Head of IT Infrastructure and Operations

Head of IT Infrastructure and Operations

Location: London (with regular working from home)

Hours: Full time

Salary: Competitive

Contract Duration: Permanent

Coller Capital, founded in 1990, is one of the world's leading investors in the secondary market for private assets. The firm provides liquidity solutions to private markets investors worldwide, acquiring interests in private equity, private credit, and other private markets assets. In January 2021, the firm closed Coller International Partners VIII, with committed capital (including co-investment vehicles) of just over $9 billion and backing from over 200 of the world's leading institutional investors. In February 2022 the firm closed Coller Credit Opportunities I, with committed capital (including co-investment vehicles) of c.$1.4 billion and backing from over 30 institutional investors.

Coller's IT function comprises of around 35 professionals who, with the help of external service providers, implement and manage solutions to fulfil existing and emergent business requirements throughout the organisation.

This role heads up the Infrastructure & Operations (I&O) function and is tasked with ensuring that the technologies that underpin the firm's key IT services are reliable, performant and secure. The Head of IT Infrastructure & Operations also oversees a global service desk who are charged with providing high quality technical support across three offices - London, New York & Hong Kong. The current size of I&O team is 15 people.

Key Tasks & Responsibilities:

• Area Management - lead the I&O function with due consideration to strategy, policies, processes/procedures and standards; identify, obtain and manage the resources needed for the delivery and support of IT services to agreed targets; maintain continuous service improvement plans to ensure the IT needs of the business remain met; cultivate a culture aligned with organisational and departmental values whilst promoting diversity and inclusion; facilitate effective working relationships between team members; lead or oversee recruitment activities.
• People Management - manage the I&O team; supervise individuals providing direction, support and feedback; set goals and monitor progress against agreed performance criteria; advise individuals on career paths and encourage proactive development of skills; provide mentoring to support personal and professional growth; input into formal processes such as annual reviews and performance management.
• Service Delivery Management - authorise organisational policies governing the conduct of change, release, incident and problem management; validate strategies for the monitoring and managing the performance of IT services; ensure that all IT assets are managed in compliance with business and regulatory requirements.
• Security & Disaster Recovery - work closely with the IT/Cyber Security function on the enterprise IT security strategy ensuring the standards set are achievable; make certain that appropriate disaster recovery plans and controls are in place and validated.
• Supplier Management (I&O) - establish and lead collaborative IT supplier partnerships that reduce costs and risks whilst creating opportunities for innovation and value creation; establish a framework to monitor and manage relationships; maintain a good understanding of the commercial supplier environment to inform sourcing strategies and ensure cost and service competitiveness.
• Stakeholder Management - build effective working relationships with senior stakeholders; act as a key point of contact for those individuals and leverage interactions to promote understanding of IT services.
• Financial Management - develop financial plans and forecasts for the I&O area and manage subsequent IT expenditure ensuring that all financial targets are met; examine any areas where budgets and expenditure exceed their agreed tolerances and explain variances; assist Group Finance with maintaining financial controls, especially in the areas of allocation and apportionment of incurred IT costs.
• Professional Networking - in conjunction with peers maintain a network of recognised vendors and individuals (inside and/or outside the firm) who can deliver expert advice in areas relevant to the organisation's current and future IT needs; build out the Coller IT brand promoting the forward thinking and innovative approach taken to investment in technology and data.
• Technical Trends (I&O) - capture, understand, monitor and prioritise current and emergent IT technical trends; assess and document impact, threats and opportunities for the firm; share knowledge and insights with others.
• Continuous Improvement - drive the monitoring, assessment, trialling and implementation of new/improved methods, tools, infrastructure, standards, practices and processes with a view to improving the efficiency or effectiveness within the I&O domain and the wider IT team; encourage and motivate individuals to share innovative ideas and learn from failures.

Essential Experience:

• A career history that includes leading an IT I&O team or a similar senior management role; a track record of delivering responsive, high quality and customer focused IT services.
• Demonstrable experience in many/all the facets of the role as outlined above.
• Management of geographically dispersed I&O teams (12+ individuals) consisting of permanent, contract and outsourced individuals; accountability for sizeable I&O budgets (c£5m+ pa); strong technical background with a broad and deep knowledge of the roles, processes and technologies that underpin IT services/systems; familiarity with operating in a DevOps and Agile cultures.
• ITIL certification.

Desirable Experience:

• Experience of full lifecycle project management of small to medium scale initiatives.
• A good appreciation of the capabilities of Microsoft Azure technologies.
• PRINCE2 Practitioner or equivalent.
• Educated to degree level or equivalent in IT, computer science, mathematics, business or related field.
• Prior experience of Financial Services, Private Equity and/or Asset Management is extremely advantageous.

Competencies:

• Providing Direction - Directing others to undertake activities/tasks within a defined timescale.
• Organisational Awareness - Understanding the hierarchy and culture of own, customer, supplier and partner organisations and being able to identify the decision makers and influencers.
• Influence, Persuasion and Personal Impact - Conveying a level of confidence and professionalism when engaging with stakeholders, influencing positively and persuading others to take a specific course of action.
• Improvisation - Dealing effectively with unexpected situations in a timely manner, taking advantage of opportunities and overcoming problems.
• Initiative - Being proactive, anticipating opportunities for systems, service or product improvement or development and taking appropriate action(s).
• Leadership - Clearly articulating goals and objectives, and motivating and leading others towards their achievement.
• Decision Making - Making decisions at the appropriate time, taking into account the needs of the situation, priorities, constraints, known risks, and the availability of necessary information and resources.
• Counselling and Developing Others - Helping others to understand their values, needs, goals and limitations and coaching them to develop their effectiveness towards the limits of their potential.

We are widely acknowledged as an innovator at the complex end of secondaries and with offices in London, New York, Hong Kong and Seoul, Coller has truly global reach. We are committed to advancing ESG initiatives and driving change across the private markets sector. Coller Capital has been awarded an A+ rating by the UNPRI across the board since 2018 and achieved climate neutral status in 2019. The Firm is a signatory of FAIRR, the Farm Animal Investment Risk and Return Initiative created by the Coller Foundation. Coller Capital was a founding signatory on ILPA's Diversity in Action initiative and we actively partner with Out Investors and #10000BlackInterns. We are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive environment where individuals can develop their talent and express themselves as part of a high achieving team. As investors, we value diverse perspectives, backgrounds and experience and actively look for these qualities in candidates. Our investment team alone benefits from over 20 different nationalities.

Benefits:

In addition to a competitive salary and bonus scheme, we offer private medical insurance and an attractive pension.

Please let us know if we can make any reasonable adjustments at interview in order to fully support and promote your talent.