Associate Director, Product Owner # AI

This job is brought to you by Jobs/Redefined, the UK\’s leading over-50s age inclusive jobs board. Requisition ID 34795 Office Country United Kingdom Office City London Division Information Technology Contract Type Fixed Term Contract Length 3 years Posting End Date Purpose of Job The Associate Director, Capability Lead is a key leadership role in each capability domain area, working closely with the AD, Product Owner to ensure delivery is value-focused and aligned with vision, strategy, roadmap, and budget. The Associate Director will manage and oversee the system delivery lifecycle, responsible for the introduction, delivery, maintenance, and continuous improvement of systems and services in their area. This includes service design, model office, service transition, product support, maintenance, service level design, reporting, and stakeholder management. The capability operates in a flat, agile, self-organising manner, with many product-aligned Squads/Scrums. The AD is accountable for delivering the Product Owner\’s vision aligned to the IT department\’s strategy and enabling teams to deliver according to set priorities. Depending on scale, they will likely have Principals reporting directly and peer ADs matrixed to manage complex delivery at scale. Accountabilities & Responsibilities System Delivery Responsible for support, maintenance, and development of systems in their capability area. Provide leadership for development, maintenance, and support of the Bank\’s systems within a capability area, working with peers and practitioners to establish best practices using modern Agile principles and methodologies such as Scrum, SAFe, Kanban, TDD, Pairing, CI/CD, A/B testing, Microservices, DevOps. Transform the internal delivery group into a metrics-based, lean start-up organisation, working closely with the business and Product Owner. Define success criteria, maintain a shared backlog, plan effectively, and manage delivery timelines. Coordinate with the Head of QA to ensure quality assurance and system integrity. Maintain a current backlog, define acceptance criteria, estimate, and track velocity. Manage supply and demand to align future demand with expectations. Ensure platforms meet the Bank\’s SLAs for production services. Design and implement service level reporting for key stakeholders. Manage interactions with Product Teams and stakeholders to ensure delivery backlogs support operational support requirements and focus on service improvements. IT Standards, Risk, Control & Governance Contribute to IT policies and standards, ensuring adherence at all times. Manage risks through the IT Risk management framework. Improve IT general controls, including designing preventative controls and automation to reduce manual detective controls. Third Party Management Lead and manage teams in a hybrid staff/outsourced structure. Coordinate third-party contributions within Agile principles, ensuring activities are aligned with appropriate Agile approaches. Financial Monitoring, Performance Reporting & Continuous Improvement Plan, forecast, and manage within a set budget. Identify and implement modernization and efficiency opportunities, including automation. Establish activity-based approaches to delivering value through lean Agile reporting and data capture. Report on team progress, including burnup, burndown, velocity, and quality metrics. Promote a culture of eliminating technical debt and prioritizing backlogs and business cases for delivery. People Management Coach, mentor, and direct teams in Agile practices. Create a culture of responsibility for quality, putting users first, and continuous improvement. Support and educate Product Owners and stakeholders on Scrum and Agile principles, especially backlog refinement and prioritization. Manage staff engagement, recruitment, performance, coaching, and development. Champion the Bank\’s behavioural and ethical standards. This role requires extensive experience in support, maintenance, and development of business systems, including bespoke applications, third-party off-the-shelf solutions, SaaS platforms, and managed services. The focus is on strong Agile leadership rather than deep domain expertise, which will be provided by Principal practitioners and Expert Practitioners within each sub-team. Examples of capability areas include Client Services, Data & Analytics, Modern Networks & Infrastructure. Knowledge, Skills, Experience & Qualifications Education and Qualifications Artificial Intelligence Capability, including: bespoke AI (Generative, Machine Learning), commodity AI. Strong leadership judgment, solution-oriented mindset, and problem-solving skills. Experience managing people, finances, processes, and systems. Ability to influence and collaborate across departments, demonstrating political awareness and diplomacy. Excellent team leadership, active listening, and communication skills in English. Experience working in complex, multinational, multi-team, Agile-at-scale environments. Agile practitioner certification (e.g., PMI-ACP or equivalent). Experience leading maintenance and support teams aligned with Agile principles. Ability to foster respect and community among peers and stakeholders. Knowledge of planning, monitoring, and controlling support, maintenance, and development activities. Exceptional organizational, communication, and time management skills. The candidate should be capable of coaching teams to reach their potential using best practices. Internal applicants must have passed their current probation period. CCTs and employees directly working for a Board office can only apply via the external website. Due to high application volume, detailed feedback cannot be provided to non-shortlisted candidates. #J-18808-Ljbffr