Programme Manager – Data Retention Transformation (FTC Role)

Our purpose is to give everyone real confidence to put their money to work. With a heritage dating back more than 175 years, we have a long history of innovation in savings and investments, combining asset management and insurance expertise to offer a wide range of solutions. 

Our two distinct operating segments, Asset Management and Life, work together to provide access to balanced, long-term investment and savings solutions.

Through telling it like it is, owning it now, and moving it forward together with care and integrity; we are creating an exceptional place to work for exceptional talent.

We will consider flexible working arrangements for any of our roles and also offer work place accommodations to ensure you have what you need to effectively deliver in your role.

Programme Manager – Data Retention Transformation (FTC Role)

M&G Life serves over 5 million customers and manages more than £300bn in assets. As part of our modernisation and control‑strengthening agenda, we are delivering two of our most critical change initiatives: the Data Retention Programme and the Data Products Programme. Together, these programmes will reduce operational risk, improve data hygiene, enable future digital capability, and ensure we meet evolving regulatory expectations.

We’re looking for a Programme Manager to lead this large, complex, multi‑year transformation. You’ll oversee delivery across Group, Life, Technology, Data, Risk and Legal — creating a unified and sustainable approach to data retention and scalable data products. You’ll set the standard for programme discipline, governance and pace, giving the organisation confidence that data is managed, controlled and retired safely and transparently.

This role is ideal for a senior delivery leader who can operate as a trusted partner to executives, bring clarity to complex technical and regulatory requirements, manage third‑party providers, and lead multidisciplinary teams. You will play a pivotal role in strengthening our operational resilience and building the data foundations that underpin customer trust and future digital strategy.

Key Responsibilities

Programme Delivery & Governance

• Lead the end‑to‑end delivery of a large, multi‑year Data Retention and Data Products programmes, ensuring predictable execution, strong governance and alignment to enterprise priorities.
• Translate regulatory, legal and risk requirements into executable plans across data, technology, platform and business change.

Executive Stakeholders & Decisioning

• Engage and influence senior leaders across Life, Technology, Data, Risk, Legal, Finance and Operations; provide concise, data‑led updates to SteerCo/Board forums.
• Drive timely enterprise trade‑offs; remove ambiguity and cut through blockers.

Third‑Party Partner & Vendor Delivery (Technology/Data)

• Lead high‑value partner ecosystems (SI, tooling vendors, managed services) across data classification, archival/deletion, lineage and storage platforms.
• Set clear deliverables, SLAs and acceptance criteria; coordinate integration, non‑functional requirements, security and compliance; hold suppliers to account on scope, quality, cost and timelines.
• Ensure commercial discipline (contracts, SoWs, change control) and seamless collaboration with internal engineering, architecture and data governance teams.

Technical & Business Change

• Orchestrate change across legacy estates, cloud platforms, warehouses, document stores and business processes; manage impacts to Operations, Distribution, CMO, Finance and Claims.
• Land scalable retention solutions (classification, lifecycle tooling, metadata uplift, automated deletion) with measurable control improvements.

Risk, Controls & Assurance

• Operate within Change Risk Appetite: surface risks early, agree mitigations, avoid end‑cycle surprises; provide clean evidence for Risk, Audit and Assurance partners.
• Maintain sharp, value‑adding governance and executive‑ready reporting.

Ways of Working & Leadership

• Apply the right delivery approach (Agile/Waterfall/hybrid) for regulatory and data complexity; drive continuous improvement and efficient sequencing.
• Lead and develop Project Managers, BAs, Data SMEs and PMO; set a culture of clarity, ownership, candour and high performance.
• Champion modern tooling (e.g., Jira/Confluence, delivery MI) to enable transparent, data‑driven decisions.

Key Skills & Experience

• Programme leadership of large, complex, multi‑year transformations in financial services or similarly regulated environments.
• Data‑centric change expertise: data retention/lifecycle, GDPR/regulatory programmes, control uplift, legacy data remediation.
• High‑accountability vendor management in the technology/data domain (SIs, platform/tooling vendors, managed services): contracting, SoWs, SLAs, acceptance, integration, performance management.
• Strong risk, audit, legal and data governance literacy; proven ability to turn policy into delivery outcomes.
• Stakeholder influence at Exec/SteerCo level; crisp storytelling and decision‑enabling insights.
• Mastery of governance discipline and executive reporting; adept at complex dependency management across portfolios and legacy estates.
• Practical fluency in Agile/Waterfall/hybrid; coach others in best practice.
• Proficiency with delivery tooling (Jira highly desirable).

Key Behaviours

• Relentless Delivery Focus — proactive, structured, and committed to predictable outcomes.
• Constructive Candour — challenges positively, surfaces risks early, and provides clarity under pressure.
• Resilience & Adaptability — manages complexity confidently and maintains calm under scrutiny.
• Collaboration & Influence — builds strong relationships across functions and partners.

Work Level: Manager / Expert

Close Date: 24th February

Recruiter: Matt Campbell

What we offer:

At M&G, we’re committed to helping you thrive and supporting your wellbeing, both at work and beyond. Our benefits are designed to help you balance your professional and personal life, while planning confidently for your future. Our UK benefits include:

• As a savings and Investments firm we are proud to offer a valuable pension scheme of 18%, with 13% made up of Employer Contributions and 5% Employee Contributions. We also offer Share Save and our Share Incentive Plan, together with access to financial wellbeing and support services - to help give you real confidence to put your money to work.

• Enjoy 38 days annual leave including bank holidays, with the opportunity to purchase up to 5 extra days and additional flexibility through our Time Off When You Need It policy – to balance your work and personal commitments.  

• Our market leading Inspiring Families policy includes comprehensive support and paid parental leave covering maternity, adoption, surrogacy, and paternity leave - as supporting families is a core aspect of our inclusive culture.

• Health & Protection cover including Private Healthcare, Critical Illness cover and Life Assurance for you, with family options - for peace of mind.

To explore more about life at M&G and our full benefits offering, visit Life at M&G

We have a diverse workforce and an inclusive culture at M&G, underpinned by our policies and our employee-led networks who provide networking opportunities, advice and support for the diverse communities our colleagues represent. Regardless of gender, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, nationality, disability or long term condition, we are looking to attract, promote and retain exceptional people. We also welcome those who take part in military service and those returning from career breaks.

M&G is also proud to be a Disability Confident Leader, and we welcome applications from candidates with long-term health conditions, disabilities, or neuro-divergent conditions. 

If you need assistance or an alternative means of applying for a role due to a disability or additional need, please let us know by contacting us at: [email protected]