Technology Lead

About the role

As a Technology Lead in the Sitecore Practice at Horizontal Digital, you will own the technical implementation of client programs end‑to‑end — from discovery and solution definition through build, QA and release. You will lead a blended team of front‑end and back‑end developers, partner with project management, strategy and UX/creative, and drive a pragmatic, AI‑assisted approach to designing, building and delivering modern, composable Sitecore solutions on SitecoreAI (formerly XM Cloud) with headless Next.js front ends hosted on Vercel or Netlify.

Responsibilities

• Own technical delivery: accountable for quality, timeline and budget of the technical solution across one or more client engagements, in partnership with the Project Manager.
• Lead technical discovery: run discovery sessions, technical assessments and audits, and translate business goals and creative/UX artifacts into functional and technical specifications.
• Define the architecture: shape headless solutions on SitecoreAI — content modeling, component design, rendering strategy (SSG/ISR/SSR), integrations, search, personalization, and the hosting, CI/CD and environment strategy on Vercel or Netlify.
• Plan the work: lead sprint breakdown and estimation, identify technical dependencies and risks, and define the technology approach and toolset.
• Guard quality: perform solution and code reviews, enforce Helix‑aligned and front‑end best practices, and approve features for hand‑off to QA.
• Ensure solutions meet performance (Core Web Vitals), accessibility (WCAG), SEO and security standards.
• Drive QA and release: partner with the QA lead on test plans and UAT, triage defects, own deployment run‑books and rollback plans, and oversee production releases.
• Be the technical face to the client: support technical decision‑making, handle escalations, and communicate status, risks and opportunities clearly to client and internal stakeholders.
• Lead and grow the team: assign and oversee daily work, clear blockers, and act as the technical escalation point.
• Coach and mentor: support developers' career growth through feedback, performance reviews and training, and partner with Talent Acquisition on interviewing and hiring.
• Champion AI‑assisted engineering: help the team adopt AI development tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Claude Code) responsibly to improve velocity and quality.
• Support business development: contribute to solution proposals, estimates and client presentations as requested by the Group Technology Director.
• Grow accounts: identify ongoing client needs and engage the right internal resources for new opportunities.
• Strengthen the practice: contribute to internal standards, accelerators, reusable components and thought leadership, and stay current on Sitecore, headless and AI trends.

Requirements

• 7+ years of hands‑on web development experience, including 5+ years delivering enterprise Sitecore solutions.
• Recent, hands‑on SitecoreAI / XM Cloud experience: headless architecture, Content SDK (or JSS), Experience Edge and GraphQL, Pages/component builder, SXA headless, and serialization‑based DevOps.
• Strong Next.js, React and TypeScript skills, including App Router, rendering strategies (SSG/ISR/SSR), middleware, and performance optimization.
• Experience deploying and operating headless front ends on Vercel and/or Netlify: environments, preview deployments, edge/serverless functions, caching and CI/CD with Git.
• Working knowledge of .NET / C# for Sitecore back‑end customization and integrations, plus REST/GraphQL API integration experience.
• 3+ years leading development teams using Agile/Scrum, including estimation, sprint planning and code review.
• Solid grounding in accessibility, SEO, web performance