Senior Associate, Strategic Planning (Operations) - Manchester

Fitch Group; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 35,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading financial information services firm located in Manchester is seeking a Senior Operations Associate to assist in strategic planning, project coordination, and performance reporting. The ideal candidate will have a Bachelor's Degree and 2-3 years of experience, alongside proficiency in tools like Jira and Power BI. This role supports various product areas and promotes a collaborative work environment with a hybrid model, enhancing both career development and work-life balance.

Benefits

Hybrid Work Environment

Learning & Mobility Programs

Retirement Planning

Health & Wellbeing Programs

Family-Friendly Policies

Paid Volunteer Days

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree and 2-3 years of experience in product coordination, project management, or business analysis.
• Familiarity with Agile methodology required.
• Proficiency in Jira, Power BI, Excel, and PowerPoint expected.

Responsibilities

• Assist in developing product roadmaps aligned with organizational objectives.
• Coordinate key initiatives by tracking dependencies and maintaining schedules.
• Prepare regular performance reports including KPIs and budget summaries.

Skills

Analytical skills

Communication

Collaboration

Problem-solving

Agile methodology

Education

Bachelor's Degree

Tools

Jira

Power BI

Excel

PowerPoint

Job description

This job is brought to you by Jobs/Redefined, the UK's leading over-50s age inclusive jobs board.

As one of the world's top three credit ratings agencies, Fitch Ratings plays a critical role in global capital markets by providing credit analysis, ratings, research, and commentary to financial market participants. For over 100 years, Fitch Ratings has been creating value for global markets through its rigorous analysis and deep expertise, which have resulted in a variety of market leading tools, methodologies, indices, research, and analytical products. Fitch Ratings is part of Fitch Group, a global leader in financial information services with operations in more than 30 countries, which also includes Fitch Solutions. With dual headquarters in London and New York, Fitch Group is owned by Hearst.

Explore a career at Fitch Ratings and you'll join a collaborative network of curious minds. Here, our differences are our strengths - in life as well as our work. Together we work with integrity and objectivity to provide clarity to the world's financial markets. We pride ourselves on our ability to harness the ideas, expertise, and professionalism of our global workforce, which is integral to our continued success. The accessibility and depth of experience of our industry leading analysts, combined with our broad sector credentials, allow us to help market participants make important credit decisions with confidence.

Fitch Ratings is currently seeking a Senior Operations Associate based out of our Manchester office.

About the Team:

Ratings Workflow Solutions is a cross-functional team responsible for maintaining, enhancing, and building the ratings applications and processes that our Ratings staff use to do their jobs. The goal of Ratings Workflow Solutions is to deliver continuous improvement, mitigate risks, and deploy standardization and automation within Fitch's Ratings applications and workflows.

How You'll Make an Impact:

We're looking for an organized and analytically driven individual with 1-3 years of experience who wants to grow their skills in strategic planning and product management. This person will work collaboratively across our 5 Product areas to support roadmap development, execute planning processes, and track progress against business outcomes.

Based in Manchester and reporting to the Head of Strategic Planning, the successful candidate will help maintain and grow this centralized function. The person in this role will support the creation and maintenance of a tribe-level view of feature roadmaps, quarterly business reviews, and a framework for tracking business benefits. We are looking for a strong team player who works well across various teams to promote standardized reporting.

What You'll Do:

Key Responsibilities:

• Strategic Planning Support: Assist in developing and maintaining strategic product roadmaps and timelines to align with organizational objectives.
• Project Coordination: Coordinate key tribe initiatives by facilitating stakeholder alignment, tracking dependencies, maintaining schedules, and ensuring timely follow-up on action items.
• Recruitment Coordination: Support tribe recruitment efforts by tracking open positions, coordinating with HR and hiring managers, maintaining candidate pipeline status, and reporting on hiring progress against headcount plans.
• Reporting & Analytics: Prepare regular tribe performance reports including KPIs, benefits tracking, roadmap status, and budget summaries; maintain dashboards and support data analysis to inform decision-making.
• Budget Support: Assist with expense tracking, capital planning data, and headcount reporting.

You May be a Good Fit if:

• Bachelor's Degree and 2-3 years of experience with product coordination, project management, or business analysis
• Familiarity with Agile methodology
• Experience supporting planning processes or tracking delivery milestones
• Proficiency in Jira, Power BI Excel and PowerPoint
• Clear, concise communication; ability to translate data into actionable insights

What Would Make You Stand Out:

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with attention to detail
• Clear written and verbal communication, comfortable chairing meetings
• Ability to create compelling presentations and executive-ready materials in PowerPoint
• Robust experience with Power BI & Excel
• Can-do attitude with flexibility and willingness to tackle varied responsibilities
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, matrixed organization

Why Choose Fitch:

• Hybrid Work Environment: 3 days a week in office required
• A Culture of Learning & Mobility: Dedicated trainings, leadership development and mentorship programs designed to ensure that your time at Fitch will be a continuous learning opportunity
• Investing in Your Future: Retirement planning and tuition reimbursement programs that empower you to achieve your short and long-term goals
• Promoting Health & Wellbeing: Comprehensive healthcare offerings that enable physical, mental, financial, social, and occupational wellbeing
• Supportive Parenting Policies: Family-friendly policies, including a generous global parental leave plan, designed to help you balance career and family life effectively
• Inclusive Work Environment: A collaborative workplace where all voices are valued, with Employee Resource Groups that unite and empower our colleagues around the globe
• Dedication to Giving Back: Paid volunteer days, matched funding for donations and ample opportunities to volunteer in your community

Fitch is committed to providing global securities markets with objective, timely, independent and forward-looking credit opinions. To protect Fitch's credibility and reputation, our employees must take every precaution to avoid conflicts of interests or any appearance of a conflict of interest. Should you be successful in the recruitment process at Fitch Ratings you will be asked to declare any securities holdings and other potential conflicts prior to commencing employment. If you, or your immediate family, have any holdings that may conflict with your work responsibilities, you may be asked to divest yourself of them before beginning work.

Fitch is proud to be an Equal Opportunity and Affi…