Head of Function Value Streams

Position: Head of Function Value Streams

Reporting to: Chief Technology Officer – Group Functions

Location: London

Type: Permanent

Band: III

Hiscox is hiring a Head of Function Value Streams to help shape and transition Hiscox Group functions into an agile value stream based operating model.

The role spans the People, Marketing, Risk & Compliance, and Enterprise Application value streams and sits as a direct report to the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for Group Functions. The remit includes all business applications within the Finance, Underwriting, and Claims functions, which includes our core applications and the wider eco-system of technologies and tools within those three functions.

As a key member of the Group Functions technology leadership team, the Head of Core Value Streams will be responsible for defining and aligning the technology roadmaps for our three core functions. Reporting into the role are four Product Owners, representing People, Marketing, Risk & Compliance, and Enterprise Application whose value streams include numerous support teams, engineering squads, testers, and data engineers. Responsibilities include:

• Collaborate with function leadership teams in setting and driving the business outcomes to ensure they support the group technology goals to Simplify, Protect and Enable the business.
• Providing effective and proactive support and expertise to programmes and projects, creating innovative and actionable plans, and optimising solution delivery.
• Interpret and contextualise business requirements into actionable technology roadmaps with well-defined benefits and cost requirements.
• In conjunction with the Head of Architecture, develop and execute product strategies aligned with Hiscox’s overall goals and objectives to ensure consistency and quality of solutions.
• Support the end-to-end product development process, including ideation, requirements gathering, prioritisation and roadmap creation.
• Lead, advocate, and drive adoption of best practices to ensure the standardisation of outputs across the core functions value streams.
• Support the planning and execution of new product/feature launches, ensuring effective messaging, scheduling, and monitoring of metrics to drive improvements and satisfaction.
• Lead and manage a team of Product Managers, fostering a collaborative and high-performing culture within the team, and providing guidance, mentorship and development opportunities.
• Advise the value stream teams on performance, scalability, reliability, availability and other operational concerns to define appropriate metrics and KPIs.
• Promote a commercially oriented culture where the value stream teams recognize their importance to Hiscox’s commercial aims and work to enable them.
• Ensure the provision of all People, Marketing, Risk & Compliance, and Enterprise Applications to meet the quality, resilience and usability of all user groups.
• Act as the escalation point internally and externally for high priority concerns, being available to answer questions, clarify requirements and provide general guidance.
• Manage engagement with 3rd parties, through RFI and/or RFP processes to the implementation and run phases including attending QBR sessions where appropriate.
• Own the risk registry, audit requirements, and financial management for the People, Marketing, Risk & Compliance, and Enterprise Applications value streams.
• Stay up to date with industry trends and market dynamics to identify opportunities for product innovation and growth.

Required skills

• Strategic thinking: Strong analytical skills and complex problem solving, as well as having the ability to communicate a clear product vision and set of business objectives is paramount to the success of this role.
• Leadership: Ability to inspire technical teams to proactively find solutions, focus on continuous improvement, and remove blockers is also an essential quality for this role. Demonstrate ownership and accountability for all applications and systems by following through on demands and supporting issues through to resolution.
• Communication & stakeholder management: The role requires a strong ability to communicate effectively and to influence at all levels of the organisation. The role is a key business partner for our core functions so the successful candidate needs to be able to manage competing priorities, as well as being adept at building relationships and trust, and being able to guide and influence stakeholders through technical solutions.
• Programme management: Comfortable leading internal and external teams, working with both traditional methodologies and modern agile methodologies in a multi-faceted application estate with a wide range of technologies. Being able to switch between topics and work in a fast paced environment where decisions must be made quickly is imperative.
• Technical Capabilities: In-depth understanding of core business processes and related tools and technologies, deep understanding of Agile principles and processes, experience working in value streams and product development.

Required experience

• Significant number of years in a senior Technology leadership role coupled with extensive senior stakeholder engagement experience and commercial/financial awareness.
• Significant number of years in a team management role, providing coaching and mentoring, and leveraging competencies/capabilities across the team to achieve overall business outcomes.
• Proven experience developing product roadmaps, prioritising in accordance with strategic business objectives with a focus on customer experience.
• Experience managing Cloud/SaaS applications, APIs and legacy applications with a strong understanding on how to migrate towards being a digital, cloud and API-driven capability.
• Experience with the evaluation and selection of new technologies based to validate if a considered technology is capable of delivering against the requirements.
• Experience implementing operational processes improvements through automation and/or process design/redesign.
• Experience in cost optimisation through third party and operating model rationalisation programmes.
• Strong knowledge and experience of build, deployment, change and release processes and automation.
• Strong knowledge in data engineering and analytics principles and technologies.
• Experience working with standard collaboration tools such as Jira, Confluence, or Miro.
• Extensive experience working on large, complex projects or products with proven ability to deliver lasting value beyond go live.
• Experience operating in a challenging organisational environment with a requirement to balance differing priorities and demands.
• An aptitude for challenging the status quo to ensure continuous improvement with creative solutions.
• A proactive approach and a ‘can do’ attitude highlighted with a passion to deliver exceptional customer service.
• Motivated self-starter who can work autonomously and add value in a team.

At Hiscox we care about our people. We hire the best people for the job and we’re committed to diversity and creating a truly inclusive culture, which we believe drives success.

Working life doesn’t always have to be in the office, so we have introduced hybrid working to encourage a healthy work life balance. This hybrid working model is set by the team rather than the business to enable you to manage your own personal work-life balance.

We see it as the best of both worlds; structure and sociability on one hand, and independence and flexibility on the other.

Our benefits package includes a bonus, contributory pension, 25 days annual leave plus 2 Hiscox days and a 4 week paid sabbatical with every 5 years’ worth of service, private medical for all the family and much more.

Apply now for further information.

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