IT Programme Manager in London

Howden is a global insurance group with employee ownership at its heart. Together, we have pushed the boundaries of insurance. We are united by a shared passion and no-limits mindset, and our strength lies in our ability to collaborate as a powerful international team comprised of 24,000 employees spanning over 56 countries. People join Howden for many different reasons, but they stay for the same one: our culture. It’s what sets us apart, and the reason our employees have been turning down headhunters for years. Whatever your priorities – work / life balance, career progression, sustainability, volunteering – you’ll find like-minded people driving change at Howden.

Role Summary: This senior lead delivery role forms part of a distributed, global IT team that is responsible for the continued availability and support of an international on-premise and cloud infrastructure. Accountable for programme delivery and resource management. On-boarding of new technology aligning with organisational and technology strategies. Although London based, the role will be expected to work in a fast-paced environment as a globally expanding business, with regular interaction across international time zones, spanning 50 countries with over 16,000 employees. Managing delivery of Infrastructure capital investment portfolio ensuring successful delivery to both time and budget. As a senior role, it is expected that more complex, commercially significant and therefore more extensive projects will be managed within this role.

Job Specific Skills Profile:

• At least 5 years’ experience as an IT infrastructure and operational change Programme Manager.
• Demonstrable C-level governance and commercial management.
• Significant experience as a hands-on Project Manager to show demonstrable understanding of delivery process.
• Effective prioritisation across the delivery programmes to ensure that resource is utilised on the highest priority projects.
• Demonstrable experience of leading across mixed stakeholder groups communicating between non-technical and technical people.
• Demonstrable experience of mixed lifecycle projects and the ability to mature to waterfall or agile practices where applicable.
• Demonstrable experience of building and leading a programme community based on collaboration between internal business stakeholders and multiple vendors.
• Experience demonstrating ability to manage across parallel implementation projects and dependent workstreams controlling scope, schedule and cost.
• Ability to remove blockers and manage risks, commercials, budgets and people.
• Build and maintain programme momentum through a multi-year schedule across parallel projects and workstreams.
• Ability to support the programme sponsors by overseeing the delivery of their vision for the programme.

Technical Skills Required:

• Must have demonstrable experience in Programme Management of large IT Infrastructure implementations within the insurance industry.
• Programme Governance and delivery Frameworks that support management across multiple related projects and workstreams.
• Programme & Project Manager skills, with either MSP, PRINCE2 Practitioner or PMP.
• Delivery and management of programme budgets, often in excess of £5m.
• Delivery of large company rollout of Microsoft core technologies.
• Programme planning tools and techniques across scope, schedule and resources.
• Identification and management of programme assumptions, dependencies, risks and issues.
• Support & coach the programme team across a globally & culturally diverse community.
• Vendor management across a globally & culturally diverse community.

Desirable experience:

• Insurance industry experience, preferably London Market.
• In-depth knowledge and experience of Waterfall, Agile and other methods.
• In-depth knowledge of Microsoft core technologies.
• In-depth knowledge of IT networking and other infrastructure concepts and technologies i.e. Azure, WAN, LAN, SD-WAN, Wi-Fi, VMware, SAN, SQL etc.

Core Responsibilities for all Staff:

• Achieve Results through Relationships with All Parties: Deliver a personal performance that contributes towards Group and/or Company achieving their objectives.
• Delivery of Service: Consistently deliver an excellent and comprehensive service, on-time, within budget and to, or exceeding quality expectations.
• Conduct and Integrity: Ensure all dealings are carried out with integrity and professionalism.

General Responsibilities:

• Develop strong relationships with the Business Units.
• Ensure team members are competent to carry out their responsibilities.
• Ensure up to date records are maintained at all times on the Group and Company systems.
• Ensure compliance with all applicable Group and/or Company policies and procedures.

What do we offer in return? A career that you define. At Howden, we value diversity – there is no one Howden type. Instead, we’re looking for individuals who share the same values as us:

• Our successes have all come from someone brave enough to try something new.
• We support each other in the small everyday moments and the bigger challenges.
• We are determined to make a positive difference at work and beyond.

Reasonable adjustments: We're committed to providing reasonable accommodations at Howden to ensure that our positions align well with your needs. Besides the usual adjustments such as software, IT, and office setups, we can also accommodate other changes such as flexible hours or hybrid working.