Technical Delivery Director
R/GA
About R/GA
In our 40-year history, we’ve changed a lot—from a culture-defining film title studio (Superman, Alien, Ghostbusters); to an interactive advertising agency; to an award-winning product and marketing agency with design, technology, communications, ventures and IP practices. We like change, and like to navigate our clients through it too.
Our approach to work is always human first. This unwavering focus helps us create meaningful and memorable experiences that live across digital platforms and often blur the line between the digital and real worlds. We believe disruptive thinking happens when you collide experts in design, technology and culture.
About the Team
We are a global digital innovation agency for the Intelligence Age, specializing in digital product development, brand transformation, media, and communications for major companies. Our team is responsible for delivering innovative digital solutions that meet evolving client expectations and technical requirements. We work across a diverse range of projects, from major website builds, backend development and core tech platforms to bespoke experiences and strategic innovation with emerging technologies.
About the Role
We are seeking a Technical Delivery Director to lead the end-to-end delivery of complex technology initiatives for a major client. This role goes beyond traditional project coordination to shape, manage, and deliver technology-focused projects from discovery through post-launch support. As a critical bridge between clients and engineering, you will use your strong technical acumen to lead technical discussions, translate complex requirements, and mitigate software development risks. You will be key in providing strategic input and driving a rigorous SDLC process to deliver high-quality products efficiently. This position requires proactivity, strategic thinking, and the ability to represent the engineering team to clarify needs and navigate technical complexities.
Here’s what you should know if you want to be a Technical Delivery Director at R/GA
On any given day you might
- Lead the end-to-end technical project and delivery lifecycle: Guide technical projects from discovery and scoping to final release and post-launch support, defining activities, milestones, and outputs with teams and clients for a seamless, efficient delivery process.
- Shape technical approaches and strategy: Provide strategic input during planning, translating abstract concepts into concrete technical tasks, estimates, and requirements. Collaborate with tech leads and clients to clarify upcoming work and build momentum.
- Serve as a client-facing technical liaison: Act as the primary technical point of contact for clients, confidently discussing concepts like web architecture, APIs, and release processes with both engineering teams and non-technical stakeholders. Translate business requests into technical work.
- Drive proactive risk and dependency management: Identify, document, and manage technical risks, inter-team dependencies, and roadblocks. Develop and implement mitigation strategies to maintain project momentum and keep the engineering team unblocked.
- Lead agile and process management: Manage the agile development process with client teams, leading key ceremonies such as sprint planning, daily stand-ups, backlog grooming, and retrospectives while fostering a collaborative engineering culture.
- Own scope and estimation: Independently create scopes and estimate technical tasks. Collaborate with Engineering and Program Management to define tasks and team composition, adapting approaches to fit project and client constraints. Bring structure to ambiguous work by defining logical steps, timelines, and roles.
- Oversee quality and release coordination: Manage testing cycles, bug triage, and coordinate deployment schedules with QA and Engineering Leads to ensure smooth, predictable release management. Actively monitor and verify the engineering team's work in development and staging environments.
- Handle technical information and action: Understand the technical intricacies of the work and proactively act on behalf of the engineering team to get questions answered, gather information, and clarify the implications of technical decisions. This includes reviewing technical documents and leading discussions to fill in missing details.
- Facilitate collaboration and communication: Participate in engineering discussions to identify risks and ensure productivity. Collaborate with designers on technical requirements. Communicate effectively with internal partners, providing clear status reports and escalating impediments.
The Ideal Person
- Is a strategic, independent thinker with a deep understanding of software development and a passion for driving successful technical delivery in a client-service environment.
- Is an Engineer at heart, with a strong understanding of core web technologies, including front/back-end principles, APIs, CMS, SDLC, agile methodologies, testing best practices, release management, CI/CD, and hosting environments. Has expertise in software development methodologies, design, and implementation.
- Is a problem-solver with strategic thinking, proactively identifying and navigating project risks and dependencies, and translating complex business requirements into actionable engineering efforts that align with business needs.
- Is agile with a lowercase “a,” understanding that agency work requires adapting to client needs, proficient in leading teams using Agile principles, and able to balance rigorous, high-quality delivery with the flexibility required to best serve clients.
- Is an exceptional communicator and leader, able to translate complex technical jargon for non-technical stakeholders, foster an engaging and supportive engineering culture, and naturally motivate teams with polished presentation and documentation skills.
You bring
- 7-10 years' experience in a technical project or delivery management capacity, with 2-3 years in a digital agency setting.
- Proficiency in core web technologies and concepts, including front-end (HTML, CSS, JS), back-end development principles, RESTful APIs, and system integrations.
- Experience with complex scaled web applications and modern front-end frameworks.
- Proficiency with project management software like Jira, Confluence, Asana, or similar platforms, along with git-based source control, testing tools, and other related tooling.
- Demonstrable ability to capture and maintain technical documentation alongside engineering leads.
- Proven track record of leading technical delivery initiatives with engineering teams.
- Proficiency in project management and project scoping.
*This role can be based in either the NYC area or the San Francisco Bay Area. Candidates must be located in the NYC tri-state region (NY, NJ, or CT) or the greater San Francisco Bay Area, or be willing to relocate. This position offers a hybrid work model, with regular in-person collaboration expected.
The hiring range for this position is $140,000 to $180,000. Where an employee or prospective employee is paid within this range will depend on, among other factors, actual ranges for current/former employees in the subject position; budgetary considerations; tenure and standing with the company (applicable to current employees); as well as the employee’s/applicant’s applicable skills, pertinent experience, and qualifications.