Strategic Planning & Execution Analyst

FirstBank UK is a globally recognised, top-tier bank who provide world-class services to various institutions and individuals. Offering a comprehensive range of retail and corporate financial services/products, this thriving business with over 10 million active customers in over 700 business locations is the oldest African bank in the UK. Due to business requirements & growth, we are now looking to acquire the services of a Strategic Planning & Execution Analyst to drive the Bank's enterprise planning cycle and performance management framework, and to lead business engagement and partnering activity on behalf of Strategy & Planning.

• Please note that this is a hybrid role with 3 days in the office and 2 days working from home

Key Responsibilities:

Strategic Planning

• Support the execution and ongoing maintenance of the Bank's multi-period strategic planning cycle, integrated with Finance and Risk.
• Support the Business Transformation Office in tracking progress of strategic initiatives and transformation programmes against plan; identify slippage and dependencies and escalate on a timely basis.
• Develop, maintain and refresh KPIs, scorecards and dashboards to support data-driven decision-making and executive reporting.

. Business Engagement and Partnering

• Act as the day-to-day point of contact between the Strategy & Planning (SP) Office, the Business Transformation Office (BTO) and business units/functions, operationalising the Bank's business engagement and partnering model.
• Coordinate structured engagement mechanisms, including strategic planning workshops, quarterly strategy reviews, innovation co-design sessions and strategic advisory engagements.
• Maintain proactive dialogue with key stakeholders (Finance, Risk, Technology, Operations, HR and business lines) to ensure planning activity remains aligned to business realities.
• Support the SP Office's engagement and partnering framework, including engagement cadences, roles and RACI.

Execution Monitoring and Risk Management

• Coordinate with business units to ensure alignment between strategic plans and execution.
• Identify, log and support the mitigation of risks, issues, assumptions and dependencies affecting delivery of strategic initiatives.
• Support change management and communication efforts to embed adoption of agreed strategic actions.
• Monitor completion rates of strategic initiatives against plan and escalate where targeted outcomes are at risk.

Governance and Executive Reporting

• Prepare clear, concise and executive-ready reports, packs and dashboards for senior management, ExCo and Group forums on planning cycle progress and portfolio performance.
• Support the secretariat function for strategy and planning governance forums, including agenda preparation, minutes and action tracking.
• Act as secretariat to the Consumer Duty Committee, including agenda setting, preparation of papers, minutes and tracking of actions to closure.
• Consolidate stakeholder feedback (e.g. satisfaction surveys/NPS) and reporting inputs to support continuous improvement of SP Office deliverables.

Special Projects and Event Management

• Manage critical and/or strategic projects assigned directly by the CEO.
• Support the planning and delivery of major Bank-hosted and Bank-sponsored strategic events, working closely with the Marketing and Corporate Communications team.
• Coordinate cross-functional input and manage timelines, budgets and risks for assigned special projects and events, escalating issues to the Head, Strategy & Planning and/or CEO as appropriate.

Key Skills/Experience:

• Strong, relevant experience in strategy execution, planning, portfolio management or transformation.
• Strong project management and organisational skills, with the ability to manage multiple initiatives simultaneously.
• Excellent stakeholder management/engagement skills.
• Strong report writing skills.
• Previous experience within Banking or Financial Services.
• Prior experience in strategy execution or transformation within a banking or consulting environment preferred.
• Previous experience working with C-Suite level is preferred.
• Previous experience working with or knowledge of Emerging Markets is desirable, however not essential.

In return we offer a fantastic benefits package including:

• Up to 10% employer pension contribution
• Life Assurance Cover
• Income protection
• Private Medical Insurance plan (upon successful completion of probation period)
• Contribution to glasses/contacts and eye testing
• Gym subsidy (up to £50 per month)
• Cycle to work scheme
• Employee Assistance Program
• Interest Free season ticket loan for travel
• Birthday Leave
• 25 days annual leave, rising to 28 after 3 years and 30 after 8 years’ service
• Give As You Earn (GAYE)

First Bank is an equal opportunities employer and positively encourages applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates regardless of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, religion or belief, marital status, or pregnancy and maternity.

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