JOB REF NO: GVA/TL 01

JOB DESCRIPTION:
• The Technology Lead reports to the Executive Director, Market Operations and Technology and is responsible for translating the organization’s vision into a technical vision resulting in leading technical developments and service delivery. The post holder will possess a proven track record in designing, building and supporting a word class technical infrastructure and applications services in a secure manner with maximum uptime and in line with ITIL principles. Must possess lots of hands-on experience.
• The successful candidate will have a solid technical background and will be very technically ‘on the ball’ with the ability to get ‘hands-on’ where required, but also able to manage a team of technologists based on robust processes and communicate effectively at senior management levels to explain technical issues. The post holder will be strategically minded, with ability to identify new/emerging technology options and have robust technical project delivery skills to deliver complex and highly visible technology change projects and would have gained experience ideally across several locations/geographies and within Emerging Markets operations of the Financial Services sector.
• The successful candidate MUST be skilled in developing trading platforms and solutions.
• This is a high profile opportunity to use your skills in transforming leading Emerging Markets operations in the Financial Services sector and positioning it for growth and leadership within its region using technology as a competitive and business transformational tool.


JOB FUNCTION :
• Drive the formulation of the technology strategy. Lead its execution, working in close collaboration with both internal and external stakeholders
• Build, retain and motivate a best in class technology team across all the main technology disciplines and oversee associated changes
• Ensure the organization operates a high availability, robust and high permanent technology infrastructure and services, visible to both internal and external stakeholders
• Establish technical standards that will ensure a highly available and secure technology environment. Ensure adherence to the standards
• Work with external stakeholders to establish appropriate industry wide standards to leverage STP initiatives
• Develop processes to ensure that agreed SLAs are met
• Identify and manage strategic supplier relationships to augment internal and strategic capabilities, whilst ensuring a high level of service delivery
• Provide strong leadership skills, ensuring the highest standards of governance, deliverables, risk and stakeholder management
• Manage and deliver the technology services in line with global best practices for infrastructure (ITIL) and applications (SDLC)
• Be accountable for the delivery of all technology services (BAU) and outcomes for all technology changes run by the Market Operations and Technology division
• Provide E2E technology integration from clients to brokers, trading, clearing, settlements and clearing, including risk surveillance
• Ensure appropriate technologies to re-engineer the business processes are identified, implemented and maintained
• Generate a comprehensive resource plan for the technology organisation to identify appropriate
resources (internal and external) that will be essential to achieve delivery objectives. Drive the secondment of these resources to ensure timely and quality delivery
• Monitor project/programme timelines, milestones, budget and resource usage to ensure delivery to plan and budget. Pro-actively manage deviations
• Produce monthly executive management technology services report detailing service delivery against benchmark, budgets, quality, deviations from plan and risks for management attention
• Manage and deploy available funds and resources efficiently
• Ensure that all disaster recovery related technology services are up to date and will support the business in the unlikely event of an invocation. Ensure that these are tested regularly in line with the plan
• Continually train and coach other team members to become self-sufficient

EXPERIENCE:
The Technology Lead will be expected to have aptitudes, skills, knowledge and experience on the following areas:
• Hands-on current and deep expertise in at least two technical disciplines (e.g., networks, OS, software development, hardware, technology quality assurance, telecoms)
• Data Centre Management and Support
• Ability to interpret technology and market trends as a foundation for technology roadmaps
• Technical Programme and Project Management
• Business case development
• Call centre / Technical Helpdesk Service delivery
• Strong knowledge of information security principles and application
• Financial/Security Market exposure
• Strong governance exposure
• Technical Production Support
• Developing trading platforms and solutions:
- B2C eTrading development on various platforms
- B2B eTrading development on various platforms
- FIX connectivity
- Equities, FX and CFD platforms
- Risk Management
• Ability to work with and influence senior executives
• Financial management
• Quality management
• Risk management
• Knowledge management
• Vendor/Supplier management
• Entrepreneurially minded
• Po-activeness in addressing any service / quality issues and deviations from plan
• Technology Architecture. Experience within Exchanges/Financial Services sector will be a distinct advantage
• Market data services experience will be a distinct advantage

FREEDOM TO ACT:
The Technology Lead has considerable freedom to act in order to deliver services required for the provision of an efficient and effective operation. He/She will be expected to work to a high level of technical standard, accuracy and lead by example,
• Definition, management and ownership of approved technology budgets
• Ability to deal with uncertain business and technology objectives.
• Manage and be accountable for dependencies, exceptions, slippage, issues and priorities
• Manage and be accountable for the management of risk and opportunities including the development of contingency plans.
• Manage issues and change

