We are HALO! We build brand engagement for our over 60,000 clients globally and lead our $25B industry through the dedication of over 2,000 team members across the United States.

We are looking for an experienced, hands-on leader that is highly ambitious, passionate, and detail oriented. This leader will come with significant experience in customer facing services and products, all its facets. You will be responsible for driving key initiatives to service our customers which will lead to differentiated experiences and revenue. Provides strategic leadership in all matters relating to front end while ensuring strong operational performance.

As VP of Front Office Applications, you will be responsible for the planning, strategy, and overall execution of customer journey in multiple business segments. This will include journeys which are part of Lead to Quote, Order to cash, Product Catalog, Promotions, Approval Workflows etc. As Catalog, Customers and Orders are core to HALO business and used by nearly every function in company, you will be responsible for solving business problem by using technology to further HALO's growth. A successful candidate will have an established background in developing web-based application both on premise and cloud, test and experimentation, user interface architecture and design, scalable architecture, with a strong technical ability and excellent communication skills. This position will directly report into CIO.

HALO is committed to its hybrid workplace model and believes bringing teams together in-person on common days is essential to operate as One HALO. As part of this effort, we require employees that resides within a 30-mile radius of the Sterling, IL or Oakbrook, IL offices to work from these locations anywhere from 1-3x a week.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategy, Alignment & Execution:

• Collaborate with stakeholders to define the future roadmap of the front-end products, adopt latest technology innovation wherever necessary.
• Lead and implement a roadmap that delivers the features, scale, and reliability for our diverse customers need.
• Plan, organize, and oversee the execution plan for implementation of front-end roadmap all the while remaining focused on improving cost effectiveness, service levels, quality, and time to market.
• Lead and grow an efficient and high performing diverse software development organization with a culture of agile development focused on developing best-in-class customer experiences.
• Actively engage with various internal and external stakeholders, including product management, IT, marketing, sales, operations and others to ensure we are building a tech foundation that is supportive of HALO’s growth and business needs.
• Identify opportunities to create new products and services that meet current and prospective market opportunities. Partner with leadership to help unlock to the next level growth, balance between delivering solutions and solving problems.
• Maintain knowledge of emerging technologies and trends in engineering and development related to the organizations industry.
• Understand the “buy vs build” tradeoff and make strategic judgments about where to invest the team’s resources architecturally.

People, Process, Policies & Culture:

• Attract and retain the high-caliber software engineering talent needed to deliver against the technology roadmap through high-performance, on-time and on-budget.
• Establish, communicate, and implement engineering and development policies, practices, standards, and security measures to ensure effective and consistent operations.
• Drive the cultural changes necessary to enable a continuous delivery model and foster a strong focus on automation of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC).
• Develop and lead a collaborative and Agile software development approach that improves velocity, while maintaining a strong focus on both quality and scalability.
• Manage the engineering teams, own the budget for the team, remove roadblocks, own the execution and quality.
• Provide the team clear performance objectives and goals, offer effective feedback and coach them in their ongoing development.
• Use the engineering process and tools to make week-to-week execution effective, transparent, and predictable. Ensure our process works for us — prioritization, estimates, deadlines, expectation-setting, road mapping, and so on
• Identify the open questions in our approach to architecture and technology, and work across engineering to document on an effective approach.
• Conduct cost analysis for development projects.
• Work closely with your partners in operations and project management to ensure our agile SDLC is followed and constantly being improved.
• Drive a culture of innovation and be an agent of change.

"Bottom Up" Management

• Help development team think through product problems and find solutions to deliver best in class experiences for our customers.
• Maintain a high bar for the platform using a micro services architecture for flexibility, maintainability, and scale. Automate end to end flow for the company's back office to help scale to the next level growth.
• Technically lead and mentor a high-performance engineering team, engineering managers and provide strategic direction and guidance to ensure delivery of high-quality products.
• Collaborate and work with other engineering teams on our platform and backend services, including building out new features, integrations and designing high-quality systems.
• Build tools and automation to prevent re-occurrence of problems to mission-critical products and services and engender reliability and availability, starting with metrics and measurements.
• Manage external vendors and partners involved in the development, implementation, and management of various services.
• Communicate effectively with team members, peers, and upper management.
• Coach and mentor engineers and peers to propagate reliability best practices across engineering.
• Manage team members through performance, coaching and feedback, training, and career discussions.
• Resolve conflicts and align team members on project and organization goals and objectives.
• Lead cross-functional teams, multiple portfolios with complex platforms, products, and processes to instill best practices and deliver high quality work.

