Implementation Programme Manager

Albany Beck is a specialist Financial Services Consultancy helping institutions deliver complex change and transformation while building the internal capability to sustain it. We combine subject matter expertise with innovative delivery models that help clients scale efficiently, while offering meaningful, long-term career opportunities to our people. At Albany Beck, you'll be choosing to work with an organisation that’s passionate about your learning journey and committed to your professional and personal development.

Role Overview

We are seeking an experienced, director-level Implementation Programme Manager to lead and coordinate the delivery of the CBOR (Custody Book of Record) programme across multiple business groups. This individual will be accountable for translating strategic objectives into a clear, integrated and achievable implementation plan, ensuring that responsibilities, dependencies, milestones and delivery timelines are established, understood and actively managed across the organisation.

The successful candidate will combine strong programme leadership with a pragmatic, delivery-focused mindset, potentially drawing on a background in Agile, Scrum or complex business and technology transformation. They will be comfortable operating at executive level, challenging senior stakeholders constructively, resolving competing priorities and navigating organisational complexity to maintain momentum and drive outcomes.

This is a high-impact leadership role requiring someone with the authority, judgement and interpersonal credibility to influence senior decision-makers, drive accountability across functional boundaries and turn strategic objectives into tangible delivery.

Key Responsibilities

1. Programme Leadership and Delivery

• Take overall responsibility for coordinating and driving the end-to-end implementation of CBOR across relevant business groups.
• Translate programme objectives into a clear, integrated delivery roadmap, with realistic milestones, timelines and measurable outcomes.
• Establish effective programme governance, including decision-making forums, escalation routes, reporting mechanisms and accountability.
• Ensure delivery plans reflect actual business capacity, operational constraints and organisational readiness.
• Maintain a clear view of programme progress, proactively identifying slippage, delivery risks and opportunities to accelerate implementation.

2. Cross-Functional Coordination and Accountability

• Bring together business, technology, operations, risk, compliance and other relevant teams to ensure coordinated execution.
• Define clear ownership and accountability across workstreams, establishing who is responsible for each deliverable, decision and dependency.
• Identify and actively manage interdependencies between business groups, ensuring that delays or competing priorities in one area do not undermine wider programme delivery.
• Resolve gaps in ownership, duplicated effort and conflicting delivery plans.
• Drive alignment on priorities, resource commitments and sequencing across all participating teams.

3. Senior Stakeholder Management and Influence

• Operate confidently at director and executive level, engaging senior stakeholders with credibility and authority.
• Challenge assumptions, unrealistic commitments and conflicting priorities constructively, using evidence and sound judgement to drive better decisions.
• Navigate complex organisational dynamics and competing agendas while maintaining focus on programme outcomes.
• Build consensus where possible, but
• Hold senior stakeholders accountable for commitments, decisions and actions while maintaining productive working relationships.
• Communicate difficult messages clearly, confidently and diplomatically, particularly where delivery expectations need to be reset.

4. Delivery Methodology and Execution

• Apply appropriate programme and delivery management disciplines, drawing on Agile, Scrum, traditional programme management or hybrid approaches as required.
• Establish effective delivery rhythms, including planning sessions, workstream reviews, dependency management, progress tracking and executive checkpoints.
• Ensure teams have clear priorities, defined deliverables and a shared understanding of what successful implementation looks like.
• Remove blockers, accelerate decision-making and address issues before they become critical to delivery.
• Balance delivery pace with appropriate governance, quality, risk management and operational readiness.

5. Risk, Issues and Executive Reporting

• Maintain an integrated view of programme risks, assumptions, issues, dependencies and decisions.
• Ensure material delivery risks are surfaced and addressed promptly.
• Provide concise, accurate and actionable reporting to programme sponsors and senior leadership.
• Present a realistic view of programme health, clearly distinguishing genuine progress from optimistic forecasts.
• Develop mitigation and recovery plans where timelines, dependencies or business commitments are at risk.

6. Change, Readiness and Sustainable Implementation

• Ensure implementation plans account for business readiness, stakeholder engagement, process changes and operational impacts.
• Coordinate the transition from programme delivery into business-as-usual operations.
• Ensure implementation activities are embedded consistently across business groups.
• Track delivery against agreed outcomes and ensure programme outputs translate into tangible business benefits.

Candidate Profile

• Significant experience leading complex, cross-functional implementation programmes or large-scale business transformation initiatives.
• Proven track record of coordinating delivery across multiple business units, functions or stakeholder groups.
• Experience operating at director level or in an equivalent senior leadership capacity, with direct exposure to executive sponsors and senior decision-makers.
• Demonstrable ability to establish programme structure, clarify accountability, manage dependencies and develop credible delivery plans.
• Strong experience managing competing priorities, delivery risks, resource constraints and complex organisational dependencies.
• Evidence of successfully challenging senior stakeholders, influencing decisions and maintaining delivery momentum in politically complex environments.
• Strong programme governance, planning, reporting and escalation capabilities.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to translate complexity into clear decisions, actions and outcomes.
• A background in Agile delivery, Scrum, scaled delivery models or product-led transformation.
• Experience working in regulated, risk-sensitive or operationally complex environments.
• Experience delivering programmes that span business, technology, operations and control functions.
• Familiarity with organisational change management, business readiness and benefits realisation.
• Relevant programme or delivery qualifications, such as MSP, PRINCE2, PMP or Agile/Scrum certifications

#J-18808-Ljbffr