Programme Director - Retail

Join our journey to create a new experience for the National Lottery and help us to power change for the greater good.

About us:

We are Allwyn UK, part of the Allwyn Entertainment Group – a multi-national lottery operator with a market-leading presence in Austria, the Czech Republic, Greece, Cyprus and Italy.  We have been officially awarded the Fourth Licence (10 year licence) to operate the National Lottery starting February 2024.

‍We’ve developed ground-breaking technologies, built player protection frameworks, and have a proven track record of making lotteries better.  Our aim is to create one of the UK’s most inclusive organisations – where people can bring the best of themselves, to do their best work, every day, for the benefit of good causes.

Allwyn is an Equal Opportunity Employer which prides itself in being diverse and inclusive. We do not tolerate discrimination, harassment, or victimisation in the workplace.  All employment decisions at Allwyn are based on the business needs, the job requirements, and the individual qualifications.  Allwyn encourages applications from individuals regardless of age, disability (visible or hidden), sex, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief and marriage and civil partnerships.

While the main contribution of the National Lottery to society is through the funds to good causes, at Allwyn we put our purpose and values at the heart of everything we do.  Join us as we embark on a once-in-a-lifetime, largescale transformation journey to build a bigger, better, and safer National Lottery that delivers more money to good causes.

Role

The Programme Director shares the vision of delivering deployment initiatives in Retail channel to drive desired outcomes for Allwyn with the Head of Deployment

They are responsible for leading the team of project managers across workstreams and running this large and complex transformation programme, ensuring that it is delivered on time, within budget, and to the required quality standards.

They will work closely with stakeholders across the organisation (including COO, CTO, Exec Sponsor, Director of channels, Transformation Director, Transformation Director – Technology, Head of Portfolio, Head of Deployment, Business owners and leads, wider Transformation teams) to ensure that the programme aligns with the overall Deployment strategy and objectives

Experience of delivering complex transformations in Retail businesses is must along with strong capability to drive technology initiatives in an ever-changing environment.

Responsibilities:

• Serve as the overall Leader of the Deployment programme delivery team and exhibit excellent leadership skills, ensuring strong communication channels, giving clarity, motivation, and direction to the team throughout the execution of the programme.
• Be the primary interface and perform programme management activities that ensures adherence to programme/project gates and Governance.
• Develop and implement the programme strategy and plan, ensuring that it aligns with the overall business strategy and objectives.
• Review progress and timelines, programme reports; adjust schedules and plans as needed; ensure on time and on budget delivery of programme and identify and resolve issues to ensure programme success.
• Maintain an overarching joined up view of the Deployment plans ensuring that dependencies within and outside the programme are called out and tracked.
• Supervise utilisation of resources in alignment with resource allocation and budget.
• Facilitate requirements gathering and assist with crafting project deliverables as needed.
• Identify and manage programme risks and issues, ensuring that they are addressed in a timely and effective manner.
• Review Programme Governance on regular basis and bring in interventions as required, ensuring effective run of all Governance forums including Exec Steer Cos and Third-party interactions.
• Facilitate setup and maintenance of Technology partner and supplier relationships to resolve technical difficulties and deliver collaboratively at pace.
• Facilitate alignment between Transformation and Business teams to enable delivery of plans.
• Develop and maintain strong relationships with stakeholders across the organization for successful outcomes.
• Ensure that the programme is compliant with relevant regulations and standards and work closely with the regulator to address any challenges, provide updates on programme progress, and ensure transparency via constant and clear communication.
• Provide regular updates to senior management on the progress of the programme.
• Provide strategic advice and direction to wider programme team on challenges and problematic scenarios to ensure desired outcomes.
• Ensure clear sight of critical contracts for effective delivery via third parties.

Requirements:

• Degree in a relevant field, such as business or project management. Adept in managing programmes utilising different methodologies like Waterfall, Agile (SAFe, Scrum), Iterative etc.
• Extensive experience in leading large, complex, cross-functional, regulated and change orientated programmes with direct responsibility of managing large-sized teams including teams of Project Managers.
• IT consulting experience, utilising tools, and techniques to resolve challenging problems.
• Retail Industry experience is must along with good understanding of wider Technology solutions.
• Strong leadership skills, with the ability to motivate teams. Provide direction on matters of concern and facilitate a problem-solving culture across the programme.
• Outstanding and effective interpersonal and stakeholder management skills; along with strong communication skills both verbal and written.
• Ability to work effectively in a fast paced, high energy, team-oriented environment.
• Strong financial management skills, with the ability to manage large contracts and budgets.
• Ownership / experience of Strategic Governance Frameworks and Risk Management.
• Proven history of delivering high quality results on schedule and within budget.
• Strong risk management skills, with the ability to identify, surface up and manage risks and issues.
• Excellent problem-solving skills, with the ability to think creatively and strategically. Apply proven techniques to drive a problem-solving attitude amongst the wider programme team in order to address complex challenges.
• Strong knowledge of relevant regulations and standards to ensure adherence to set guidelines. Extensive experience of delivering desired outcomes in a heavily regulated environment

Our goal is to create one of the UK’s most inclusive organisations – where people can bring the best of themselves, to do their best work, every day, for the benefit of good causes.

Allwyn is an Equal Opportunity Employer which prides itself in being diverse and inclusive. We do not tolerate discrimination, harassment, or victimisation in the workplace.  All employment decisions at Allwyn are based on the business needs, the job requirements, and the individual qualifications.  Allwyn encourages applications from individuals regardless of age, disability (visible or hidden), sex, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief and marriage and civil partnerships.

Benefits

• 34 days paid leave (This includes bank holidays)
• 2 x Life Days
• 4 x Salary of Life Insurance
• Pension: We’ll contribute 8.5%
• BUPA
• £500 wellness allowance
• Income Protection