Senior Project / Technology Manager - Leicester, Leicestershire, UK

Need the support of a business focused IT professional, whether its a one off project, an interim position or a regular watching brief over existing IT employees. Willing to travel.

Rating:	Unrated (New)
Hourly Rate:	£53.33
Available From:	Now
Seller ID:	252735
	: Hourly rate shown includes a discount of 20% for registered charities.

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CV

Leadership and Management
Throughout my career I have had to provide leadership in a variety of positions. Most common has been as a successful line manger to highly skilled technology teams. In this environment I have proved to be a truly inspirational manager and motivated teams to deliver against very aggressive deadlines, and to continually improve their performance to clients by setting Key Performance Indicators (KPI). I also have a wealth of experience successfully leading project teams including non-technical work-streams and project members with no direct reporting line. I’m use to leading teams both in good times and bad and have experience of managing difficult team members. I have developed my coaching and mentoring skills both with direct and non-direct reports to improve team effectiveness and the quality of outputs, and pride myself on creating teams who are task focused and who enjoy working as a team because their skills are matched to the tasks they have to complete or who use their existing skills to coach other team members whilst their new role allows them to learn new skills and develop.

A key to my success as an IT manager has been the flexibility to quickly provide solutions to business issues, relishing the chance to expand my experience by taking on additional challenges. Over the last 8 years I have performed senior level strategic roles for IT, determining an IT strategy that will deliver business goals and fit within a wider IT strategy of the parent organisations.

Change Management
Designing IT systems usually involves some need for organisational process change. At FT Knowledge I was responsible for developing the technology platform on which the core product (e-Learning) would be delivered. As the system covered every element from Marketing, Customer Service, Finance and Product design I had to be very active in working with each of these areas to both map their existing and proposed processes and then rationalise them based against the most appropriate technology solution. Within Coventry University the issues were different due to the nature of Higher Education processes. My project was initially seen as external to the Schools processes and it took time to convince the schools administration team that there would be changes to processes and what the benefits would be.

As a recognised experienced business focused IT Manager I have built a reputation as a driving force in business change where it leads to identified benefits to organisational performance

Project Delivery
Over the last 10 years I have managed a number of major IT projects. At FT Knowledge I was responsible for designing, developing, managing and improving their e-learning capability. This was a multi-million pound (>£7M) project, covered the whole project lifecycle and required the integration of differing technologies at every level, including negotiating a contract for online payment and the recruitment of a permanent team to develop and support the systems. In addition I was responsible as Technical Lead on a £2.75M web-based subscription service, working with a team of contract developers, and editorial staff. This role included responsibility to recruit permanent technical staff solely responsible for this product.

In my most resent roles I have been responsible for designing and developing web-based services to provide Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG) to potential Lifelong Learners. For two years I was project lead on a £3.8M project at Coventry University managing all work-streams including non-technical. As well as designing and developing the web-based service I was responsible for managing the rollout of a CRM system and its integration with the IAG service.

Communication
Over many years I have developed a breadth of communication skills, as a young engineer I had to work with older experienced tool makers and develop my designs into effective safe tools to manufacture power generations equipment. As a financial advisor I developed long standing relationship to help businesses finance their growth, it was here that I honed my presentations skill, presenting to large groups and at board level.

Whilst at University I had a reputation for being a relationship manager and project spokesperson, regularly being appointed project lead by my peers. This reputation has continued since. I’m regularly asked to present ideas to groups on a wide spectrum of subjects. I’m seen as a rationalising influence in meetings especially where there is discord and I can usually find a solution that’s acceptable to both parties.

With many years experience of customer satisfaction I constantly look for opportunities to improve client relationships through increased customer service, which in turn has a positive effect on business retention and referral.

Employment History

(Mar 2004 to Mar 2007)

Senior Project / Technology Manager

Coventry

The ReNS project was a £2.8M project funded by the regional development agency Advantage West Midlands.

The aim of the project was to attract increase numbers of people into Lifelong Learning to develop their employment skills. These were higher skills rather than basic skills. Originally employed as Technology Manager in November 2004 I was asked to take overall control of the project and ensure the successful delivery within budget.

