Director of (Experience) Technology

What does the Director of Technology do at an Experience Design firm or at a Museum? I often found myself saying things like "I'm not the IT guy", and "technology and engineering are  just different forms of creativity". 

The technical systems behind exhibition and experience design are diverse.

They include custom hardware engineering, technologies related to building and facilities management, environmental sensors, audiovisual systems, custom software development, instrumentation and monitoring, network engineering, digital- and cyber-security, and even enterprise IT. I’m sure there are even more!

To build awe-inspiring experiences, we need to leverage many different modes of technologies. To create solutions using all these diverse tools, and still keep them maintainable, through a rapidly evolving technology landscape requires careful integration and long-term planning.

It’s a generalist role, which also requires deep knowledge on multiple fronts. I certainly can’t claim to be an expert at any technical domain, but I have been forced to learn enough to execute and maintain systems that I now feel a bit less like an imposter with every new technical project.

Now I’m calling myself an “Experience Engineer”. Because it’s about bringing engineering discipline, and technical proficiency, together to solve for the user experience. 

I’m still not sure this is the right term for what we do, but it’s certainly not “the IT guy”!