DES Business Manager, Digital Engineering Services and Solutions in City of Westminster

Responsible for supporting the Digital Engineering Services and Solutions (DES) COO, Head of Digital Engineering Services and Solutions Department Head and the department's wider extended leadership team with the business management and governance of the department's operations. This role will take many forms compromising of governance, reporting, business management, demand management, resource management, vendor management, communications, monitoring of finance and budget and keeping stakeholders up to date.

The successful candidate will be responsible for building strong relationships across the Bank and Securities functions, underpinned by trust and the core values of the bank. Responsible for developing strong relationships with internal department Product teams and key stakeholders such as Human Resources, Other Technology verticals, Technology Resource Management, Technology Planning and Reporting Management and Business Critical functions such as Procurement, Finance, TPRM and Vendor Management.

Work with the DES Cost Optimisation Lead to oversee the reporting of the department's budget, evaluating data and providing insights on cost effectiveness and spending. Maintain the department budget for resource, software and hardware managing cost variances. Ensure demand is costed and aligned to approved budgets. Manage forecasting, tracking, and optimisation of demand-related spend. Provide insight and executive summaries into cost drivers, trade-offs, and funding decision. Manage department budget estimation and track financial performance to set targets and plan for next financial year planning. Maintenance of the department's service catalogue structure and its improvement. Prepare internal spend governance material, presenting the departments position and capturing key narrative, status of approvals and closing budget queries. Raising of requisitions and PO's for Professional Services and Service Contractors.

Lead with the creation, management and governance of the processes required for ensuring internal controls over resource management including new hire request and extension approvals, onboarding, offboarding, funding allocations and ensuring resources remain compliant within contract. Translate demand into resource requirements (skills, headcount, timing), actively manage delivery capacity to ensure operational continuity. Work with Resource Management, PMO and Product/Delivery leads to validate capacity. Identify gaps, over/under-allocation, and drive rebalancing actions. Responsible for ensuring the DES Resource tracker is accurate and reconciled with the Technology Resource Management team data and Departments Product Owners activity to ensure the resourcing cost forecast model is intact. Maintain the departments open vacancy tracker and RAG status on recruitment activity, producing weekly reports on status. Provide monthly MI and KPI's around headcount governance, recruitment, people demand requirements and forecast and transition plans. Creation and maintenance of the departments Job Specifications. Ensure resources are compliance with contract. Support strategic efficiency and planning initiatives by supporting resource related initiatives (e.g. onboarding, regulatory projects and cost efficiency initiatives such as outsourcing opportunities). Lead RFI/RFP process for outsourcing initiatives, supporting the Digital Engineering Services and Solutions Business Support Manager with negotiating new contracts with suppliers on behalf of the department's leadership team. Work with existing agencies and suppliers, establishing, developing and maintaining good working relationships. Support DES COO with resource supplier relationship management, NDA's, supplier onboarding and SOW's management/coordination. Manage forecasting, planning and monitoring of resource utilisation and capacity. Check progress against targets, reporting as necessary and acting to resolve exceptions. Manage information concerning the utilisation, future demand and availability of people and resources to aid senior leader decision making. Department Organisation Chart creation and automated maintenance.

Accountable for internal vendor governance reviews and material for the department to regularly review operational delivery standards against pre-defined KPIs. Supplier onboarding management and coordination. Contract, NDA and SOW management with Procurement and Legal and Vendor Risk Management. Manage operational Resource vendor relationships to drive strategic values e.g. service quality, agility and cost whilst aligning with the wider EMEA IT strategic objectives, leveraging KPIs when appropriate.

