Head of Technical Program Management - Financial Services

Marks and Spencer; City Of London; On-site; GBP 125,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading retail company in the UK is seeking a Technical Program Manager to shape the program management culture. The role involves planning and delivering large-scale initiatives, aligning with strategic goals, and collaborating with cross-functional teams. Candidates should have extensive experience in agile practices and strong leadership skills, fostering a culture of transparency and innovation. This position is primarily in-person with opportunities for flexible working and offers competitive perks.

Benefits

20% colleague discount

Competitive holiday allowance

Discretionary bonus schemes

Strong pension and life assurance

Tailored induction and training

Exclusive perks and savings

Market-leading family policies

24/7 wellbeing support

One paid volunteer day a year

Qualifications

• Extensive experience delivering large-scale initiatives across multiple product functions.
• Ability to communicate effectively with technical and non-technical individuals.
• Track record of providing Technical leadership across software development phases.
• Strong understanding of Agile/Scaled Agile practices.
• Excellent leadership and coaching skills in lean agile.

Responsibilities

• Plan and deliver multi-disciplinary initiatives aligning with strategic goals.
• Create roadmaps and objectives with leadership to meet technology strategy.
• Facilitate initiative prioritization with product and engineering leaders.
• Drive data-driven decisions through metrics and reporting.
• Develop trusted relationships across business areas with technology experience.

Skills

Agile practices

Leadership skills

Interpersonal skills

Technical communication

Critical thinking

Job description

Overview

Summary You will play a key role in shaping the Technical Program Management rigor to help bring about an innovative, continuous improvement culture that allows M&S products to be built at scale with high agility. As a leader you will drive, coach and support the continuous maturity of the Program Management Community. You will work within the Digital & Technology function, supporting our Financial Services team working on a combination of programmes, projects and products being delivered by highly capable, cross-functional teams. You will operate as a leader in this area, shaping plans, managing partners and creating a high functioning culture.

All the details

What's in it for you?

Working at M&S means being part of something bigger - helping to deliver quality, value and service to millions of customers every day. We're inclusive, fast-moving and always evolving, with a strong sense of purpose and a focus on doing the right thing.

• 20% colleague discount on all M&S products and many third-party brands for you and someone in your household, available once you've completed your probation
• Competitive holiday allowance with the option to buy more
• Discretionary bonus schemes linked to your performance and ours
• Strong pension and life assurance to help plan for the future
• Tailored induction and training to support your development from day one
• Exclusive perks and savings through our M&S Choices portal
• Market-leading family policies, including parental, adoption and neonatal leave
• 24/7 wellbeing support, including virtual GP access and mental health services
• One paid volunteer day a year to support a cause that matters to you

Responsibilities

• Plan, own and deliver highly sophisticated and multi-disciplinary initiatives, collaborating with senior leaders to align strategic goals and drive a customer first mind-set in Technology
• Create roadmaps and objectives and key results alongside the Head of Product & Head of Engineering to ensure alignment to strategic ambitions for M&S including the Technology Strategy
• Facilitate continuous refinement and prioritisation of initiatives working alongside Product, Engineering and Business leaders
• Drive data driven decisions through metrics and regular reporting to provide visibility creating a culture of transparency
• Develop trusted relationships with partners across business areas using deep and relevant technology experience to simplify sophisticated technology issues

Qualifications

• Extensive experience delivering large-scale initiatives across multiple product functions and domains
• Excellent interpersonal skills, proactive can do demeanour and ability to communicate effectively with both technical and non technical individuals including director level
• Track record of providing Technical leadership across domains, product groups and Program management during all phases of software development from ideation to realising value, demonstrating critical thinking and thought leadership
• Strong solid understanding/experience of Agile/Scaled Agile practices including Scrum, Kanban and DevOps
• Highly diligent professional with excellent leadership and coaching skills in lean agile practices

Everyone's welcome

M&S is ready to push boundaries to lead the retail industry into a greener, speedier, more inspiring digital era. That's why we're revolutionising how we work and offering our most exciting opportunities yet. Marks & Spencer aims to be an inclusive organisation, trusted and admired by our colleagues, customers and suppliers. Join us and make an immediate impact.

We're an in-person business and have core collaboration days in our Support Centre each week. For most teams, this is 3 working days where we come together to collaborate, innovate, and serve our customers thoughtfully.

We are committed to an active Inclusion, Diversity and Equal Opportunities Policy, which starts with our recruitment and selection process, and we are happy to talk flexible working.

If you consider yourself to require reasonable adjustments to any part of our recruitment process, we invite you to share those requirements with us when completing your application. We will make every effort to ensure your needs are met to provide a fair and transparent process of assessment.

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