Finance Operations Project Manager (FTC- 24 months)

At Informa, no two days and no two people are the same, and you'll find the freedom, opportunity and support of a fantastic community to make a real impact.

We’re an international business that connects specialists with knowledge, helping them to learn more, know more and do more through live and on demand events, digital and data-driven services and academic research. We are home to over 10,000 colleagues across 30 countries and are a member of the UK’s FTSE 100 group of leading public companies.

In Global Support, we provide expert guidance and hands-on support to the Informa Group and Informa’s many business teams. Across tech, finance, legal, corporate development, HR, communications, operations and many other areas, we work collaboratively and flexibly to help our brands serve their customers and help the company succeed.

As our Finance Operations Project Manager, you'll be at the forefront of our digital transformation, implementing cutting-edge solutions that will streamline our financial processes worldwide. Here's what your exciting journey with us will entail:

• ​Lead E-Invoicing through to completion, adjusting the project plan as needed as legislation is released across the geographic jurisdictions, managing the change across the geographic jurisdictions, working with key stakeholders on adoption and ensuring the Business Case and benefits realisation are tracked and managed 

• Adapting to the strategic direction of the project as agreed with the Sponsor and Tax Global Process Owner 

• Managing the scheduling of the SteerCo and producing materials in conjunction with key stakeholders 

• Manage key communications across the E-Invoicing project and GBS 

• Ensure stakeholder engagement is centric to the overall delivery and plans from GBS Director, Head of Tax to regional contact in the global Shared Service Centre  

• Manage third parties, contractors and contracts in accordance to company policy 

• Act as a role model to others and proactively contribute to continuous learning with other members of the Programme Management Office team 

Planning 

• Creates and maintains detailed plans which identify the required steps and resources to finish the project to agreed deadlines. Uses these plans to control delivery across multiple work streams.   

• Breaking down activities to level where can checkpoint progress.  Plans with enough detail to ensure integration of all activities and dependencies.  Works across teams to breaks down high level deliverables and activities into more detailed sub-deliverables, tasks and activities.  Ensures the plan covers technical and non-technical deliverables, activities and dependencies, considers contingency planning and road mapping 

• Checkpoints progress against the plan and manage mitigations to stay on plan. Identifies delivery flows across  teams and addresses risks, issues and dependencies.  Manages those dependencies outside the team or where there are gaps in ownership.   

• Lead continual planning, forecasting, estimating due to the legislative nature of the project.  Managing uncertainty in a complex multi geographic environment.    

• Agrees and communicates the plan, assumptions and progress to a range of stakeholders.   

• Aligns and drives delivery plans with Business Change management plans.  

Delivery 

• Matrix manages delivery team(s) and 3rd parties, ensuring team is motivated, collaborating and working well.  Ensure compliance with the process and remove impediments 

• Ensure cross-functional resources are identified and committed to the delivery plan. Aligning ways of working across teams and incorporating a joined-up end to end approach and plans 

• Ensure all resources roles and responsibilities are defined, documented and understood 

• Identify obstacles and help the team to overcome them.  Focus the team on what is most important to the delivery working with other lead roles when needed to ensure cross-functional delivery 

• Maintains and drives RAIDs, project standards and escalation management.    Facilitates  and supports problem-solving.  Contributes to resolving issues by helping the team overcome challenges and maintain momentum. 

• Interacts with stakeholders to make sure the project meets requirements and agrees with the project's current direction.  Control scope and change requests 

• Works with the PMO to manage project through stage gate and benefit management processes. 

Financial Management  

• Manage budget and facilitate, estimate and costs plan in  complex environments 

• Maintains financial project trackers.   Tracking and forecasting across all costs areas e.g. people (internal and supplier), infrastructure, software and licenses and any other services and consumables.   

• Pro-actively manages budget risk and resources.  Managing to phased and gated budgets and in line with accounting processes and periods. 

• Receipt invoices to Statement of work, Purchase orders, deliverables, acceptance criteria and  estimates/forecasts 

• Checks and tracks resource times sheets 

Portfolio governance and forums 

• Sets up and run  governance forums.  Reviewing  summary of project status, scope,  key decisions, plan, RAIDS, resourcing, project finance and actions 

• Plans and engages technology through governance gate process.  

Supplier management 

• Review statement of work and ensure deliverables, acceptance criteria, milestones and activities match delivery need 

• Effective management of 3rd parties and service providers to SOW.  Manage delivery issues through team and escalation processes   

• Ensure get good value out of contracts and suppliers 

We're looking for a seasoned project management professional who thrives in a dynamic, global environment. Here's what we need from you:

• Experience in managing multiple projects across the full lifecycle, working with complex stakeholders and teams and preferably across different regions 
• Experience in managing cross-functional delivery teams many of whom are  remote and from 3rd parties 
• Clear stakeholder management experience at SME, head of and senior level 
• Working directly with Business Analysis, Product Owners, Solution Architects and Test Managers to produce requirements, solution and testing approaches and deliverables  
• Experience of working with portfolio office and associated processes (e.g.  through Stage Gate processes) 
• Demonstrable experience within Finance Operations transformation  
• Strong communication skills to engage senior stakeholders.  Experience of leading SteerCos or Project Boards 
• Experience with implementing legislation or regulation with a Finance Operations environment  
• Professional Project Management, e.g. PRINCE2, PMP or equivalent with Six Sigma/Lean experience a bonus 
• Experience with transitioning activities across different teams and ensuring the sending and receiving teams manage the change successfully 
• Understanding of Change Management, preferably stakeholder needs analysis and change impact assessments 
• Customer centric mindset, with ability to work positively and collaboratively with others in a matrix organisation 
• Strong interpersonal skills, excellent communication and negotiation skills 
• Advanced skills in numerical reasoning, budget management and financial reporting 
• Advanced skills in MS Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Teams 

We work hard to make sure Life at Informa is rewarding, supportive and enjoyable for everyone. Here’s some of what you can expect when you join us. But don’t just take our word for it – see what our colleagues have to say at LifeAt.Informa.com

Our benefits include:

• Freedom & flexibility: colleagues rate us highly for the flexibility and trust they receive and most of us balance time in the office with time working remotely
• Great community: a welcoming culture with in-person and online social events, our fantastic Walk the World charity day and active diversity and inclusion networks
• Broader impact: take up to four days per year to volunteer, with charity match funding available too
• Career opportunity: the opportunity to develop your career with bespoke training and learning, mentoring platforms and on-demand access to thousands of courses on LinkedIn Learning. When it’s time for the next step, we encourage and support internal job moves
• Time out: 25 days annual leave, rising to 27 days after two years, plus a birthday leave day and the chance to work from (almost!) anywhere for up to four weeks a year
• A flexible range of personal benefits to choose from, plus company funded private medical cover
• A ShareMatch scheme that allows you to become an Informa shareholder with free matching shares
• Strong wellbeing support through EAP assistance, mental health first aiders, a healthy living subsidy, access to health apps and more
• Recognition for great work, with global awards and kudos programmes
• As an international company, the chance to collaborate with teams around the world

We’re not solely focused on a checklist of skills. We champion energy and ambition and look for colleagues who will roll their sleeves up, join in and help make things happen. If it sounds like a match and you have most – although not all – of the skills and experience listed, we welcome your application.

At Informa, you'll find inclusive experiences and environments where all perspectives and backgrounds are welcomed. As part of this approach and our diversity and inclusion commitments, we are also formally an Equal Opportunities Employer. This means we base decisions on relevant qualifications and merit and do not discriminate on the basis of key characteristics and statuses, including all of those protected by law. Ask us or see our website for full information.

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