Associate Director

Career Page - Job Code : 30031943

Technology Transformation and Change

The Technology Transformation and Change Team delivers on the Digital and Technology Transformation ambitions for our Firm. It is a team which includes the Technology PMO function, change management experts, our Source team and a team of programme and project managers who deliver the technology projects and programmes for the Firm. The team’s mission is to provide expert execution to all projects, large or small, agile or waterfall across a wide range of applications; accelerating technological change and delivering impact. The team brings together multi-disciplinary stakeholders to execute technology projects and programmes through the full project lifecycle and enable robust delivery of our technology projects and programmes across our existing portfolio and in support of our future digital strategy.

Project and programme management

The Project and Programme management team have a breadth and depth of experience covering the successful delivery of technology. The Project and programme management team deliver on the Digital Transformation ambitions for our business and the wider Firm, supporting the digital strategy. The team provides a community of practice that shares knowledge and drives excellence through a strong community of Project/Programme Managers who are experts in delivery of Technology projects and programmes. The team acts as a Centre of Excellence and sets the benchmark for complying with the standards for delivery, adopting agile methodologies, modern tooling and championing the firm’s governance.

The Role

As a Senior Project Manager within the xxx Programme, you will be reporting to the Programme Director and will work closely with Technology and Business teams to ensure high quality deliverables, maintaining strong 3rd party vendor and stakeholder relationships at all times. Your role will be to provide the leadership guidance, stakeholder management and innovation to the day-to-day management of projects/programmes within Technology Transformation and Change. You will be responsible for establishing, running, and evolving the team’s core project management capabilities, ensuring focus around excellence in delivery, assurance, and quality.

You and your team will provide the tools and capabilities to support the delivery of the project/programme, as well as delivering project support and analysing data to assist management decision making and communication. You will be accountable for delivery of the project/programme to time, budget, and delivery of agreed outcomes. You will also contribute to the ongoing improvement of project management products, services, and process within the TTC team. You will have responsibility for supervising and performance managing Project Management staff which will include imparting knowledge, skills, and experience to support career development/coaching of team members and support provision of best practice.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage the delivery of the end-to-end project lifecycle as defined by the Internal Delivery Framework.
• Ensure that all aspects of a project are organised and in conformance with the internal delivery framework, project timeline and deliverables requirements
• Day-to-day management of assigned projects including taking the project from initiation, through to closure including;
• Being the day-to-day person responsible for the successful delivery of the project/programme
• Effective co-ordination of the project activities across all capabilities and KBS
• Promote the use of project tooling, including but not limited to MS Teams, SharePoint and Microsoft Project Online.
• Proactively developing, managing, and updating the project plan in Microsoft Project Online, including critical path, milestone tracking and dependencies management
• Managing and resolving any risks and other issues that may arise
• Managing the workstream budget, monitoring the expenditure and costs against benefits that are realised as the project/programme progresses
• Define and implement project governance in line with programme governance
• Supporting the appointment of individuals to the project delivery team and ensuring maximum efficiency in the allocation of resources and skills within the project
• Ensuring technology assurance and governance processes are followed and ensure compliance with broader governance requirements inside / outside of TTC (i.e., Stage Gates, TAG, Security, Investment Committee, etc, etc)
• Ensuring maximum efficiency in the allocation of resources and skills within the project
• Managing communications with stakeholders and developing strong, trusting, and credible relationships
• Define the quality plan and implement quality control measures; ensuring project deliverables meet the required standards is essential for delivering high-quality results,
• Lead the regular review and update of artefacts, including but not limited to business case, roles and responsibilities, RACI, financial forecasts, resourcing, RAID etc.
• Reporting progress of the project / workstream at regular intervals to the Portfolio Director and PMO
• Partner with change & comms team members to ensure project/programme deliverables are landing successfully in the organisation
• Support the continuous improvement and maturity of the capability
• Supervise and performance manage Project Management staff, including coaching and support
• Coach the organisation and key stakeholders relating to the benefits and advantages of relevant programme & project methodologies, thereby contributing towards the overall organisation's maturity
• Keep an eye on the latest strategies, tools, terminologies used in project management
• Maximise the use of AI tools in day-to-day work

The Person

Essential skills and experience

• A minimum of 7 years’ experience in delivering Technology related programmes and projects
• Demonstrable project and programme management expertise with experience of having delivered a number of large and complex projects from initiation to closure, on time and to budget
• Demonstrable experience of guiding, supporting, and managing project team members through complex deliveries
• Experience of managing multi-faceted projects, co-ordinating tasks, and activities, managing to deadlines, anticipating challenges, difficulties, and pressure points.
• Experience of technical delivery within highly regulated environments, ensuring strict compliance to technology policies and standards
• Excellent Stakeholder management skills and experience at all levels
• Necessary seniority to be able to take on the responsibilities required of the role
• Strong leadership and management skills
• Being able to understand the wider programme and firm objectives as well as the project/workstream aims
• Credibility within the project environment and ability to influence others
• Good knowledge and practical application of tools and techniques for planning, monitoring, and controlling projects, including risk management, including use of Microsoft Project/Jira etc
• Good knowledge of project management approaches, specifically Prince2, APM
• Good knowledge of budgeting and resource allocation procedures
• Ability to find innovative ways of solving or pre-empting problems
• Ability to coach the organisation and key stakeholders relating to the benefits and advantages of relevant programme / project methodologies, thereby contributing towards the overall organisation's maturity.
• Experience of having line managed a number of project professionals including experience in managing and coaching high performing teams, both on and offshore.
• Driven and enthusiastic with a ‘can-do’ attitude and a strong sense of ownership to get the job done in a practical and pragmatic fashion
• Proven written and oral communications skills and strong interpersonal skills that can be executed credibly to inspire confidence in you and the delivery of the project
• A strong problem solver with a pragmatic and tenacious attitude to seek out resolutions

Desirable skills and experience

• Educated to degree level in a business-related subject or relevant experience in a business or IT environment
• Professional certification in Project Management, ideally APM Practitioner, Prince 2, or Certified Scrum Master
• A good level of general technical knowledge including current, emerging, and future technology market trends and their impact on business