Job Purpose

As a Head of Technical Program Management you will drive the execution of product solutions within M&S owning supplier delivery where applicable. You will successfully supervise the various stages of the product development life-cycle or highly visible sophisticated Programs of work. You will act as an equal partner with our Engineering and Product and senior business leaders so that we can deliver value and help balance, coordinate and supervise cross-functional dependencies while ensuring the overall delivery remains smooth and efficient.

This will require a hands-on approach, combined with excellent technical competence and exceptional partner management, to drive engagement and measures such as OKRs, building strong, trust-based partnerships with colleagues and suppliers. We are looking for someone to collaborate between domains to deliver shared goals providing inspiration, support and mentoring when required operating as a servant leader. A key attribute will be to empower others to foster a demeanor of continuous improvement across people, process and technology to enhance the delivery and flow of value.

This role will play a key role in shaping the Technical Program Management team to help bring about an innovative, continuous improvement culture that allows M&S products to be built at scale with high agility. As a leader you will drive, coach and support the continuous maturity of the Program Management Community.

In this role we require someone who will be responsible for the delivery of all systems within the ‘Run the Store’ portfolio. This includes the delivery of our Intelligent Store strategy – looking to redefine how stores operate. Specifically, you will drive the delivery of both digital solutions and the service and device platforms that underpin them supporting all aspects of our store operation. By combining phenomenal technology, data and new digital approaches you will ensure that our store operation is efficient and market leading.

As a Head of Technical Program with extensive experience and responsibility of Product and Program delivery across the enterprise you will combine your business knowledge with technical expertise to drive innovation, foster relationship and promoting an ‘own it and get it done’ demeanor.

Key Accountabilities & Responsibilities

The Head of Technical Program Management is the glue of engineering, product and business strategies - owning Programs of work of significant visibility and complexity with broad cross-organisational and/or deep architectural impact. You are accountable for end-to-end technical delivery and performance across domains within the organisation and external suppliers, utilising your expertise in handling constraints, improving quality or removing blockers.

The mission is to harness agile ways of working and embed our strategic ambitions to successfully deliver complex change at scale. The key to the success of this role is simplifying the sophisticated processes into simple, straightforward solutions and building positive, trusting relationships through consistent delivery of solutions and effective communication in-line with the M&S Way.

More specifically, the Head of Technical Program role is the embodiment of ‘own it, and get it done’ with key responsibilities as follows:

Plan, own and deliver highly sophisticated and multi-disciplinary initiatives, collaborating with senior leaders to align strategic goals and drive a customer first mind-set in Technology

Creates roadmaps and OKRs alongside the Head of Product & Head of Engineering to ensure alignment to strategic ambitions for M&S including the Technology Strategy

Facilitate continuous refinement and prioritisation of initiatives working alongside Product, Engineering and Business leaders

Drive data driven decisions through metrics and regular reporting to provide visibility creating a culture of transparency

Develop trusted relationships with partners across business areas using deep and relevant technology experience to simplify complex technology issues

Manage and maintain executive relationships with vendors and other external partners to ensure successful delivery of outcomes through innovation and thought leadership

Build a culture of trust and transparency with internal and external collaborators, domains and teams

Own and drive domain health, security and stability through the DevOps culture and process

Establish empowered, accountable hard-working teams through coaching and mentoring. Operate as a servant leader to create a culture of continuous improvement demonstrating external findings

Accountable for the technology budget and driving value for money in the hardest working, most efficient way

Educate partners across the business to understand and enable product ways of working

Proactively evaluate industry, technology and delivery trends to demonstrate external takeaways and drive improvements internally

Ensure the health and existence of the TPM community while contributing through sharing lessons learnt and driving consistency across the organisation

Actively contribute to learn and grow within the TPM Community

Line Manager to XX ensuring that the functions of these positions are properly and effectively being implemented, encouraging collaborate 360 feedback interactions from the community, partners & team

Key Experience

Job knowledge – Experience in delivering technology in a distributed environment and workforce, preferably retail. Shown success in the delivery of both hardware and software solutions using cloud-based technology. An understanding of data driven solutions and a high-level grasp of the architectures that underpin them. 5 years of delivering through Agile teams ideally including DevOps

Business knowledge – Experience working with outsourced delivery teams and hardware and software suppliers. Great commercial competence with tried experience of being able to run RFPs and negotiate with suppliers.

Problem solving – analytical skills, ability to advise, lead and deliver solutions that go beyond existing ways of doing things

People & Leadership skills – communications, leadership and talent development skills. Promote challenge to ensure the right outcomes are delivered and that the delivery function continually improves.

Essential

Extensive experience delivering large-scale initiatives across multiple product functions and domains

Excellent interpersonal skills, proactive can do demeanor and ability to communicate optimally with both technical and non‐technical individuals including director level

Track record of providing Technical leadership across domains, product groups and Program management during all phases of software development from ideation to realising value, demonstrating critical thinking and thought leadership

Solid understanding/experience of Agile/Scaled Agile practices including Scrum, Kanban and DevOps

Highly diligent professional with excellent leadership and coaching skills in lean agile practices

Experience in defining and running key achievements and outcome led Product/Program delivery

Strong financial and commercial competence including experience managing budgets and being responsible for contractual negotiations

Strong facilitation skills to articulate clear outputs, drive teams or individuals towards specific desirable outcomes

Evidence of creating a culture of continuous learning and improvement

Desirable

Experience in multiple Agile Project/Portfolio Management tools e.g. Jira/JiraAlign/Rally

Experience using facilitation techniques, Design Thinking techniques, coaching and learning frameworks

Experience of engineering practices like BDD, XP and Agile Testing, Continuous Integration and Continuous delivery

Prior experience working in the Retail Industry

Bachelor’s degree

Project Management, Agile or Scaled Agile certification

M&S is ready to push boundaries to lead the industry into a greener, speedier, more inspiring digital era. That’s why we’re revolutionising how we work and offering our most exciting opportunities yet. There’s never been a better time to be part of our team. Marks & Spencer aims to be an inclusive organisation, trusted and admired by our colleagues, customers and suppliers. Join us and make an immediate impact. We are committed to an active Inclusion, Diversity and Equal Opportunities Policy, which starts with our recruitment and selection process, and we are happy to talk smart/flexible working.  We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process. If you consider yourself to have a disability or learning difficulty which means you are unable to complete the application process online, please get in touch either by phone on 0345 300 3725 or by email recruitment.online@marksandspencer.com so we can make alternative arrangements for you.

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