Director of Technology, China
- Shanghai
- Permanent
- Full-time
- Serve as the most senior technology leader for the China market, accountable for delivering local outcomes while ensuring alignment with global strategies.
- Build and lead a cross-functional technology team, instilling a culture of ownership, collaboration, and high performance.
- Foster clear, strategic communication across internal and external stakeholders; create compelling narratives to engage decision-makers.
- Oversee digital infrastructure and ensure scalable, cost-effective, and compliant systems in line with local and global requirements.
- Lead local IT operations, support, and vendor management to ensure business continuity and alignment with governance expectations.
- Continuously surface local constraints, risks, and opportunities to global partners, offering actionable recommendations.
- Champion adaptive leadership, fast learning, and a culture of safe experimentation.
- Manage the local technology budget, procurement, and vendor partnerships, ensuring cost-effective resourcing and compliance with global governance standards.
- Establish a local technology hub with key hires and organisational structure definition.
- Conduct a deep dive into China’s business goals, market dynamics, and user behaviours to deliver a 5-year China Tech & Innovation Strategy that also aligns with Springer Nature’s global goals.
- Rapidly evaluate critical gaps in local capabilities and infrastructure. Challenge the status quo and define the trade-offs required for accelerated delivery.
- Begin pressure testing existing global systems for local suitability and raise concerns with clear escalation paths.
- Build internal coalitions with China business leadership, product teams, and global Tech leaders. Establish yourself as a trusted partner.
- Share an early roadmap draft with clear success metrics and assumptions; begin socialising with senior stakeholders.
- Proactively shape communication channels and narratives across global teams to clarify the China tech hub’s role, purpose, and value proposition.
- Deliver a validated, executive-endorsed China-specific Technology & Innovation Strategy—co-created with business, product, and global technology leaders – that also aligns with Springer Nature’s global goals.
- Establish operating model foundation: team structure, interfaces with global platforms, decision rights, and local delivery capabilities.
- Lead at least one high-impact local tech initiative tied to customer experience or product launch, demonstrating the value of local investment.
- Propose a clear approach to “build vs. Integrate" decisions for local capabilities, with supporting data and stakeholder input.
- Activate a communication plan and begin delivering regular updates and insights to global and local stakeholders.
- Push forward regulatory, infrastructure, and architectural decisions to remove delivery bottlenecks—balancing urgency with compliance.
- Show measurable progress in local customer experience, product adaptability, and internal operational efficiency enabled by local tech.
- Embed a cross-functional delivery rhythm between local and global teams; clarify delivery responsibilities and roadmap staging across functions.
- Launch the first version of a “China Tech Hub Playbook” and strategic artefacts that ensure internal alignment and stakeholder confidence.
- Drive visible changes to global product and tech roadmaps that are influenced by China's needs. Demonstrate strategic influence beyond implementation.
- Adapt the hub’s resourcing and execution model based on learnings, maintaining progress while navigating geopolitical uncertainty.
- Role-model adaptive leadership: respond effectively to shifts in business needs while sustaining clarity, pace, and alignment across teams.
- Bachelor's or Master's degree in computer science, information technology, or a related field.
- MBA or a relevant business qualification is a strong plus.
- Fluency in both Mandarin Chinese and English is essential.
- Proven senior technology leadership experience (8+ years), ideally in academic or digital publishing, with significant exposure to China market dynamics.
- Strong understanding of infrastructure and architecture challenges in China, including the Great Firewall, low bandwidth, and data regulations.
- Deep experience in building and scaling cross-functional teams, ideally from scratch, and driving outcomes in matrixed, global organisations.
- Fluent in Mandarin Chinese and English; capable of translating between strategic vision and actionable technical plans.
- Strong communicator and storyteller, capable of confidently engaging senior stakeholders and aligning diverse perspectives.
- Skilled in leading through ambiguity and organisational change; able to build shared understanding and clarity where none exists.
- Track record of challenging assumptions, influencing delivery models, and holding peers and partners accountable to outcomes.
- Adaptive and pragmatic: comfortable with shifting plans, yet persistent in pushing for long-term progress and enabling conditions.
- Committed to inclusive leadership, psychological safety, and championing diversity, equity, and belonging.
- Comfortable with risk-based decision-making, learning through experimentation, and moving forward in uncertainty.
- Advocates for team empowerment and freedom within a framework—enablement is viewed as a core leadership output.
- Actively supports diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI); committed to making Springer Nature Technology a more inclusive workplace.