Manager, Technology Portfolio and Delivery at Britam

Job Description

Job Purpose:

Lead the delivery of Britam’s major technology programmes on behalf of the business. The first and largest is the Group ERP and HRIS implementation across the operating markets including all other programmes of similar scale. Set up each programme before design begins: governance, plan, budget, architecture and controls. Hold accountability for scope, schedule, cost, quality, risk, vendor performance, adoption and benefits through go-live, hypercare and handover to business as usual. Lead the in-house software teams that build the integrations, extensions and self-service journeys around the core platforms, applying the delivery method suited to the work. Keep the sponsor, business owner, design authority, vendor and assurance roles distinct, and provide one agreed view of programme status.

Key responsibilities:

1. Programme leadership and governance

• Mobilise each programme before design begins: secure approval of the charter, scope, governance, decision rights and success measures, and validate the business case, resources and market sequencing before baselining the plan.
• Act as the single client-side point of accountability, run the governance forums covering design authority, delivery, market readiness and risk, escalate unresolved decisions early with options and a recommendation, and codify what each programme produces into reusable Group delivery standards.

2. Planning and delivery control

• Own the integrated plan across every workstream, from solution build, integration and custom development through data migration, testing, change, security, cutover and market deployment.
• Operate stage-gated control for vendor-delivered implementation alongside iterative release cycles for extensions and front-ends. Track schedule, cost, scope, quality, risk and benefits against approved baselines, and recover performance that moves outside tolerance.

3. In-house software delivery and engineering standards

• Lead the teams building integrations, extensions, reports and self-service journeys around the core platforms, with named business product owners holding backlog authority and acceptance, and one prioritised backlog so that no parallel change queue forms.
• Protect configuration-first design, with every extension carrying a rationale, a named owner and an assessed support cost, and enforce engineering standards covering source control, peer review, automated build, deployment and regression testing, and secure coding. No release bypasses design authority approval or segregation-of-duties review.

4. Design, data, security and go-live

• Chair the client design authority, challenge unnecessary customisation on evidence, and drive a group-first design with controlled local variation for statutory, tax, payroll, language and currency requirements. No programme replicates inefficient legacy processes in a new platform.
• Own data migration and reconciliation end to end, coordinate integration with the core insurance, banking, payroll, payments, procurement, identity and reporting platforms, and ensure access management, segregation of duties, audit trails, cybersecurity, data privacy and recovery requirements are built and tested.
• Set the testing strategy with auditable entry and exit criteria and business sign-off, block progression through any stage gate where evidence, controls or readiness is incomplete, own cutover and go/no-go, lead hypercare to agreed exit criteria, and hand over to the permanent support organisation.

5. Vendor, commercial and financial control

• Manage systems integrators, software vendors and third parties against contracts, milestones, service levels and acceptance criteria; challenge estimates, change requests and claims independently; and lead corrective action, contractual notice and dispute resolution.
• Control budget, forecast, contingency and total cost of ownership, including the run cost of custom-built components, and validate invoices and milestone payments against accepted deliverables with Finance and Procurement.

6. Change, adoption, benefits and people

• Align process redesign, communications, training and adoption with the technical plan, track readiness by market, function and user group, and hold business owners accountable for process decisions, data quality, user acceptance and post-go-live performance. Training completion is an input to adoption, not evidence of it.
   
• Define benefit owners, baselines and realisation plans, and lead a cross-functional, cross-market team of internal staff, engineers, consultants and vendor personnel: clarify accountabilities, secure ring-fenced capacity and coach workstream and squad leads.

Knowledge, experience and qualifications required:

Academic qualifications and certifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, Business Technology or a related field; a Master’s degree is desirable.
• Mandatory:Current PMP, PRINCE2 Practitioner, MSP Practitioner, PgMP or equivalent. 
• Preferred: a recognized agile certification, cloud ERP or HRIS product certification on the platform selected by Britam, and ITIL, COBIT, CISA or CRISC. 

Experience:

• At least 8 years in enterprise technology delivery, including at least 3 years leading complex multi-workstream programmes and at least 5 years in ERP, HRIS or comparable enterprise applications.
• Personal leadership of at least two full cloud ERP implementations from inception through go-live, hypercare and transition to business as usual, of which at least one carried HRIS or payroll scope in a regulated financial services environment.
• Leadership of in-house software teams under both stage-gated and iterative methods, and of a multi-country implementation across at least four countries or jurisdictions with global-template design and controlled localization. Delivery of a further programme of a different type, for example core insurance replacement, digital channels, contact center or cloud migration, is preferred.
• Accountability for a budget at or above the Group Procurement threshold for major technology investment, and management of a software vendor, a major systems integrator and third parties under outcome-based contracts and milestone acceptance.
• Working knowledge of financial services regulation, technology risk, information security, data privacy and internal control, with Africa or emerging multi-regulatory market experience preferred.

Technical Skills and Behavioral Competencies
Technical:

• Programme delivery and control: stage-gated, iterative and hybrid methods and the interlock between them, critical-path analysis, earned value, forecasting, commercial change control, vendor performance management, RAID and decision governance, and benefits realization.
• Cloud ERP and HRIS implementation lifecycle, including vendor release management, environment strategy and regression impact; functional coverage across finance, procurement and planning and across core human resources, payroll, talent, compensation and absence; and the enterprise structures, ledgers and statutory reporting that connect them.
• Enterprise and integration architecture, data migration, and software engineering practice covering source control, peer review, continuous integration and deployment, automated testing and release management. Security and control design covering access management, segregation of duties, privileged access, audit trails and privacy by design, with end-to-end and non-functional testing, operational readiness and cutover management.

Behavioral:

• Enterprise leadership and ownership: acts with personal accountability for outcomes, connects plans and controls to daily execution, resolves ambiguity, and holds momentum through intense delivery periods without bypassing controls.
• Independent judgement, commercial acumen and control orientation: tests assumptions and vendor claims without becoming adversarial, and protects governance, evidence and value for money.
• Executive influence and cross-cultural leadership: presents complex issues with the options and decisions required, builds alignment across markets, and coaches workstream