As project leader I was responsible for:
1. Financial management of £2.8M regional development agency funded project
2. Project representative to Schools management board
3. Develop project road map to successfully deliver project within budget, time and on target.
4. Manage non-technical work streams to develop product and customers services
5. Project reporting and communication to both university and the funding body senior management
6. Energies project team to high performance, keeping an eye on opportunities for team development to improve performance
7. Manage project outcomes, negotiating changes to ensure project deliverables supported the organisational objectives of SoLL, CU and Advantage West Midlands (AWM – funding body)
8. Proactively seek opportunities for continued funding after initial project period
9. Present project concepts to a variety of interested stakeholders and potential partners
10. Inform non-project SoLL staff on how the project would lead to changes in working practice and how it could support improvements in customer service and communication

In addition as technical lead I was responsible for:
1. Ownership of IT solutions to deliver project objectives
2. Integration of solutions into existing SoLL technology for sustainability
3. Ownership of IT architecture and development roadmap
4. Involved in full IT development including build issues and solutions
5. Managed 3rd party developers to deliver application and hosting in line with business requirements
6. Develop CRM system to both support project activity and facilitate its integration with the schools core administration functions
7. Use my experience to design develop and manage IT systems within a complex and changing business context
8. Facilitate changes in opinion from the universities centralised IT service to the proposed solution systems
9. Represent SoLL on centralised IT workgroups and negotiate infrastructure changes required to support SoLL needs and objectives

(Nov 1999 to Feb 2004)

Senior Technology Manager

Central London

Initially responsible for developing the client facing technology for this start-up business unit, part of the FTSE 100 company Pearson plc.

After 4 years and rapid growth and reduction I became the senior IT manager for the UK, responsible for the relationship with Pearson centralised IT and its support of all operational IT infrastructure.

Client facing technology responsibilities:
1. Owner of IT infrastructure, web hosting and development roadmap managing the application of £10M investment into technology for the delivery of the businesses core product – online training
2. Make representations to FT Knowledge senior management team, in conjunction with IT Director, to present and negotiate IT structures and budgets required to deliver secure, resilient systems which would add business value
3. Understand business context, needs and objectives so as to affectively offer solutions which would add value
4. Build an in-house capability to develop and maintain a variety of applications running on Solaris, Wintel servers, Apache, IIS, Oracle, SQL Server, TomCat, and Websphere amongst others. Develop this team to provide an effective high performing team with a ‘Can do’ approach to business issues
5. Lead by example, with a willingness to be involved in low level issues providing input to programming problems, whilst supporting team members development and providing opportunities for input into strategic decisions
6. Represent client facing technology on FT Knowledge IT management team, ensuring that decisions took into account any specific requirements or infrastructure issues
7. Act as technical lead on £2.5M subscription web service, developing the IT team to support this service, ensuring compliance with centralised IT policies, but also facilitating changes to infrastructure and procedures where needed

As senior UK IT manager I assumed the following responsibilities:
1. Represent FT Knowledge IT on Pearson plc UK IT working groups, including policy setting and business continuity
2. Interface between FT Knowledge senior management and Pearson plc UK IT for issue resolution
3. Coach and mentor FT Knowledge UK IT support in issue resolution and workload prioritisation
4. Represent UK IT users on FT Knowledge IT management team for Professional services application and Active Directory rollouts driven from our Boston USA offices
5. Manage all FT Knowledge UK IT staff with regard to local HR policies and procedures, and welfare. Lead by example when it came to instilling a customer service and satisfaction ethos.

(Oct 1997 to Oct 1999)

Technology Manager

Ingleton-Beer Associates, Rutland

As the only IT practitioner surrounded by 10 IT journalists and with blue chip technology clients, I was responsible for the following:
1. Ownership of IT strategy, office infrastructure, desktop applications and web servers and sites.
2. Working with senior management to determine IT strategy to support business needs
3. Develop internal capacity to develop and maintain websites for the business and its clients
4. Administer websites and associated hardware to ensure the continued availability of services
5. Present business capability to potential clients
6. Support editorial and business development teams in the achievement of deadlines

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Senior Project / Technology Manager - Leicester, Leicestershire, UK

CV

Employment History

Senior Project / Technology Manager

Senior Technology Manager

Technology Manager

Professional Qualifications

Education

De Montfort University

Categories & Skills

Education and Research

IT & Internet

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