Director, Client & Distribution Change

At M&G our purpose is to help people manage and grow their savings and investments, responsibly. As a business, we are continuing to take steps towards a sustainable future, delivering better long-term solutions for our customers and clients and identifying new opportunities to make a positive impact for our environment and communities . To help us achieve our vision we're looking for exceptional people who live our values of care and integrity and who can inspire others; embrace change; deliver results and keep it simple.
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.
Director, Client & Distribution Change
The Technology and Business Change function supports the asset management business of M&G comprising Equities, Multi-asset & Sustainability, Fixed Income, Private Markets, Research, Risk and Performance, Compliance, Global Distribution and Operations.
The function works in partnership with asset management business stakeholders to create a technology and data platform and business operating mode that provides a stable operating environment and delivers capability and scale to enable great client outcomes and drive profitable growth.
The Role:
Within M&G Investments, we have an ambitious plan to increase net flows, improve client experience, and grow our AUM (currently £342bn). The Client & Distribution Portfolio is at the heart of this strategy, as we continue to simplify and digitise our client journey and introduce cutting edge capabilities to transform how we market, acquire, service and report to our UK and international clients.
The change and technology portfolio includes the following capabilities;

• Strategy and Roadmap Planning responsible for setting the multi-year change and tech roadmap for the Portfolio partnering with the business
• Delivery and Change Management responsible for technology and change delivery of initiatives, projects and programmes ensuring efficient and controlled delivery on new or enhanced capabilities for our business
• Solution Architecture understanding requirements and designing scalable solution that meet business needs
• Business Analysis capturing detailed requirements to improve processes, data and systems to achieve business outcomes
• Engineering developing and maintaining software to ensure delivery of high quality, efficient and reliable technology services
• Quality Assurance / Testing evaluating software meets requirements and quality standards and is performant across a variety of scenarios

As Director of Client & Distribution Portfolio, you will:

• Set direction and lead on Client Portfolio transformation strategy, creating a clear and compelling vision for the organisation that inspires and motivates and ensure communication and alignment of objectives and plans to facilitate successful delivery
• Lead the Client Portfolio transformation roadmap, business case development and delivery of annual and quarterly plan in support of strategic priorities set out by MGG ExCom
• Provide leadership of the Client Portfolio, responsible for the ongoing development of M&G client facing systems and data, simplifying the service model, improvement of processes aligned to a wider vision for this to be a differentiating capability and flawless experience for clients
• Leading business and technology capability delivery across the client experience value chain (marketing, sales and distribution, client service, client reporting) and ~X systems supporting the transformation agenda
• Lead and mentor programme managers, providing guidance and support through the project lifecycle
• Conduct portfolio reviews to assess project health, identify risks and issues and recommend improvements
• Provide Portfolio monthly updates / MI to senior leadership highlighting key milestones, risks and achievements
• Ensure technology and business change controls and governance are embedded within the Portfolio
• Oversight of business prioritised offshore development (MGGS, Accenture) and services provided by Group Technology
• Develop and maintain strong relationships with key stakeholders and meet their delivery requirements, coordinating, consolidating and prioritising demand and managing dependencies
• Responsible for smooth operational transition on cost transformation budget reductions for the Portfolio
• Lead on the optimisation of the total cost of ownership of the client facing systems and cloud services to reduce run costs enabling greater investment into new propositions and services for our clients that drive growth
• Build and nurture knowledge of our client facing systems and services (Salesforce, Adobe Experience, ClearWater) and vendor landscape to accelerate feasibility, design and delivery in support of business outcomes
• Have ownership and accountability to maintain and enhance controls to support improvement of the overall control environment and ensure great client outcomes

Experience and Skills:

• Expert knowledge of distribution and client servicing systems, data and process and emerging trends
• Experience in project portfolio management including programme delivery within asset management
• A proven ability to influence and persuade stakeholders up to C-suite
• An experienced change leader, capable of creating and delivering strategic plans, coordinating and meeting demands from multiple stakeholders
• Experienced leading teams of direct staff, matrix staff, and strategic partners with accountability for several million £ budgets
• Experience of leading production support and/or technology development teams would be beneficial
• Experience of project management methodologies and Agile methodologies and delivery
• Knowledge of Salesforce, Adobe Experience Manager and Client Reporting solutions is preferred alongside and client and ABOR data and client analytics

Personal attributes:

An open, collaborative and adaptive leadership style capable of building strong partnerships across the organisation and with external 3rd parties

A clear communicator that can engage a team around a common purpose and vision and can inspire a diverse and geographically disparate organsiation

A highly analytical thinker that can make objective decisions based on data but equally is comfortable leveraging professional experience and instinct in the absence of good or complete dataA driven individual with a