My client is a leading global specialty commercial insurer and reinsurer with operations in the Lloyd's, UK, Continental European and Bermudian markets. They specialise in providing insurance cover for a wide range of risks to commercial enterprises and reinsurance protection to other insurers around the world.
Their growth agenda has driven an unprecedented level of demand which has meant a doubling in size over the last year of the enterprise portfolio, with the clear expectation that this increase in demand will continue over the coming years.
Role
Based in the London office, this position sits within the Operations division of the group, reporting into the Head of Delivery. The role has overall accountability and control of a programme or portfolio of projects and, as a member of the senior management team, to actively support the development of the Business Change function.
The successful candidate will work across all group geographies, all functions, legal entities and SBU's, covering a range or programmes from Technical to Organisation Transformation with responsibility for budgets in excess of £10m.
They will manage dozens of resources covering permanent staff, contractors, consultancies and third parties as part of a matrix management arrangement. The role holder will expect to manage and own relationships at the most senior levels and to be able to confidently represent Business Change in a variety of fora and role model appropriate behaviours.
Accountabilities
- Accountable for all programmes and projects delivered in their specified portfolio
- Accountable for partnering with the Practice Managers to ensure that the right resources are allocated to all work
- Manages assignments of senior project managers, project managers, senior business analysts, business analysts and project administrators
- Single point of contact for all incoming work for the specified portfolio
- Jointly sets targets for the change team with the Practice Managers and contributes to performance reviews
- Acts as coach for all levels and members of the Change team
- Supports continuous professional development of the Change team
- Maintains awareness of the status of all Change projects within the portfolio and provides active assurance to support successful delivery
- Collaboration with other Portfolio Managers & Business Partners to support an optimum balance of supply versus demand across all portfolios
- Acts as the key account manager for key third party suppliers to drive quality and value
- Develop and maintain an awareness of market drivers and changes to influence the group agenda
Skills and Knowledge
The successful candidate will be an experience programme manager specialising in (non IT) Business Change within either the Insurance or similar financial services background:
- Minimum of 8 years practical project management experience
- Minimum of 4 years practical programme management experience
- Minimum of 2 years practical portfolio management experience
- Understands industry standard portfolio, programme & project management techniques
- Successful track record of managing complex programmes to strict time & budget constraints
- Experience of setting and managing project/department budgets
- Experience of combining multiple project streams into a single view of workload
- Experienced at identifying goals and objectives, and motivating and leading others towards their achievement
- Skills, experience and gravitas to manage managers
- Skills and gravitas to deputise for the Head of Business Change when required
- Experienced in influencing & persuading others to take a specific course of action when there is no direct line of command or control
- Experienced in setting and managing the expectation of stakeholders across multiple functional areas in a complex business environment
Personal Characteristics
Leadership, Organisational Awareness, Relationship Building, Strategic Focus, Initiative, Impact and Influence, Commercial and Business Awareness, Developing Others, Achievement Orientation
Eames Consulting is acting as an Employment Agency in relation to this vacancy.
