Director of Technology

Job ID:

| Location: Southampton

We're seeking a strong, commercially focussed interim Director to lead Aztec Group's Technology team for a period of around 6 months and be responsible for delivering technology services to our Clients, our Markets teams (PE, Real Assets and Private Credit) and our Business Development function.

The primary areas of responsibility relate to managing the business technology relationships and interface, delivering technology change into the business functions and clients, managing the applications development and support teams covering client and markets applications and developing and owning the technology strategy in relation to our client proposition sharing this with clients in regular updates and as part of business development activity.

This role will also engage with Technology Leadership for the planning, coordinating, and directing of operational and change application activities. Providing direction and support for delivering digital solutions and working closely with decision makers across the Group to identify, recommend, develop, implement, and support cost-effective technology solutions.

Working closely both with the business and technology teams, this role will support rapid business growth and change through the delivery of new technologies and application services, brought together to create a unique technology platform offering for staff, clients, and investors.

This role will play a leading role in the development and implementation of the Group's digital journey aligned to the Groups strategic goals and will be a critical member of the Technology Leadership Team.

• Formulate and deploy long-term strategic technology plans, aligned to business plans to enable efficient and cost-effective use of client facing applications and technology solutions within the Aztec Group.
• Build strong collaborative relationships with business leaders in the Markets teams to deliver technical capabilities against an ever-demanding user and client base.
• Build relationships with key clients to understand client priorities and business objectives, building credibility and trust with clients through open and direct communication.
• Act as a single point of contact for escalation of issues and challenges from the key stakeholder groups and ensure communication is maintained through to resolution.
• Work with the business teams in Markets to create a clear client and employee technology proposition with consideration of functional excellence, automation, best use of data and user experience.
• Develop, restructure and manage the cross jurisdictional technology teams (40+ people) in servicing the Markets teams to optimise for operational excellence and aligned to strategic planning, with consideration of recruitment, performance management, development, utilisation and negotiating the allocation of technology resources across support and change delivery activities.
• Direct research on potential technology solutions and implementations in support of new initiatives, opportunities, and procurement efforts.
• Oversee the delivery of projects, change and transformation activities being delivered or being supported by the Markets technology team, ensuring demand is actively managed, scope of requests is fully articulated, and costs and timescales are well understood and communicated.
• Keep key stakeholders informed about all new developments in IT which might impact on either quality of service or project delivery.
• Establish a regular product service calendar ensuring that the Group can maintains a robust and carefully managed markets application estate, managing application lifecycles and leveraging new product capabilities quickly within a commercial framework to a high standard of delivery, meeting both operational and strategic directives.
• Review performance of associated IT systems to determine operating costs, productivity levels, and improvement requirements.
• Authorise and oversee the deployment, monitoring, maintenance, development, and support of all hardware and software based on department needs.
• Support the Group's architecture, automation and data strategies and lead thinking about the interconnectivity of systems across the Group.
• Strong commercial vendor / partner management ensuring that our commercial relationships and arrangements are based on partnership, built for growth, with the quality and agility to respond to client demands.
• Responsible for the Markets Technology team budget, including application, people, third party costs, forecasting and with consideration of where there may be chargeable services for clients.
• Manage the team to ensure robust succession plans with specific hires/upskilling and headcount management to optimise efficiency and value, including consideration of the use of nearshore services where appropriate.
• Contribute as a Technology expert within Group Leadership team forums.
• Ensure the implementation of all IT policies and procedures, including those for architecture, security, disaster recovery, standards, purchasing, and service provision.
• Engage with IT Service Delivery in defining and monitoring the delivery of services to required service levels.
• Travel to other Aztec jurisdictional offices will be required

Skills, knowledge, expertise:

You will be an experienced IT leader with:

• Proven senior Technology leadership experience, ideally within a financial services and/or professional services environment. Knowledge of the core systems (eFront FIA, Yardi) would be an advantage
• A great communicator with the ability to communicate clearly at Executive Board level, with senior stakeholders internally and within Client Management teams (comfortable having client CTO and CFO conversations)
• The ability to demonstrate a proven track record of defining and driving a complex IT strategy, supporting digital transformation, and thinking creatively about managing high complexity within tight financial parameters
• A genuine curiosity about how technology (old and new) can be harnessed to generate business advantage at enterprise scale
• Experience in technology budget and cost centre management
• Exceptional communication skills, with the ability to explain complex IT concepts to non-technical colleagues
• Experience of managing multiple IT disciplines i.e., implementation, development, technical support, systems architecture, project delivery etc
• In depth experience of negotiating with and managing third parties and internal stakeholders and clients
• A broad technical understanding of a wide range of applications and technologies
• Deep understanding of project and change management principles
• Ability to lead, coach and mentor a team aligning to the Aztec Group values
• Strong leadership, communication, and interpersonal skills, together with the ability to develop good working relationships within the business, IT teams, clients and with other service providers
• A positive, pragmatic, and proactive attitude
• Proven ability to meet deadlines and identify and deal with problems / challenges along the way

We will provide the training, both in house for relevant technical knowledge and also professional qualifications to enhance your professional development. You will need to be quick to learn new systems and great with people, as close working relationships between our colleagues and clients is at the heart of what we do.