Front Office Project Manager

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Project description

The FO Change team supports the front office in delivery, reporting and administration of change, reporting to the COO function.

The project is supporting the organisation in a key initiative enabling the EMEA regional strategy. The role is within a programme of work focused. The project will deliver a merger of 2 existing entities.

Responsibilities

Full lifecycle project management ensuring that the project being delivered is compliant to minimum quality standards defined in the project delivery policy / process / procedures. This includes being complete (in terms of data capture as specified in the toolset and documentation standards); current (no stale data as in missed dates); and accurate (maintained with the latest update). Responsibility for the project will be from initiation through to handover to business and project closure.

This will be through regular and proactive use of reporting provided by central PMO; and regular meetings with staff delivering the portfolio of work

Regular catch-up with peers / risk control owners in other departments who have vested interest in quality project delivery

Using golden source data to submit updates to oversight / executive committees instead of off-line data sources

Sign-off all deliverables assigned to the Project Manager roles in the project delivery lifecycle RACI and roles and responsibilities

Run and manage steering committees, working groups (cross functional) and ensure accountability of actions against timelines and responsible stakeholders

Support the portfolio manager, who has overarching responsibility for the governance and delivery of all projects within the portfolio.

Identify and understand issues, errors or concerns, swiftly and accurately and resolve

problems taking into account agreed policy, procedures and service needs.

Carry out analysis and form clear recommendations and proposal on projects / programmes based on sound business rationale. Clearly articulate strategic imperatives and benefits of projects

describe complex problems and solutions in a compelling manner, influencing senior management. Ensure consensus and collaboration with project delivery partners. Be a trusted partner to stakeholders, central PMO and other departments ensuring updates are transparent and accurate; actions, risks, issues, dependencies are effectively managed through to completion.

Run and manage project steering committees, working groups (cross functional) and ensure accountability for delivery of actions against planned timelines is clearly defined / executed.

Define and track the delivery of project outcomes and benefits in order to justify the business case and decisions to prioritise the project for delivery.

Engage, contract and manage third party vendors within the procurement policy and third party vendor management policy.

Define and recruit (from internal teams) project delivery staff of the correct calibre to deliver success. Ensure that responsibilities are appropriately assigned and controlled. Ensure that project and steering staff have a clear understanding of their duties to ensure that project delivery is adequately monitored and controlled.

Show awareness of all sub portfolio's within the investment portfolios in scope to assist in identifying synergies and avoiding duplication of effort.

Ensure that project delivery steering committees / working groups remain in governance: that meetings are quorate, the Terms of Reference are reviewed at the end of each project delivery phase, that the portfolio committee has visibility / transparency of project delivery status, change and risk and that project risk and issues (RAID) items are escalated appropriately / on time. This is through:

Creating a baseline and management of baseline (budget, scope, outcomes / benefits, timeline)

Approval of change

Approval and closure of mitigating actions for escalated risks and issues

Approval of project go live and capture / logging of Accountable Executive Attestation at go live

Approval to close project following update as to lessons learned and project closure reports

Approval of every project business case (benefits vs cost)

Skills

Must have

Essential:

Minimum 5 years proven track record delivering Front office change projects for financial institutions within time and budget.Demonstrable experience of:

Strong product and Front office process knowledge

in depth knowledge of derivatives (IRD, FX Swaps / Fwds, FX Options). Good understanding of trade lifecycle events including trade and client management. Experience of Trade migration / transition. Good appreciation for delivery of effective and sustainable processes and related controls.

Investment budget management

accurate forecasting of cost categories; management of "estimate at complete" vs budget; budget change control (at individual project or programme level). Demonstratable insight into controlling cost e.g. no actuals being committed before budget approval and planning / interventions that need to be made if approved budget (vs committed budget) is at risk of being exceeded

Investment project allocations agreement

working across stakeholders to agree how project costs (budget, increase to on-going expense budget) and benefits and gaining commitment that these costs are factored into their department business plans.

Delivery resource review and attestation of on time project / programme delivery ("doability")

working across resource supply teams to confirm the availability of required capacity to deliver the portfolio; overseeing project manager progress to securing resource or re-planning project delivery timelines avoiding "crisis escalation" except in genuine cases of inability to secure a rare skillset.

Project / Programme Management Subject Matter Expertise

Experience of managing delivery of all front office related change required to support the merger on day 1, resolving conflict, delays and mitigate change risk and advise the business on decisions relating to change

Project / Programme governance design and delivery

delivering regular and relevant reports to portfolio committees / or more senior management / executive forums. Regular, proactive maintenance of the project governance committee terms of reference and minute taking / management. Regular review and challenge of all Risk, Assumption / Action, Issues, Dependencies/ Decision (RAID) logs within the portfolio; and creation of portfolio level RAID items ensuring they are not "stale".

Document Management

ensure all project / programme artefacts are consistently structured to standards and maintained for ease of reference by second / third line of defence and by Central PMO.

Project / Programme closure

ensuring that every project / programme is "cleanly" closed and all "open" project items are risk accepted or closed within budget. Functional / Technical Competencies:Essential

Financial

cost categorization (capital vs expense)

Project / Programme management including change control (of one of or a combination of scope, budget, plan, benefits change to baseline)

Project / programme baseline control and management

Delivering projects / programmes from delivery prioritization by portfolio committee, through to delivery and closure

Lessons learned / post implementation review delivery

Change Risk management

Familiarity with / experience of adhering to key controls (SOX, project delivery standards, third party risk management, operational resilience management, data protection etc)

Portfolio management oCreation / planning of a portfolio (annual planning)oDelivery of a portfoliooReporting (including executive reporting)oRisk and issue managementoRoadmap and critical path managementoFinancial control / managementoResource (demand and supply) management oStructuring governance (including Terms of Reference definition & management)Education / Qualifications:Essential

Degree level education Preferred:

Relevant qualifications / accreditations e.g. Prince2, PMI, Six Sigma or other.

Nice to have

Preferred:

Strong knowledge of banking regulations and running front office projects.

Good understanding of financial products and front office processes with a good appreciation of front-to-back processes.

Demonstrable track record of managing multiple stakeholders and building relationships across diverse skill sets and across the organisation.

Experience of working with and negotiating contracts for vendors and consultancies

Coaching, mentoring and leadership skills

Proven experience and expert understanding of delivering through full project lifecycle SDLC/PDLC using waterfall and agile approaches

Excellent communication skills and the ability to communicate at all levels.

Proven experience of managing budgets.

Other

Languages

English: C2 Proficient

Seniority

Regular