Senior Change Lead - Operations Platform

At M&G our purpose is to give everyone real confidence to put their money to work. As an international savings and investments business with roots stretching back more than 170 years, we offer a range of financial products and services through Asset Management, Life and Wealth. All three operating segments work together to deliver attractive financial outcomes for our clients, and superior shareholder returns.

Through our behaviours of 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.

We have a diverse workforce and an inclusive culture at M&G plc, 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.

The Role:

The Operations Platform team is a central team within Investment Transformation and Technology, reporting to the Investment COO with a global remit. The team provides support to the other Operations Teams in the M&G Plc Business and works with teams across M&G to implement change. The team aims to enable business growth, support business as usual, unlock operational efficiency, drive improvements to both client and colleague experience and drive platform modernisation and simplification.

The Senior Change Lead is a critical role within the Investment Platform. The role holder will be technology partner to one or more business areas. Depending on the requirements, the role holder may identify business requirements, propose solutions (either process or technology solutions), make changes to Aladdin directly, lead development through our engineering squads (non-Aladdin demand) or other third parties.

The individual will be required to:

· Understand business requirements and propose solutions to those requirements, focussing on utilisation of Aladdin where possible

· Work in partnership with technology teams, both onshore and offshore, to deliver functionality that is not available in the core platform

· Identify improvements that address efficiency and scalability, or reduction of risk

· Develop a close working relationship with Operations business stakeholders, providing regular updates on progress

· Manage and maintain change backlogs ensuring priorities and critical requirements are highlighted

· Work at both a higher level, managing and co-ordinating the delivery of initiatives, or work in the detail to define and document requirements, process, etc, as required.

· Own all Aladdin related incidents through to successful resolution

· Be the escalation point to BRS where technical or Aladdin specific assistance is required.

Key Responsibilities Required:

The successful candidate will be responsible for:

Aladdin

· Provide support for all Operations related Aladdin Change requests and BAU escalations

· Driving Aladdin adoption across the Operations teams, by providing training on Aladdin and the end to end workflows

· Be a Subject Matter (SME) expert for the Investment teams.

Business Analysis

· Develop a close working relationship with Operations business stakeholders in order to determine functionality gaps and enhancement requirements

· Recommend solutions beyond current environments

· Provide input into strategic product selection and target operating model definition

· Help users define user acceptance testing criteria and assist the user testing process

Process and Workflow

· Promote best practice and global consistency

· Highlight impacts, priorities and critical requirements to the business and clients

· Identify impactful changes

· Deliver against the strategic, annual and quarterly plan, and ensuring demand is prioritised to meet business objectives

Incident/Problem Management

· Manage and maintain incidents, enhancements, issues and risks log via Jira

· To identify risks, issues and weaknesses

· To identify key timings, dependencies, interfaces and human/technology interactions

· Take initiative and develop creative solutions for solving problems

· Analyse and summarize findings across all regions where applicable

Embedding and adoption

· Working closely with customers to ensure that new systems and process are embedded effectively

· Work with customers to ensure efficient and scalable use of UDAs

Support

· Assist in the definition of new business requirements and the design of new processes. To aide in the delivery of incremental change to the global Operations team

· To maintain relations with the Operations teams and act as a conduit relaying their requirements and feeding them into BlackRock Solutions / Investment Operations Change

· Be part of the overall Investment Platform community within Investment Operations.

Experience and Skills:

· Strong knowledge of the relevant systems, data and operations processes within an Asset Management or similar organisation – Aladdin is a must

· Experience as a change leader within Asset Management or similar organisation,

· Experience working in an asset management or similar organisation, with strong knowledge of the end to end investment process (knowledge of Operations would be beneficial)

· Familiarity with broad range of investment products and instruments

· Experience of working with internal teams and third parties to ensure that requirements are met within agreed timescales

· Good inter-personal and organisations skills

· Ability to negotiate pragmatic solutions that meet conflicting business requirements.

· Problem solving ability within a complex investment management environment

· Excellent oral and written communication skills

· Ability to define and document business requirements and process flows to a high standard;

· Experience of providing challenge to requirements and proposed solutions

· Ability to operate under pressure and deliver to demanding deadlines

· Agile delivery expertise

Recruiter: Sarah Hawkins

Job Level: Manager or Expert

We have a diverse workforce and an inclusive culture at M&G plc, 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.  Being a Disability Confident Leader means that candidates who meet the minimum criteria of a job, will be offered an interview if they 'opt in' to the scheme when applying. 

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]