Director of Operations - London, United Kingdom - Annalect

Description

Job Description

Role Overview

We at Annalect are undertaking a transformation to create more operational rigor and efficiency in the way we work which will allows us to:

• Improve ways of working towards globally consistent versus market unique
• Establishing and leveraging common processes, taxonomies
• Rationalizing from numerous excels and market-specific technologies to globally available software-as-a-service applications
• Aligning people to processes and technology that enable the creation of trusted data in our enterprise systems – timesheets, pipeline and talent
• Transforming our business functions (Finance, HR, Operations, Legal) to eliminate redundancy, deliver shared value and ultimately lower our cost to serve

These changes will allows us to:

• Gain proactive transparency into our operations and improve operational excellence
• Driving growth through improved, more relevant, offerings based on market trends
• Leveraging cross-sell to drive growth through service line penetration

We require a Director of Operations, who will work with the key sponsors and making sure the tech, process and data flows happen, pulling in the experts and driving the operational evolution of our ways of working off excel and onto technology with new processes. The Director will liaise with business, operations and technical stakeholders to help guide the transformation and govern the delivery of the programmes and projects being set up to achieve the outcomes described above.

The Director of Operations will act as an extension of the Global Operations team. Setting the tone, spurring enthusiasm, and ensuring the required projects within the portfolio are executed. The role will be responsible for providing executive level tracking and reporting across scope, timelines, budget and benefits.

The Strategic Portfolio Manager will need to become the Deployment and Transformation owner for the EMEA market, but also specifically support the Global Growth and Client Solutions operational transformation. This Director will help codify the current ways of working and identify gaps in bridging the gap to moving to the new timesheet, utilisation, profitability and pipeline systems. The Director will liaise with Annalect Business Operations to define requirements and the product roadmap as relevant to EMEA, Global Growth and Client Solutions domains.

The Director of Operations will sit within Annalect's Business Operations team, with functional alignment to Client Solutions. Annalect's Global Business Operations team has responsibility for delivering 'global' and 'enterprise wide' transformation activities, acknowledging that the Regions, client facing teams and service delivery lines have a key role in executing and governing change within their remit. Such activities include:

• Strategic portfolio & governance management
• Change management
• Communications
• Running specific global programmes which integrate with the processes and technologies undergoing transformation

Key Accountabilities

• as an extension of the Business Operations team setting the tone, spurring enthusiasm ensuring the required projects within the portfolio are executed.
• control the scope across the transformation, managing the pipeline of future work emerging as the scope develops and ensuring this can be brought into the transformation agenda whilst ensuring the portfolio maintains its focus.
• with business area programme leads (business and technical) to appropriately architect and structure transformation programmes.
• the effective mobilisation of newly defined, in scope and prioritised programmes, ensuring they are set up for success with robust business cases and the right level of sponsorship / engagement across regions, service lines and functions.
• across the transformation portfolio to ensure that collectively programmes are delivering desired business outcomes.
• cross-programme planning and dependency management, working closely with the programme managers
• with internal business partners, e.g Technology and Finance to ensure alignment of programme/project data held in portfolio tool
• that each programme and project have the correct data fields completed, e.g. an assigned Exec Sponsor, Business Owner and Operational Owner
• key updates and insights, driven off the portfolio summary view in the tool, to enable prioritisation decisions in a variety of governance forums
• communicate and change manage new releases/updates of tool across the stakeholder community
• Tool Training and induction material
• responding to critical requests from the global leadership team to help them navigate immediate business wide challenges, requests and requirements

Person Specification

• curiosity and the ability to discover trends ahead of time ("look around corners") and glean valuable insights; not merely an effective executor of initiatives, anticipatory in her / his approach and provokes senior level conversation
• solve even the toughest and most complex of problems; great at gleaning meaning from whatever data is available; is a quick study of the new and different; adds personal wisdom and experience to come to the best conclusion and solution, given the situation; uses multiple problem-solving tools and techniques
• organized and resourceful; effective and efficient at marshalling multiple resources to get things done; lays out tasks in sufficient detail to mark the trail; is able to get things done with less and in less time; can work on multiple tasks at once without losing track; foresees and plans around obstacles
• takes on issues and challenges; comfortably confronts and works through conflict; delivers negative feedback and messages without hesitation; lets everyone know where they stand; thrives in crises and is energized by tough challenges; not afraid to make negative decisions and take tough action; challenges the status quo
• at getting individuals, teams, and an entire organization to perform at a higher level and to embrace change; negotiates with skill to achieve a fair outcome or promote a common cause; communicates in a compelling vision and is committed to what needs to be done; inspires others; builds motivated, high-performing teams; understands what motivates different people
• to talk to and get to know; listens attentively; is an open book; has a positive sense of humour; deals calmly with stress and gives people a chance to catch up
• broadly and deeply across the network, consulting and influencing where necessary.
• with navigating change – embraces change and thrives in a fast paced, dynamic environment; can focus on what's required and effectively assess, prioritise and communicate, adapting and cutting through complexity and ambiguity where required.
• do attitude and ability to work effectively in a matrix organisation structure with significant emphasis on collaboration, influence and persuasion, rather than relying entirely on command and control
• communication skills with the ability to present complex concepts, risks and strategies to senior management in business terms, while being able to discuss detailed technical aspects with experts to align and drive dentsu' shared vision.
• operating within large, complex global organisations, with proven recent experience of taking an organisation through complex restructuring / transformation with a focus on delivering value add solutions while always striving for excellence.
• knowledge of portfolio management and data visualisation tools. Such as Planview Clarizen and PowerBI.
• will have completed relevant, formal training and qualifications related to Portfolio, Programme and Project management e.g., Management of Portfolio, Managing Successful Programmes, Prince2, P3O or similar.
• in running similar activities in a large Media Agency or Hold Co
• or knowledge of the timesheet, pipeline, project and HR systems (e.g. Workfront, Salesforce, PEGA, Reach, WorkDay)