Governance & Strategy Lead

Join us as a Governance & Strategy Lead at Barclays, where you will play a pivotal role in driving strategic alignment, governance rigor, and operational excellence across the Cross Digital Platforms (XDP) portfolio. Your role will be responsible for managing engagement across senior stakeholders covering governance controls and reporting, including executive forum paper coordination. You will also support XDP communications and branding, including key event management. Critically, this role ensures that XDP initiatives are delivered in accordance with Barclays control frameworks, while enabling transparency and continuous improvement, leveraging appropriate tooling to drive compliance across XDP. To be successful in this role, you should have extensive experience in programme governance, delivery, or strategy development. You should possess excellent stakeholder management skills, with a proven track record of managing complex stakeholder relationships at all levels. Furthermore, excellent communication and coordination skills across diverse teams and senior stakeholders are essential. A good understanding of PMO methodologies and control frameworks is required, along with proficiency in Excel, PowerPoint, and project management tools (e.g., Clarity, JIRA, Workday), data reporting tools, and collaboration platforms (e.g., Jira, Confluence, Navigator). The ability to work independently and manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment is crucial. Some other highly desirable skills include experience in Agile ways of working and best practices, defining and documenting process flows/team operating models, familiarity with Barclays systems and processes (e.g., Coupa, Workday, Navigator, etc.), and professional certifications (e.g., Prince2, PMP, Certified Agile, etc.) are a plus. This role will be based out of our Pune office. Purpose of the role: To enable the success of senior executives by helping navigate complex challenges, make informed decisions, and deliver against their strategic objectives. Accountabilities: - Provide strategic support to senior executives, such as the CEO or other top-level leaders, including assistance in the development and execution of in-year and multi-year business strategy, research, and analysis to support decision-making and act as a delegate for the senior executive in specific situations. - Manage colleague engagement planning in line with the strategic direction, manage communication channels, and ensure effective coordination across different departments and teams. - Manage key projects and strategic initiatives on behalf of senior executives, ensuring strategic projects are on track, monitoring progress, and providing regular updates to the executive team. - Improve operational efficiency, alongside functional partners, within the organization, including the identification of areas for improvement, streamlining processes, and implementing consistently excellent best practices to enhance productivity and effectiveness. - Develop performance reporting for key metrics that reinforce the strategic objectives of the division and support the external commitments made. Analyze and draw insight to drive performance. Be involved in aspects of financial analysis and budget management, including assistance in financial planning, forecasting, cost management, and monitoring of financial performance against targets. - Support senior leadership to ensure appropriate resourcing across the business/function, including planning and forecasting, partnering with HR to drive talent development and succession planning, including the identification of high-potential employees, provision of mentorship and guidance, and support to leadership development and diversity initiatives. - Support the senior executive with risk and control oversight, escalation, crisis management, and risk mitigation, support the development of contingency plans, coordination of responses to emergencies, and ensure business continuity. - Implement a robust governance framework that supports the board of directors, executive forums, and governance committees through the preparation of board materials, organization of meetings, and ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements. Vice President Expectations: - Contribute or set strategy, drive requirements, and make recommendations for change. Plan resources, budgets, and policies; manage and maintain policies/processes; deliver continuous improvements and escalate breaches of policies/procedures. - If the position has leadership responsibilities, People Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviors to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard. The four LEAD behaviors are: L Listen and be authentic, E Energize and inspire, A Align across the enterprise, D Develop others. - For an individual contributor, they will be a subject matter expert within their discipline and will guide technical direction. They will lead collaborative, multi-year assignments and guide team members through structured assignments, identify the need for the inclusion of other areas of specialization to complete assignments. They will train, guide, and coach less experienced specialists and provide information affecting long-term profits, organizational risks, and strategic decisions. - Advise key stakeholders, including functional leadership teams and senior management, on functional and cross-functional areas of impact and alignment. - Manage and mitigate risks through assessment, in support of the control and governance agenda. - Demonstrate leadership and accountability for managing risk and strengthening controls in relation to the work your team does. - Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the organization's functions to contribute to achieving the goals of the business. - Collaborate with other areas of work, for business-aligned support areas to keep up to speed with business activity and the business strategies. - Create solutions based on sophisticated analytical thought, comparing and selecting complex alternatives. In-depth analysis with interpretative thinking will be required to define problems and develop innovative solutions. - Adopt and include the outcomes of extensive research in problem-solving processes. - Seek out, build and maintain trusting relationships and partnerships with internal and external stakeholders to accomplish key business objectives, using influencing and negotiating skills to achieve outcomes. All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence, and Stewardship our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset to Empower, Challenge, and Drive the operating manual for how we behave.,