Project Manager - Wealth Management Operations (6 months)

Who we're looking for

You will be a successful Project Manager, with a strong background in the creation and management of complex projects within a wealth management environment. In previous roles, you will have demonstrated strong commercial acumen and the ability to proactively drive major change transformations.

This is an excellent opportunity to be a key member in expanding the projects management capability in Schroders | Cazenove Capital, where you will be working with staff across the division in various roles and geographic locations, and have access to senior management. Critically, you should thrive on the opportunity to build relationships, deliver best in class service to the business and positively contribute to the on-going success of Wealth Management. At times, Project Managers may be required to manage one or more of the core projects simultaneously as well as being prepared on occasion to travel to other global offices within the division.

What you'll do

Reporting to the Head of Change Management, the successful candidate will be responsible as the single point of accountability to define, plan and direct a variety of projects to ensure that the outcomes are delivered to high quality, within established time frames and budget, and which meet the Cazenove Capital client and business needs.

Project Managers will be required to demonstrate experience across multiple cross-functional initiatives with deployment into both front and back office production operations. The role will cover all aspects from request, mobilisation and scope definition, to implementation. Skilled coordination of business and technical resources is essential, ensuring 'business as usual' is not negatively impacted and benefits are optimised. This is not an IT role and by its nature requires a division-wide view of the high-level business landscape in which we operate.

Leadership and Deliverables:

• Drive, direct and oversee the implementation of projects to successful outcomes using appropriate management controls and standards, including reporting, planning, dependencies, tracking, budget management, change control, issue and risks management.

• Manage project sponsors, business stakeholder priorities, concerns and expectations.

• Establish the appropriate linkages to IT delivery management and teams.

• Ensure that key stage project documentation is being submitted to the relevant governance boards/ groups for approval, including project initiation, user acceptance and closure documentation.
• Lead by example in understanding the detail and being 'hands-on' in tasks when required.
• Proactive in alerting others and able to resolve or re-plan where issues arise for any tasks.
• Preparing various project reports to the Head and Deputy Head of Change Management and Steering Committees.
• Monitoring the delivery against plan to ensure progressive development and success of the project.
• Identifying and managing dependencies with other projects and business priorities.

• Deployment and post-implementation support of the final solutions into the production environment, creating a transition plan and managing the handover from project to 'business as usual.
• Ensure that the projects leave behind a detailed history of the decision making process, approvals, sign-offs and change control which can be easily audited.
• Act as a centre of excellence for Change Management across the division.

Communication and Relationships:

• Create a project team culture managing a team of business and IT stakeholders and management of various experience and abilities, including coaching and mentoring of less experienced staff.
• Establish and maintain strong relationships with senior stakeholders to understand project drivers and create a prioritized roadmap and communications plan.
• Prepare for and facilitate periodic steering committee meetings to communicate project purpose, progress, status, and issues and risks.
• Work with the IT department to ensure alignment with IT resource capacity and IT roadmap.
• Work with the Finance department to ensure costs are approved, actuals are captured and forecasts maintained.
• Work with other managers to ensure that connected projects or work areas deliver in harmony, rather than at the expense of each other.

The knowledge, experience and qualifications you need

• Proven Project Manager with multiple examples across different institutions of delivering large-scale business change projects in either wealth or investment management sectors.
• Delivery and results focused, capable of driving projects through tight timelines within a fast paced environment.
• Excellent working knowledge of wealth management front and back office operations.
• Superb communication, presentation, influencing, listening and stakeholder management skills relevant to the role.
• Possesses a commercial focus, being able to provide and articulate compelling business cases defining client benefits.
• Logical and pragmatic approach to planning, problem solving and issue resolution with the ability to understand the 'big picture' view and identify dependencies between activities.
• Strong leadership and team management skills with an ability to provide guidance and direction through periods of significant change and uncertainty.
• Ability to build trusted and respected relationships with the business and project teams.
• Relevant change management qualifications, including working knowledge of Agile methods.
• Equipped with the drive and determination to make a real difference and add significant value.

We're looking for the best, whoever they are

Schroders is an equal opportunities employer. You're welcome here whatever your socio-economic background, race, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, religious belief, age or disability.