Oversee the accurate internal governance reports pertaining to the departments resource, budget and vendors. Drive the governance and operational management of the department. Establish and maintain governance frameworks, controls, and reporting cadence. Ensure alignment to organisational strategy, priorities, and internal policies. Act as a central point of coordination across business functions. Lead maintenance of DES COO Process & Procedure & Best Practice Guides. Work with the DES COO to develop and implement necessary policy and procedure to facilitate control and adherence to operations to meet department objectives. Regularly review department operations to ensure these meets required standards and recommend changes where necessary. Management of pre authorisation approvals on behalf of the department inclusive but not limited to expenses, gift and hospitality and absence. Preparation and delivery of reports and material on behalf of the department including but not limited to Head Office Reporting, Board reports and Town Hall material. Coordination of the department's monthly achievement and risk to feed into monthly Chief Information Officer monthly dashboard. Collation and presentation of management information (MI) to the required deadlines, to include, but not limited to, departmental KRIs and KPIs, governance reporting.

Extensive Business Management and Support Governance Experience within Financial Services and Technology. Direct People Management experience (extensive experience of managing Business Management Function and Teams within Finance Services). Prior experience working within Technology (essential), Infrastructure and Service Management environment (essential) and high-level understanding of the environment, platforms and Infrastructure stack (essential). Prior experience working within a COO function. Extensive experience conducting rigorous analysis of data, to refine insights for senior leadership for performance monitoring and strategic planning. Experience interacting effectively with Senior Management. Proven ability to communicate effectively with Senior Management providing business management support. Experience of supporting an extended leadership team, directly reporting to L2 Management or above (essential). Extensive experience navigating cost approval forums to enable 3rd party expenditure. Experience of automating, consolidating and streamlining MI reporting and dashboards. Prior Financial Management experience including planning and accounting exposure. Extensive experience of departmental level budget maintenance. Prior extensive experience of resource/workforce management governance and recruitment, working with suppliers, agencies, Internal Recruiters and Hiring Managers. Financial Services Experience. Extensive experience of 3rd party vendor, relationship and contract management. Experience of Procurement and RFP processes and procedures. Direct exposure and experience of end to end vendor spend governance for license, software, hardware and professional services. Organisation & Attention to Detail - strong organisation skills with ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment while maintaining a high level of accuracy, consistency, and quality across all reports produced. Confident ability to monitor and challenge where adherence to internal and external governance and best practice standards are not met. Communication - excellent written and verbal communication skills, with ability to translate complex scenarios into concise, meaningful messaging for a senior audience. Extensive experience of providing executive summaries, narratives and status updates. Proactive Problem Solving - strong critical thinking skills with ability to independently and proactively identify issues and solutions. Proved execution and delivery of process efficiency improvement and enhancement. Professional - conduct role with a professional demeanour at all times, with the ability to interact and communicate with senior stakeholders. Time Management - ability to manage the creation of several governance reports concurrently, each with individual deadlines, and with several dependencies between governance reports. Project Management Experience (desirable). Knowledge of industry best practices and emerging trends in operations management (desirable). Degree educated and / or equivalent experience preferably in business management/ economics/ finance. Strong IT skills with advance MS office, Excel knowledge, PowerBI, Jira and the ability to compile reports at short notice.

Excellent communication skills, written and verbal, a clear and concise communicator. Superior administration skills. Good understanding of interdepartmental functions to ensure department objectives and schedules are met. Excellent multi-tasking and organisation skills. Ability to build strong and lasting relationships across the bank. Results driven, with a strong sense of accountability. A pro‑active, motivated approach. The ability to operate with urgency and prioritise work accordingly. The ability manage large workloads and tight deadlines. Strong decision-making skills, the ability to demonstrate sound judgement. A structured and logical approach to work. Excellent interpersonal skills and active listening skills. Excellent attention to detail and accuracy. A calm approach, with the ability to perform well in a pressurised environment. A can do attitude; the motivation and drive to assist team members to the best of your ability. A confident approach, with the ability to provide clear direction to your team. Ability to lead a high performing team. Excellent leadership and team management abilities, with a focus on fostering a collaborative and high performance culture. A strategic approach, with the ability to lead and motivate your team. Conscientious, methodical and logical approach to work.