Director of Strategy Planning Innovation - Career Returner Programme
- United Kingdom
- Permanent
- Full-time
- Develop and maintain the technology strategy, ensuring alignment with business growth, innovation, and digital transformation priorities. Ensure alignment across all sub-strategies such as business, data and AI, and broader people and communications initiatives including cultural transformation. Ensure strategy incorporates appropriate cyber, risk and control considerations and is well syndicated with all appropriate parties.
- Influence and manage stakeholders to ensure strong collaboration on strategic development and planning, and close business linkage, avoiding an internally-focused strategy or agenda.
- Develop and maintain strong strategy and operating model communication and engagement across the organisation, including delivery of Board and Group Executive Committee appropriate presentations and partnership with communications and change adoption teams.
- Lead the annual and multi-year technology planning cycle, ensuring prioritisation of key initiatives based on impact and feasibility, and alignment to strategic ambitions.
- Define, implement and maintain an IT operating model that optimises agility, efficiency, and alignment with business goals.
- Partner with business and technology leaders to oversee the definition of an innovation framework and innovation roadmaps, balancing emerging technology (AI, cloud, data, security) with practical execution constraints.
- Liaise with the Director for Technology Change Transformation to establish a Technology Portfolio Management function to govern technology investments, resource allocation, and dependencies, ensuring the quality execution of the strategy.
- Partner with the Chief Technology Officer on enterprise architecture and cloud transformation efforts to modernise and optimise use of the technology stack while balancing cost and risk.
- Partner with the Technology Commercial Director to identify and drive strategic partnerships with vendors, fintechs, and ecosystem players to accelerate innovation and technology modernisation.
- Drive a culture of strategic foresight, ensuring the organisation remains ahead of technological and industry trends, interpreting their applicability and implications for the organisation and ensuring this is reflected in strategy and plans.
- To work as part of the senior leadership team of the Technology COO and to be an active member of the CITO broader leadership team.
- To work collaboratively with colleagues and take personal accountability to maintain and enhance controls that are the responsibility of this role. To support improvement of the overall control environment, customers outcomes and a reduction in M&G’s operational risk.
- To ensure the Leadership Team of CITO have confidence in our operations and strategy and believe the direction being taken is appropriate and achievable.
- To ensure significant decisions required and approvals needed are signposted early and supported by clear and concise materials which enable management to be confident in the decision making. In particular, where decisions are required about new partners or new commitments that the right level of information is provided to enable the decision making process to be effective.
- To operate within the financial and compliance controls of M&G and CITO to deliver the objectives of the role.
- To ensure all necessary management approvals are gained for commercial commitments.
- To get the best from any team members working on the objectives of the role.
- To be structured and logical in the approach to the role and to ensure that each application is supportive of the agenda.
- Deliver strong stakeholder management of the key user community and Technology leadership stakeholders
- Experience of working within IT, ideally in financial services or a regulated environment.
- 5+ years in technology strategy and planning, or similar IT leadership roles.
- Experience designing strategy and operating models that drive effectiveness and differentiation in a complex organisation.
- Strong knowledge of regulatory compliance, risk management, and technology performance frameworks.
- Proven ability to influence and engage stakeholders, particularly at the executive level, bringing about technological, cultural and organisational change.
- Excellent leadership, communication, and stakeholder management skills.
- Experience in digital transformation across complex estates.
- Excellent knowledge of the operation of a technology organisation, ideally within financial services.
- Proven track record of large-scale / high profile leadership.
- To be action-oriented and maintain a high momentum.
- Broad knowledge of the financial services industry and key regulatory requirements together with an understanding of business processes.
- Knowledge and understanding of business strategy / planning, financial analysis, marketing and operational processes.
- Excellent communication and team working skills, comfortable working with executive and board level management.
- Strong inter-personal skills, demonstrating a variety of influencing styles to enable effective completion of tasks both individually and within groups. Builds sustainable relationships with colleagues and key individuals in the business.
- Shows a desire to take the initiative, moving issues forward with clarity. Demonstrates an ability to think ‘outside the box’ while defining solutions in a workable form.
- Evaluates options efficiently and provides considered conclusions and direction.
- Demonstrates a strategic focus – ability to turn ideas / objectives into tangible deliverables and tasks.
- Ability to take complex, multi-faceted problems and work with them through to simple solutions recognising synergies and options