Head of IT Operations - c£60K - required strong in the management of a small IT function responsible for Infrastructure, Systems, Support and Project Delivery to work for my fast growing financial services client based in the heart of London.

Reporting directly into the IT Director you will be managing a team of IT Support Engineers responsible for managing all aspects of my clients IT Operations which include processes, support, Infrastructure and project delivery. To be considered you will have an excellent track record of leading a successful team and managing a range of technologies and ITIL best practice.

This will also include the following:

o    Proven leader who is self-motivated and driven with excellent management skills

o    Broad technology experience: Windows Servers, virtualisation, storage and network plus Cloud (AWS or Azure)

o    Experience of Office 365 and Contact Centres

o    Familiar with DR/BCP, high availability, backup and security

o    Good knowledge of ITIL or any other industry standard best practice framework

o    Service Desk Management and management of projects.

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Working alongside a world class business with offices in Hereford, I am looking for a Head of IT Software Delivery to join them in a brand new role. You will be responsible for leading a large multifunctional IT Delivery tea spanning development, testing and support.

It's an exciting time to join my client as they are currently delivering major transformational change. They are in the midst of significant changes and are looking to recruit a lot of blood into their IT function and therefore require an experienced Head of Software Delivery to facilitate these teams and essentially take ownership for all software delivery moving forward.

This is a highly strategic and incredibly autonomous role where you will be responsible for designing, delivering and implementing high-class technological roadmaps and identify on-going opportunities for improvement across IT. Reporting into the IT Director, you will 4 direct reports (QA Manager, Data Architect, Development Manager and Response Team Manager) and be responsible for ensuring that the team are delivering high quality solutions.. in the right way. You will drive process and performance improvements across Development and change whilst driving innovation and best practice.

You will have a proven track record in aligning and directing teams teams and departments and ultimately driving them to success! I am looking for the calibre of Delivery Manager who will motivate and inspire their team whilst encouraging better ways of working. Naturally, you will be solution and delivery focused but its also key that you are able to manage and maintain relationships with various stakeholders throughout the business to influence and shape strategic direction.

In relation to the business, not only do they have a great reputation within their field, but its also a great place to work! The culture is informal and friendly and people really enjoy working here. Their retention rate is good and they treat their people really well - which is reflected through their impressive benefits package..

You will receive a salary of up to £75,000 plus bonus, pension scheme (4%), private, healthcare, flexible working hours and a 32 working hour week.

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Main Responsibilities:

·         Ensure transparency to projects and programs at all levels

·         Ensure successful delivery of well-controlled projects and programs on time and to meet business objectives

·         Build/Maintain a successful team of project and program managers

·         Engage in external processes and delivery frameworks to represent F&R Technology and the portfolio

·         Ensure that realistic estimates of costs, timescales and resource requirements are agreed and monitor projects against these criteria, taking corrective action as necessary

·         Understand current IT estate and operations, as well as current enterprise architecture objectives and constraints. Focus on business risk and continuity issues which impact the strategy. Take full advantage of wider issues, eg commercials, people, processes and systems, for any proposed IT strategy.

·         Influence stakeholder groups to successfully gain their support and commitment.

·         Support the maturity of the Change Delivery function in order to:

o    Centralize demand intake and optimize the project portfolio and resource capacity to deliver your organization's strategic initiatives.

o    Optimize resource capacity and improve utilization

o    Balance portfolio for capital and expense constraints

o    Visualize, share, and investigate portfolio performance to identify issues and manage against KPIs

Essential Skills/Experience Required:

·         Ability to think strategically and creatively, strong analytical and problem solving skills.

·         Current strong experience in managing people

·         Experience engaging with stakeholders of varying levels, managing across time zones and cultures

·         Able to understand and anticipate project and business continuity risks, and manage/

·         mitigate

·         Project and Program management skills, including documentation and delivery, working knowledge of PMO frameworks

·         Experience of delivering technical projects.