• Bachelor's degree in the field of Computer Science or Information Systems or equivalent thereof
• 15+ years of experience application development, computer systems, software development, programming, or platform development or related required.
• Strong sense of urgency and ability to drive change.
• Strong engineering leadership expertise in medium to large size company.
• Proven track record of leading large-scale systems in fast-paced environments.
• Experience in developing custom solutions and integrations with various languages.
• Strong supervisory and leadership skills.
• Extensive knowledge of engineering principles and procedures.
• Demonstrated track record of recruiting, managing, motivating, and retaining a multi-site global engineering team including contractors.
• Experience in career development and talent management.
• Experience migrating legacy applications to modern architecture.
• Expertise in multiple distributed technologies (e.g., Spark/Storm, Kafka, Key Value Stores, Caching, etc.) and web application stacks (ReactJS, Node, Java, etc.)
• Experience in one or more public cloud technologies like AWS, GCP, Azure, etc.
• Experience in working in large teams using CI/CD and agile methodologies.
• Experience in agile methodologies (Scrum/Kanban/SAFE) and project management discipline.
• Must have knowledge of service-oriented architecture and service bus patterns and other patterns and practices for systems integration.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to present complex technical information in a clear and concise manner to a variety of audiences.

Preferred Qualifications

• MS in a quantitative / technical field such as Engineering, Economics, Statistics a plus
• Experience with Marketing Automation Platforms, PIM, CRM, CMS, Data Analytics, and A/B Testing is preferred

More about HALO

HALO is the global leader in branded merchandise, uniform programs, and recognition and incentive solutions. We partner with our clients to break through the clutter of our media saturated world and connect their brands to customers, employees and other audiences critical to their success. As a team member you can expect a positive culture of ingenuity, inclusion, and relentless determination.

We also offer:

• Career Advancement: At HALO, we love promoting from within. Internal promotions is the key to our exponential growth in the last few years. With so many industry leaders at HALO, you'll have the opportunity to accelerate your career by learning from their experience, insights, and skills and gain access to HALO's influential global network, leadership experiences, and diverse thinking.
• Culture: We love working here and know that you will too. You can expect a positive culture of ingenuity, inclusion, and relentless determination. We push the limits of possibilities and imagination by staying curious, humble, and provocative in order to break through yesterday's limit. Diversity is the source of our creativity and we thrive when each of contributes to an inclusive culture of respect, dignity, and equity mindset in everything we do. We keep our promise for excellence with an unrelenting commitment to achieving results and supporting one another to stay accountable, transparent, and dependable.
• Recognition: You're going to succeed here, and you can count on us to celebrate your wins. Colleagues across the company will join in recognizing your big milestones and nominate you for awards. Over time, you'll earn so much recognition that you can convert into gift cards, trips, concerts, and merchandise at your favorite brands.
• Flexibility: We pride ourselves on flexible schedules that help you find a balance between professional and personal demands. We believe that supporting our customers is the priority and trust that you and your manager will find a schedule to achieve that priority.
• Work with your favorite brands: HALO clients include over 100 of the Fortune 500 as well as thousands of mid and small-size organizations. You'll be on teams that are focused on the future of our industry and bringing our customers fresh ideas that are first-in-the-world.
• Stay well at HALO: At HALO, we have benefits that support all parts of your life and to find a work-life balance custom to you. We offer easily accessible mental healthcare for you and your family. Our program focuses on behavioral health coaching, therapy and psychiatry, personalized skill development, and providing access to care for your dependents. In addition, we offer nation-wide coverage Medical, Dental, Vision, Life and Disability insurance, and additional Voluntary Benefits. Prepare your financial future with our 401K Retirement Savings Plan, Health Savings Account (HSA), and Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA).

HALO is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We insist on an environment of mutual respect where equal employment opportunities are available to all applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy (including childbirth, lactation and related medical conditions), national origin, age, physical and mental disability, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information (including characteristics and testing), military and veteran status, and any other characteristic protected by applicable law. Inclusion is a core value at HALO and we seek to recruit, develop and retain the most talented people.

HALO is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation because of a disability for any part of the employment process – including the online application and/or overall selection process – you may email us at hr@halo.com. This email is only to request an accommodation. Please direct any other general recruiting inquiries to our Careers page.