Technical Delivery Manager

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Overview

Do you want to be help enrich the lives of learners worldwide?

At RM, we've been pioneers of education technology since 1973. We provide technology and resources to the education sector supporting over 10 million students around the world. We work with 28,000 schools, nurseries, and education trusts in 115 countries to deliver customer-centric solutions that improve education outcomes worldwide.

What we do helps learners at all stages of their lives, from preschool to higher education and professional qualification, we partner with schools, examination boards, central governments and other professional institutions, to enrich the lives of learners.

The Technical Delivery Manager is responsible for the effective delivery of high-quality technical products and services in line with customer requirements and contractual commitments.

The Technical Delivery Manager will be an expert in using digital technologies to deliver new and enhanced products using agile methodologies. With a background in technology, they are responsible for delivery management of bespoke software products using internal and third-party software development, architecture, quality assurance and infrastructure teams. The Technical Delivery Manager will work with customer facing Project Managers and internal technical delivery teams, to ensure effective operational delivery of customer change to RM's products through all stages of the delivery lifecycle (requirements, development, testing and roll out).

The Technical Delivery Manager spans customer, project, and technical teams. They are equally at home working directly with customers or RM business delivery teams to plan and deliver change or resolve technical challenges in software development, quality assurance and infrastructure.

Responsibilities

Technical Delivery - Planning

• Working with customer facing Project Management and Solution Architecture, Product Management, Technical Architecture & Infrastructure, analyse customer/investment change programmes to identify technology deliverables, milestones, and required activities and tasks.
• Build the operational delivery (development) plan, encompassing the entire delivery lifecycle (requirements, architecture, design, develop, test & deploy), for one or more customer/internal investment change programmes.
• Establish and schedule technical deliverables across the programme lifecycle.
• Ensure that the technical deliverables include the standard artefacts for an effective change, including (but not limited to):

• Requirements (inc. tracking & change)
• Architecture (solution, product & technology)
• Product roadmap (programme to feature and release alignment)
• Development backlog
• Quality strategy, plans and success criteria
• Environment & release strategy and plan
• Customer engagement model for technical delivery (inc. UAT and transition)
• RM transition process (from change to BAU/Operations)

Establish work plan and staffing for technical deliverables, activities, iterations or phases, ensuring that teams within the delivery organisation have clear resource assignments and, where required recruitment or sourcing options to meet the programme timescales.

Technical Delivery - Execution & Reporting

• Provide leadership and motivation to technical delivery teams throughout the programme life cycle and confer with project staff to outline work plans, provide unambiguous direction on the customer needs, and enable escalation of delivery issues to the wider project team.
• Actively measure, critically challenge, track and report on the delivery progress for technology deliverables in the change programme (to time, budget and quality).
• Weekly internal reporting and review of technical deliverables with delivery teams, including identification and escalation of delivery issues and blockers.
• Actively maintain, manage & mitigate technical delivery risks and issues, as part of the wider change programme risk management process.
• Actively monitor for changes to programme scope that impact technical deliverables (functional, non-functional), impact assess change - both contractual change (discrete) and non-contractual (inferred change) and ensure the Project has formally agreed the variation in contract/requirements prior to implementation in delivery.
• Be the primary contact point between the RM Project team and Customers, for technical delivery activities, escalations and in-flight change.

Experience

Proven experience of:

• Managing the delivery of complex development & technology changes in a commercial organisation, preferably in a multi-customer, multi-product SaaS-based organisation
• Working in agile product development organisations that deliver multi-year customer change programmes to discrete milestones
• Working successfully with senior internal stakeholders and customers, quickly building successful relationships and establishing credibility
• Working in matrix organisations spanning multiple countries, including the UK, India, and Australia

You will be:

• A strong collaborative team player who works well with colleagues at all levels and from different teams in the UK, India & Australia.
• Comfortable taking responsibility for issues, identifying effective methods to resolve those issues, and working with the right people to solve any underlying problems at pace.
• A critical thinker, able to challenge internal and external teams and drive pragmatic solutions to complex problems.
• Able to act decisively and make difficult decisions even if unpopular.
• Comfortable with challenging requests or directives that lack sufficient detail, including unsubstantiated or unclear assumptions, and offering alternative options.
• Technically excellent, commercially sensitive
• Understanding of how and where own activities and projects contribute to the organisation's financial success; able to understand and act upon the financial factors that influence the business.
• Passionate about learning new skills and driving continual improvement in technology delivery.
• A leader who shows and encourages a determination to achieve high standards.
• A self-starter with excellent people and process management, looking to build on their experience within a supportive and flexible organisation.

You will have:

• Excellent technical background, preferably within organisations developing SaaS or bespoke software products for revenue generating customers
• Exceptional stakeholder engagement skills, including excellent customer facing written and verbal skills
• Strong professional knowledge of project, programme and product management methods and techniques (e.g., SCRUM, Kanban, PRINCE2).
• Effective risk management and negotiation skills - able to balance competing demands for resource to ensure best overall outcome
• Project/portfolio/agile management certification
• Demonstrable drive, energy, and passion with an appetite for successfully delivering digital products.
• Outstanding interpersonal skills, a highly personable, engaging approach and a strong alignment to RM's core values: Customer success, high standards, respect for others, innovation, openness, and enjoyment at work.

Desirable experience of:

• Working with digital product delivery, architecture & infrastructure teams spanning multiple geographical locations, including the UK, India & Australia
• Experience using issue and project management software such as Azure Dec Ops, JIRA and MS Project

What's in it for you?

At RM we have "My Work Blend @RM" which provides office-based colleagues with multi location and hybrid working options to suit them. As well as your office base, you can spend a proportion of your time working at other locations in the UK that suit your role and your life, including home, other offices, customer sites, distribution centres or on the move. We encourage you to discuss arrangements for this role with your potential line manager during the recruitment process. We expect how we make best use of hybrid working may continue to adapt as we adjust to our new ways of working.

As well as a competitive salary and our core benefits package which includes private medical healthcare, life assurance and a Group Personal Pension Plan with higher contribution levels available, some roles are also eligible for a performance-related bonus. There are lots of voluntary benefits too. You could buy additional annual leave, join our dental plan, sign for a health assessment, or take part in our cycle to work scheme. You could even earn yourself an extra bonus for successfully recommending a friend or family member for a position within RM.

To better reflect the society that we serve, we're committed to building a diverse workforce and creating an inclusive and welcoming environment for all. To achieve this, we create teams of talented people from different backgrounds and experiences and strive to be a business where our people can bring their whole selves to work. We also want to make the recruitment process as inclusive as possible for everyone. Should you require additional support with your application or through the interview process, please contact us at recruitment@rm.com.

Unfortunately, we are unable to offer sponsorship for this role.