·         Engage and build relationships with diverse stakeholders, influencing and providing tactful 'push-back' and alternative solutions where necessary

·         Drive pragmatic delivery - employing a cross disciplinary approach and emphasis on results

·         Develop the capability of delivery teams so that they can demonstrate consistent, reliable programme success.

·         Conceptual thinking: The ability to understand the underlying issues in complex problems or situations by relating these to simpler or better understood concepts, models or previous experiences in order to deliver change successfully

·         Initiative and drive: Proactively, anticipating opportunities for service improvement and taking appropriate action

·         Leadership qualities including the ability to identify goals and objectives, and motivate and lead others towards achieving them.

·         Influence, persuasion and personal impact, the ability to convey a level of confidence and professionalism, positively

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A market leading manufacturer based in Sheffield, has a requirement for and IT Manager to join their business due to a period of growth.

A brand new and very exciting role has just arisen for a talented IT/Technical Solutions Managers to join a rapidly growing IT SME to head up their IT & web solutions teams. As the IT/Technical Solutions Manager you will need to act as an entrepreneur internally within the business as this IT solutions provider are looking to double in size over the next 5 years. You will manage a team of IT Service Desk, Web Operations & Web solutions Analyst's ensuring they are providing the best customer service to clients. 

The IT/Technical Solutions Manager will need to come with ideas, enthusiasm, energy and an appetite to grow a well-established business and help them grow to the next level. You will be targeted in growing the business current clients, providing new ideas and IT solutions and assistant the sales floor increase revenues. The IT/Technical Solutions Manager will need to lead & grow an existing technical team ensuring they get a chance to grow & develop their career further.

Skills required for the IT/Technical Solutions Manager are: 

- Strong technical experience with good knowledge in all things Microsoft
- Proven line management skills 
- Good business knowledge & previous experience helping IT organisations grown 
- Great communication skills and ability to work with various senior stakeholders 
- Experience working in a SME with a commercial outlook. 

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Director of Infrastructure and Operations needed to join a global organisation based in the heart of London. The Director of Infrastructure and Operations will be joining a reputable financial services organisation on an initial two - three-year fixed term contract where you will an integral part to the change and transformation of the businesses Infrastructure and operations. This is a fantastic opportunity for a Director of Infrastructure and Operations to make a real name for themselves and make a positive impact on a global organisation.

The successful Director of Infrastructure and Operations will have been part of change and transformation projects, communicated with 3rd party vendors, stakeholders and lead out sourcing work so that they are able to manage business changes efficiently. The Director of Infrastructure and Operations will have worked with an organisation that has moved into the Cloud and has had experience managing IT Operations and ideally a DevOps environment. The successful candidate will have excellent leadership and communication skills, they will be a strong decision maker and have been part of a wider leadership team.

The Director of Infrastructure and Operations will not be hands on, but will have come from an Infrastructure background and have exceptional experience road mapping, project managing and will feel confident being accountable for the totality of the IT infrastructure and Operations.

Essential skills and experience:

·         Proven project and leadership skills - experience leading major out sourcing work.

·         Excellent analytical, strategic, planning and execution skills

·         Solid Infrastructure background and ideally experience moving into the cloud.

·         Strong vendor management and partner relationship skills

·         Expertise and solid experience in budget planning and financial management skills

·         Success in leveraging traditional best practices and new emerging methods such as DevOps

·         Demonstrated experience in strategic planning, organisation, design and development

·         Excellent communication skills

This is a unique opportunity for a talented and ambitious Leader who is looking to career make a name for themselves with global and market leading financial organisation who are going through transition and change.

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Skills/Experience Needed

·         Implement and evolve the IT plan/Road Map.

·         Significant experience of influencing and managing 3rd party suppliers

·         Establish a clear direction and strategy, developed collaboratively with the rest of the organisation

·         Work with other departments to identify current and potential requirements for IT infrastructure, services and training and plan how to fulfil them

·         Develop and maintain a high-level programme and budget to deliver new IT requirements, ensuring changes (eg new projects) are in line with strategy and approved by key stakeholders.

·         Overseeing major IT projects across the organisation.

