Head of IT

Job description / Role

Job Purpose: Manage activities of the staff involved in IT Operations, Monitoring, Batch scheduling, Vendor mgmt, End user & helpdesk support, physical infrastructure mgmt, networks & migration of services into production and Data Centre service hosting. IT Operations contribute to the IT strategy, & Service Roadmaps. Responsible for the IT BAU budgets, support & third party maintenance.

Key Responsibilities & Accountabilities
- Drive the operation and evolution of the bank’s IT Infrastructure
- Operate, on a day-to-day basis, and (to the agreed service levels) drive continual improvement to the banks key infrastructure services, i.e. Data Centre, Hosting, Network Services and End User Computing
- Direct and control the activities of the second and third-line support functions (which may lie with external service providers)
- Own the detailed design and roadmaps for infrastructure services, ensuring compliance to EA standards, policies and roadmaps
- Produce capacity and availability plans for Infrastructure services and proactively work with the demand management teams and IT Business Partners to meet evolving business needs
- Evolve the production monitoring capability and tooling to focus on business value monitoring over simple technology monitoring

Drive the Service Support and Delivery functions within the bank
- Own, manage and continuously improve customer facing services e.g. Service / Help Desk, desk side support, self-help tools / information portals
- Manage and own incidents, defects and problems (including the supporting processes) identified in the production environment and take end-to-end ownership to drive their resolution
- Provide, in conjunction with suppliers, support services (fix-on-fail) for the production environments within incident and problem management SLAs as agreed with the business
- Drive continuous improvement in the production environments, proactively undertaking trend analysis and problem management activities to improve the robustness and stability of the production systems
- Work within the agreed governance structures to manage and own the release, change and deployment management processes to deliver change to the production systems working with colleagues and industry best practices so as not to disrupt normal business operations
- Act as the key gate keeper between new and production services, having the ultimate sign-off for all production changes / acceptance and service
- Evolve the CMDB and Knowledge Management tools, processes and internal capabilities

Lead and develop IT Operations teams
- Communicate the role and method of operation of the Service Delivery teams both with business and with IT stakeholders
- Take the lead for services and processes outlined in the ITIL Service Design, Transition and Operation frameworks
- Investigate and pursue sourcing options to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of all owned services
- Define and evolve meaningful metrics to measure progress and establish regular reporting
- Define and evolved SLAs with the business for critical services, manage to these targets and report performance against these targets
- Own the Service Strategy, lifecycle and roadmaps to support the business and IT Strategies
- Develop the capability maturity of the Service Delivery teams through managing the direction, structure, processes, culture and targets of the team
- Evolve and mature the Service Lifecycle and knowledge management capabilities across the team
- Investigate and pursue sourcing options to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the teams whilst providing variable capacity to respond to business demand
- Own and manage supplier relationships, contracts, performance and lifecycles
- Foster a culture of learning and continuous improvement within the team
- Support individual development of team members

Requirements

Educational Qualifications & Experience
- Bachelor degree in IT, Engineering or related discipline and appropriate registration with a recognized professional institutes (e.g. Project Management – PMP).
- 12 + years relevant experience
- Minimum of 10 years management experience
- Banking industry knowledge would be an advantage
- Knowledge of software development life cycle and project life cycle.
- Ability to operate in a diverse multicultural, multinational work environment, exhibiting appropriate sensitivities
- Excellent command of both written and verbal English, Arabic would be an advantage

Skills and Experience
- >10 years of experience working in an international banking IT operational environment, preferably with experience working in GCC banks
- >7 years of Service Delivery Management and Operations management experience
- Strong understanding of technology and delivery trends and their application in Financial Services
- Knowledge of business re-engineering principles and processes
- An understanding of international Financial Services regulatory requirements
- Familiarity with international frameworks and guidelines e.g. ITIL, COBIT
- Strong written and verbal communication skills
- Senior leader with strong management, delegation and motivational skills
- Proven track record in building and developing teams
- Experience of in working through major organizational change

Personal Attributes
- Ability to understand and communicate complex issues at summary through to detailed level
- Excellent communicator with the ability to talk with equal technical fluency amongst IT peers and translate for those less technically savvy
- Exceptional drive and motivation to improve customer service, experience and reliability
- Ability to translate business needs into application requirements
- Strong stakeholder management skills
- Exceptional interpersonal skills, including teamwork, facilitation
- Play a critical role in ensuring design, implementation and roadmap alignment with the Banks strategy and industry direction
- Ensure, plan and prepare the way forward for the migration to new technologies within very demanding and challenging timeframes
- Play a vital role in the Banks integration through the development and design of the IT Infrastructure and Applications
- Play a key role in facilitating the delivery of IT roadmaps
- Pivotal role in planning all new technologies
- Plan, priorities and manage activities of staff involved in the IT Delivery Unit, contributing to the development and refinement of Business & IT Strategy delivery
- Conduct and lead bi-annually workshops that will communicate cross functionally the IT roadmap, migration paths and the correlations to the budget (CAPEX) needed
- Manages all aspects of IT planning, development, optimization, expansion and roll-out to ensure the technical services meet current and future capacity requirements
- Recommends the introduction and integration of new technologies and features that will provide cost effective solutions
- Provide forecasts to accommodate increased customer and traffic requirements
- Manage the production of tender documentation, undertake commercial and technical evaluations of bids, and make recommendations for preferred suppliers and assists in negotiations and management of relations
- Introduce and ensure compliance with international quality assurance programs that set standards, specifications and best practice procedures
- Set up reports and tracking of designs to ensure all are progressed to closure
- Lead in technical discussions in relation to any Technical matters
- Prioritize projects, identify best sourcing options, decide on outsourcing solutions and ensure quality of final products and services
- Meet quality and performance KPI as agreed with Head of IT
- Ensure all documentation meets Compliance standards
- Ensure that upper management is informed on all critical issues pertaining to the area responsible for
- Responsible for developing cost analyses, design considerations, and implementation time-lines
- Monitors expenditure and be able to justify variances.
- Preparation of various weekly/ monthly reports relating to staff and achievement in the project department.
- Plan, prioritize and manage activities of IT Delivery staff
- Proactively manage and motivate the team to be highly professional and results oriented
- Work to improve employee performance through personal coaching and identifying training and development needs
- Conduct annual performance appraisals (Performance Management System) and ensure objectives set are monitored and achieved
- Proactively take responsibility for self-improvement by staying well-informed of developments, knowledge and innovations in relevant field of expertise
- Other duties as directed by supervisor or other superiors

Competencies
- Influencing
- Organizational Networking
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Leading: Visioning/Strategic Understanding
- Leading: Big Picture Thinking/Strategic Thinking

Skills
- Very Strong Analytical skills
- Very Strong Skills in Architecture practices for IT
- Very Strong Project Management skills
- Very Strong Management skills
- Very Strong Technical skills
- Very Strong interpersonal communication skills

Critical Success Factors
- Be able to prioritize technology roadmaps, assessing dependencies & be able to navigate the deliverables to extremely demanding timescales

KPI’s
- Meet Design SLAs
- Ensure Roadmaps Are designed & communicated
- Ensure Projects Meet Time, Cost & Quality requirements

About the Company

Networkers is a global recruitment consultancy helping unite job-seekers and hiring companies across the technology industry. Since Networkers was established in 2000, the business has grown considerably and we have consistently proven our ability to connect the right people with the right roles in the right businesses around the world. What makes us unique is our ability to offer a local service on a global scale. From our 14 offices spanning across four continents, we are able to recruit in more than 130 countries.