Head of IT Demand Management

Job description / Role

To ensure the project and change activities required from the Technology Services (TS) function are aligned and managed towards the banks overall strategy and towards the IT strategy as well as planned and prioritized in the most efficient manner in order to achieve optimal useage of the banks technology resources and deliver maximum business benefit.

Provide governance and management of the demand pipeline and act as primary partner for the business functions to capture, structure, align and plan business demand and match this demand with the IT supply functions’ capacity. Ensure consistent capturing and prioritization of the demand towards IT and regular alignment and priritization of demand.

Facilitate the annual planning cycle as well as structuring, capturing and estimation of the demand on an ongoing bases and mapping of the demand against agreed plan and resource base.

Facilitate regular communication channels and forums to align on planned activities in the day to day operations between business units and Technology Services as well as reviews on IT performance and incidents.

Main Tasks
• Manage the relationship with the business units with respect to their new requirements (projects, system enhancement requests, availability and disaster recovery requirements, capacity requirements, etc.)
• Manage a group of demand managers and subject matter experts working with the business units regarding their IT demand and IT deliveries.
• Develop, define and implement the overall IT demand management structure & processes in agreement with the CIO and COO.
• Develop a communication and governance structure in line with Capital Expenditure Committee processes which takes care of the business units needs and aligns demand with existing capacity.
• Set Budget and Resource requirements and influence Head of Technology Services and COO to make effective decisions.
• Manage workload and assignments of a team of demand managers.
• To initiate, participate and contribute (at a high level) to any ongoing business activity which will create substantial IT demand.
• Initiate and execute intra departmental communication and improvement activities to ensure maximum alignment of the IT with business priorities and facilitate demand capturing.
• Attend all relevant Business and decision making forums which deal with future IT demand and new requirements.
• Build an overall demand pipeline on an annual basis as well as in an ongoing basis (mapped against annual plan).
• Develop and maintain a project and enhancement roadmap aligned with business priority, IT capacity, technical dependencies and ongoing project portfolio.
• Capture new demand and ensure structured and high quality of demand’s scope and specification in order to have a consistent basis for estimation and scheduling of the implementation.
• Liaise with the business units to shape and implement the demand management processes as well as the regular liaison / relationship management interactions.
• Prepare and maintain a project portfolio view for upcoming projects with IT expenditure to facilitate a Capital Expenditure Committee decision basis.
• Prepare and maintain a System Enhancement Request Portfolio view and facilitate prioritization and scheduling decisions for System Enhancement requests in order to ensure optimal usage of the IT capacity.
• Develop KPIs for Demand Management
• Ensures timely and accurate reporting of all IT demand related issues to senior management and key stakeholders.
• Develop KPIs for Demand Management as well as dashboards and regular reports to create transparency and tracking of change requests and projects.
• Creates information packs for senior management in GBS and other business units to create transparency over the demand pipeline, the status of current in-flight projects as well as day-to-day operations performance metrics of IT.
• Facilitate alignment meetings with business units on several levels up to the Management Executive Committee
• Create transparency about upcoming business initiatives, the current demand pipeline, the current IT change execution performance, capacity situation.
• Create transparency on the current IT operations status via operational KPIs, monthly reviews and other metrics.
• Fulfil the role as the IT Management Committee secretariat ensuring quality of the forum in terms of structure, decision making and governance
• Provide effective decision support on a financial and risk basis for IT management team
• Peer group member to Head of Infrastructure and Head of Systems Development

Requirements

Minimum Education Level:

A university degree in a technical subject such as Management Information Systems or financial subject is essential. A masters degree in a business related subject area would be desirable

Professional Qualification:

Ideally qualified in ITIL and in a project management methodology

Experience:

At least 10 - 12 years background in IT in a bank or financial services institution.

4-5 years experience in project management of larger IT projects.

Previous experience in release management and ideally some exposure to IT operations management and good knowledge of IT governance processes.

Strong banking background with at least 5 years in a senior managerial capacity.

Full understanding and experience with all functions of a universal bank in order to be able to understand, evaluate and judge the IT requirements of different banking business units

Excellent person to person communication skills are required with a track record of relationship building and liaison with business functions.

A very good knowledge of written and spoken English is required.

About the Company

ADCB is a full-service commercial bank offering a wide range of products and services such as retail banking, wealth management, private banking, corporate banking, commercial banking, cash management, investment banking, corporate finance, foreign exchange, interest rate and currency derivatives, Islamic products, project finance, and property management services.