Role and responsibilities

·         Oversee and optimise the use of major IT investment across the organisation - eg installation of new software, cloud services and network infrastructure.

·         Review supplier deliverables ensuring that they meet the necessary standards and contractual agreements.

·         Project manage any major IT projects, ensuring objectives and scope are clearly defined, and successfully delivered, reporting regularly on progress.

·         Work closely with the business units to support the business systems, and provide administrative support to their effective running and development.

·         Responsible for development of procedures to make sure the delivery of new and existing services and solutions are delivered successfully.

·         Oversee management of IT contractors, monitoring effective response and resolution of incidents and requests, ensuring good customer service and addressing issues as they arise.

Person specification

·         Proven experience of IT Service Management and working in a service delivery role across a complex organisation

·         Capable of assisting in both a hands on' fashion as well as being able to develop a broad overview of requirements to meet business needs.

·         Experience of managing both software and infrastructure functions.

·         Broad hands on technical skills and keeps abreast of technical innovations

·         Good working knowledge of infrastructure and the organisation's systems.

·         Excellent interpersonal, communication and customer service skills and experience of delivering customer service improvements

·         Working knowledge of ITIL

·         Proven experience in managing IT projects and delivering change to end users

·         Experience of managing, motivating and developing staff

·         Experience and awareness of the development cycle with ideas of how to use the latest technical tools to drive the organisation forward.

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Key Accountabilities/Responsibilities:

*Partners with the CTO in providing technology vision and direction for the enterprise.
*Is responsible for driving focus and prioritization within the IT organization through working with the Head of Portfolio Planning and defining governance principles and processes.
*Oversees the development and maintenance of IT policies, procedures, methodologies, and governance - as well as performance management frameworks and metrics - to ensure the IT organization delivers value to the enterprise.
*Works with the CTO and business leadership team, providing broad insight to IT domains and capabilities in support of enterprise wide business decisions.
*Establishes and implements continuous-improvement programs for the IT organization.
*Stays current with developments in new market trends and innovations in technology and the leadership of enterprise IT.
*Drives and facilitates effective collaboration and communications between the IT organization and other areas of the business.
*Responsible for directing the preparation, review and consolidation of business plans and budgets for the IT organization.
*Regularly review IT costs and cost structures for IT services and products so that the financial implications of IT projects and activities are communicated to the proper IT and business executives.

Essential Capabilities/Experience:

*A Bachelor's degree in computer science or a related field with a minimum of 5 years relevant experience, OR relevance vocational qualification(s) with a minimum of 5 years relevant experience
*Ability to unblock issues with third parties through relationships and escalations thereby minimising negative impacts on delivery 
*A background in technology delivery with previous experience across governance, vendor management, financial management and delivery
*Strong experience in influencing others through developing trusted relationships
*Identifies and acts on opportunities for continuous improvement.
*Encourages prudent risk taking, exploration of alternative approaches and organizational learning.
*Demonstrates personal commitment to change through actions and words.
*Mobilizes others to support change through times of stress and uncertainty.
*Sets and accomplishes challenging goals.
*Defines standards in terms of doing what is appropriate and doing it well.
*Competes resourcefully, and takes calculated risks to achieve results.
*Encourages and facilitates cooperation and results orientation.
*Fosters an environment of collaboration.
*Inspires, motivates and guides team members.
*Fosters commitment, team spirit, pride and trust.
*Proven experience of demonstrating good industry practices and behaviours 
*Strong project management skills/qualifications ideally with Agile and Waterfall methodologies
*Experience in defining and managing activities with quantifiable measures to deliver architecture work to planned schedules, budgets and quality to support broader delivery
*Define and report status in a meaningful manner 
*Clear communicator both written and verbally

Desired Capabilities/Experience:

*Ability to define and manage Change Control experience and engage within IT Governance processes
*Experience of budgeting and negotiation
*Management of 3rd party engagements (from selection, through execution to closeout)
*Strong industry relationships with product vendors and IT community
*Background in Financial Services sector.

