture teams, software teams, and hardware engineering teams.

Position Overview

The role of Digital Innovation Lead is to understand business and consumer challenges and apply the latest digital technologies to create engaging consumer experiences, operational efficiencies, and integrations with customer digital tools. This position will suggest, research, design, develop, and analyze new fountain dispensing capabilities and related business concepts. This individual will collaborate across multiple development teams as well as external technical teams. An understanding of how software, hardware, user interactions, integrations., and interface components are best applied across the current and future capabilities to meet business objectives will be the key to this candidate’s success. Reporting to the Group Director – Innovation, this role will work directly with Customers and account teams to understand business pain points and where they are headed, specifically from a digital perspective. This individual will then take those insights and quickly develop demos, working prototypes and proof-of-concepts to test and socialize a concept; based on learnings, this individual will then iterate and/or prepare solutions to commercialize or document/train other teams to operationalize.

Function Related Activities:

• Strategic understanding and contribution to the overall architecture of the Freestyle fleet.  Including tools, frameworks, hardware, software and other elements that will advance the quality and viability of the Freestyle fleet and allow for future development
• Cross-functional ability to communicate and work closely with delivery managers, solution architects, enterprise architects, and business teams to design technology solutions
• Ability to lead development teams in building new digital products and integrations, resolving operational issues, and creating an architectural foundation for growth
• Interest in research and development and spotting trends in digital innovation
• Continuous curiosity and passion to learn about the latest digital trends
• Firm understanding of consumer usage, habits, behaviors and acceptance of digital technologies
• Skills in designing, interpreting, and following technical patterns
• Expertise and passion for mobile web and mobile app development
• Expertise in creating effective and straightforward technical documentation
• Understanding of the value of documenting and sharing successes, failures, and other learnings
• Ability to boldly promote best practices to support scalability
• Confidence to clearly demonstrate to executive audiences the value of innovation capabilities
• Desire to consult with and mentor developers
• Ability to divide time and energy between more than one project or initiative

Education Requirements:

B.S. or M.S. degree in computer science or equivalent engineering degree

Related Work Experience:

• 7+ years of hands-on experience in software and/or full stack development engineering role
• 5+ years managing and leading project teams
• 5+ years experience working directly with business stakeholders and customers
• Quality coding experience in Java, JavaScript, React, HTML, CSS, Python, Node.js, Git version control system, GitHub or similar, JSON, CircleCI, BitBucket
• Experience with RESTful APIs and WebSocket APIs
• Ability to design and develop user interfaces for mobile
• Experience with mobile design and development
• Experience interfacing with a wide variety of technical (IT, software, engineering) and non-technical partners (marketing, sales, operations)
• Familiarity with multiple software technologies, including content management systems, salesforce, and amazon web services cloud architecture
• Experience with IoT devices, kiosks, and connectivity
• Experience in an innovation environment, R&D group or startup
• Understanding of the NARTD beverage industry with a focus on dispensed beverages
• Experience on scrum teams as well as a working knowledge of the agile framework
• Ability to show disparate audiences the value of the technologies developed

Preferred Skills:

Experience with Point-of-sale and payment systems, a plus

Other Skills:

• Must keep pace with the latest advancements in digital technologies
• Must possess an inquisitive and creative mind
• Must be collaborative and open to other perspectives and approaches
• Must be a team player
• Must be willing to take calculated risks and manage expectations of internal development teams as well as customer teams
• Must work quickly, pivot when necessary, and acknowledge when to fail
• Must communicate effectively, both written and verbally