PROBLEM SOLVING:
• The Technology Lead will be expected to plan delivery of appropriate services and solutions to meet overall service office objectives often against tight time, financial or resource constraints. To achieve this the post holder will need to:
• Have the ability to think logically, analyse situations and lead diverse teams in complex
problem solving
• Ensure all changes are well tested and managed in a controlled manner with full rollback plans
• Work with stakeholders and suppliers to develop strategic solution options, resourcing options and delivery plans

COMMUNICATING WITH OTHERS:
The Technology Lead will be expected to have excellent communication skills and experience in working with sponsors and other members of the business. The following points illustrate this:
• Communication and visibility of all critical issues and their status and service restore plans
• Define team member roles and expectations, and ensure timely feedback
• Communicate the technology vision and service improvement plans to internal and external stakeholders

LEADERSHIP:
• The post holder will need to be an effective leader to create effective, informed and highly
motivated team(s) focused on delivery. S/he will need to:
• Set overall direction for the team
• Monitor and maintain team morale
• Ensure the coherence of the service, technical project(s), dependencies and conflicts and develop and maintain the appropriate environment to support all areas involved in the delivery.
• Influence, inspire and lead cross functional project teams
• Be an advocate for the wider adoption of technology both internally and externally
• Lead transformational technology initiatives

PEOPLE MANAGEMENT & DEVELOPMENT:
• The post holder will need good people skills including
• Define and scope the resource requirements for the formation of the programme team.
• The ability to create clarity of roles and responsibilities for members of the team.
• Build and maintain relationships with the overall team, Business team(s) and stakeholders.
• Manage conflicts and dependencies across teams and wider stakeholder group
• Coach, mentor, appraise and develop managers and team members

FINANCIAL CONTROLT:
• The post holder will be expected to budget for the department and maintain monitoring and management of spend. This will cover the following activities:
• Development of a robust business case for the programme(s) and re-forecast value creation where necessary
• Facilitate a process for ensuring regular tracking and management of costs against budget
• Review of cost anomalies or over-spend upward within the service and line management in a timely fashion
• Negotiate optimum prices with suppliers while ensuring sound service levels

EXPERIENCE & QUALIFICATIONS:
• Minimum of 15 years programme delivery experience
• B.Sc degree in Computer Science, Engineering discipline, Mathematics or Physics will be a distinct advantage
• Solid technical track record in supporting and implementing technology infrastructures and or applications is essential
• Networking (switching/routing) and Market Data Services experience will be a distinct advantage
• Experience on at least two core technical disciplines (e.g., Networks, Server hardware and Operating Systems, software development, etc.,) at a ‘hands-on’ level is essential
• Experience with managing team of technical experts in a business critical service environment
• Training on ITIL and experience in working in an ITIL based environment will be a distinct advantage
• Technical certifications in server and networking technologies
• Experience in financial services within a technology discipline will be a distinct advantage
• Experience in leading large technical teams and implementation programmes (>$500K) will be an advantage
• Ability to demonstrate a track record of delivering complex business critical change
• Experience in managing/working with senior stakeholders at CTx/Exec level will be a distinct advantage

EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION:
• A good bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Electronic Engineering or any related discipline.

REQUIREMENTS:
• Good knowledge of HP Windows server, Netapp storage, SUN systems.
• Knowledge of Backup/Disaster Recovery best practices.
• Thorough understanding of Windows, Unix, Linux with support experience
• Must be familiar with the administration and patching of AIX/Unix severs.
• Knowledge of RedHat Linux and RSA SecureID administration
• Experienced with SAN (IBM and Hitachi) and multipathing
• Experienced with Solaris 9 and 10 administration and patching


COMPETENCIES:
• Ability to support a variety of technologies and systems independently, resolve problems and pro-actively communicate solutions.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Exhibit a thorough approach to quality issues and documentation.
• Good sense of customer orientation and team working
• Strong leadership skills
• Demonstrated desire and ability to effectively learn new technology-committed to continuous learning and development on the job through self-study and formal courses.

METHOD OF APPLICATION
Candidate who meet the above requirement should email their resume to contact@gvapartners.com and recruitment@gvapartners.com. PLEASE, STATE THE POSITION YOU ARE APPLYING FOR IN THE SUBJECT FIELD OF THE MAIL.