None.

Your skills and experience will include:
Significant knowledge and experience of strategic IT planning
Knowledge of and experience of delivering technologies in all its dimensions of an business
Significant experience of managing IT projects
Knowledge and exposure to IT supplier management and licensing
Knowledge and experience of best practice in business and process analysis 
Knowledge and experience of communication and knowledge management systems 
Significant experience of developing and managing integrated business systems
Strong leadership, people and team management skills
Excellent communication and presentation skills
Strong ability to engage and manage stakeholders
Experience in driving innovation and change in an established industry or organisation 
UK rail industry and/or capital programme knowledge and experience is an advantage

You will have at least 10 years' experience and a proven track record in information services, technology and data, ideally in a role within the rail industry or similar asset intensive environment. 
Preferably, you will also have some experience of holding roles in fast paced and complex environments during the setup of a new organisation.

EDUCATION AND QUALIFICATIONS:
Master's Degree or an equivalent combination of a Bachelor degree and experience (in information technology/computing)
Member of relevant professional body.

None.

Development/motivation of staff, directing all IT operations to meet customer requirements as well as the support and maintenance of existing infrastructure, applications, and development of new technical solutions. Oversee the development, design, and implementation of new applications and changes to existing computer systems and software packages. Develop and implement all IT policies and procedures, including those for architecture, security, disaster recovery, standards, purchasing, and service provision. Ensure that all programmes and projects deliver to time, cost, and quality requirements, organising activities, clarifying tasks and responsibilities and making best use of resources. Demonstrate a proven track record of success in a leadership role within a corporate IT environment.

EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

As Information Technology lead for East West Rail Co., you will have at least 5 years' experience and a proven track record in information services, technology and data, ideally in a role within the UK rail industry or similar asset intensive environment. 
Preferably, you will also have some experience of holding roles in fast paced and complex environments during the setup of a new organisation.

Your skills and experience will include:

Significant knowledge and experience of strategic IT planning
Knowledge of and experience of delivering technologies in all its dimensions of an business
Significant experience of managing IT projects
Knowledge and exposure to IT supplier management and licensing
Knowledge and experience of best practice in business and process analysis 
Knowledge and experience of communication and knowledge management systems 
Significant experience of developing and managing integrated business systems
Strong leadership, people and team management skills
Excellent communication and presentation skills
Strong ability to engage and manage stakeholders
Experience in driving innovation and change in an established industry or organisation 
UK rail industry and/or capital programme knowledge and experience is an advantage

EDUCATION AND QUALIFICATIONS

Master's Degree or an equivalent combination of a Bachelor degree and experience (in information technology/computing)
Member of relevant professional body
You will need to have the right to work in the UK.

None.

IT Director with experience of managing enterprise level business applications and systems, in addition to infrastructure and services, is required by a leading international business whose UK operation is centred out of Brighton.

This role will see you reporting directly into the CTO and having overall responsibility for the Business Systems and applications in addition to the global infrastructure team. The emphasis will be on ensuring an high availability, high performing infrastructure service.

The key competencies you will need to have in order to be successful in this IT Director role include:

·         Very strong technology leadership and understanding of international IT set ups, including Systems and Infrastructure

·         Proven examples of making improvements and impacts on business systems and applications, such as CRM, ERP etc.

·         Be an effective manager, leading a diverse team of technology professionals across the company

·         Able to take ownership and execute IT strategies, having ownership of the IT roadmap and architecture

·         Be highly focused on service delivery, with a proven ability to continually improve processes and procedures across the existing IT complex

·         Work collaboratively with peers and stakeholders at all levels of the business, offering your guidance, experience and promoting ideas for improvement

This role oversees a complex IT set up which includes the in-house systems and infrastructure, along with integrated systems into their customer sites. This role would suit someone who has worked in a similar environment and is comfortable with both national and international travel where required.

In return you will be working with a truly fantastic, private entity who continue to expand and thrive in their market place. You will be working with a great group of individuals, taking on a position which offers some of the best work challenges in town.

None.