Aladdin Business Change Manager

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Job description

At M&G our vision is: to become the best loved and most successful savings and investment business and we're looking for people who are excited about joining us on our journey. We're digitally transforming and investing heavily in technology and innovation to develop new and improved customer propositions that really raise the bar for our customers. To help us achieve our vision we're looking for exceptional people who live our values and behaviours and who can inspire others; embrace change; deliver results and keep it simple.

We know that an inclusive environment makes us more accessible and ensures we attract, engage, promote and retain exceptional people. We welcome applications from all individuals regardless of age, gender/gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity/nationality, disability, or military service and welcome those who have taken career breaks. We will consider flexible working arrangements or home working arrangements for any of our roles.

What you can expect from us:
We are committed to creating an environment where you can be exceptional at all you do. To help us deliver this, we promise to:

• Challenge Your Limits by creating a stimulating working environment and providing opportunities for you to be involved in meaningful and challenging work
• Support Your Aspirations with a commitment to learning and development that helps you achieve and build your experience with people who want you to succeed
• Value Your Input whereby leaders and managers will involve you in key decisions, listen to your thoughts and recognise the important contribution you make
• Balance Your Life through a work life partnership that focuses on making this an inclusive, diverse and friendly place to work and offers the flexibility and support that enables everyone to be at their best

How do we support our employees:
All M&G plc employees will be supported in the workplace through our M&G Employee Assistance Programme (EAP). If you need counselling, confidential financial or legal advice. The service is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and offers access to qualified professionals who can provide specialist information, advice and support on many issues. It offers a broad range of services, including help with family issues, maintaining work/life balance and mental health support.

The Role:

The Investment Operations Team is a central team within Investment, reporting to the Investment COO with a global remit. The team provides support to the other Investment Teams in the M&G Plc Business and works with teams across M&G to implement change. The team aims to enable business growth, support business as usual, make data improvements, manage risk and simplify the business.

Aladdin Business Change team is responsible for the support of the investment platform with a focus on Aladdin by BlackRock Solutions (BRS). The individual would be required to:

• Own all Aladdin related incidents through to successful resolution
  
• To provide 2nd line support to the investment teams globally
  
• Be the escalation point to BRS where technical or Aladdin specific assistance is required
  
• To reduce incidents by working with BRS to improve their Quality Control and batch support
  
• Assist in the change initiatives by working with Business Change Managers on larger change projects
  
• Transitions new applications/ modules and services into the production support environment
  
• Identify potential efficiencies and best practice opportunities within Aladdin
  
• Coordinate with GT application support front to back incidents to successful resolution
  

Key Responsibilities:

The successful candidate will be responsible for:

Aladdin

• To provide support to the Investment Platform - Aladdin, working closely with the global team to provide global comprehensive solutions to the investment functions.
  
• To provide training on Aladdin and the end to end workflows.
  
• Be a Subject Matter (SME) expert for the Investment teams.
  

Business Analysis

• Develop a close working relationship with front office business stakeholders in order to determine functionality gaps and enhancement requirements.
  
• To analyse data and data files to understand what information is received or required
  
• To not be constrained by current environments and be able to recommend alternative solutions
  
• Provide input into strategic product selection and target operating model definition
  
• To help users define user acceptance testing criteria and assist the user testing process
  

Process and Workflow

• To promote best practice and global consistency.
  
• To highlight priorities and critical requirements
  
• To highlight impacts to the business and clients
  
• To identify where simple changes can be made to produce significant improvements
  

Incident/ Problem Management

• Manage and maintain incidents, enhancements, issues and risks log via Jira
  
• To identify risks, issues and weaknesses
  
• To identify key timings, dependencies, interfaces and human/technology interactions
  
• Take initiative and develop creative solutions for solving problems
  
• Analyse and summarize findings across all regions where applicable
  

Embedding and adoption

• Working closely with customers to ensure that new systems and process are embedded effectively
  
• Work with customers to ensure efficient and scalable use of UDAs
  

Support

• Assist in the definition of new business requirements and the design of new processes. To aide in the delivery of incremental change to the global investment Team.
  
• To maintain relations with the investment teams and act as a conduit relaying their requirements and feeding them in to BlackRock Solutions / Investment Operations Change.
  
• Consult and/or lead the organization design process for future organizational changes
  
• For part of the overall Investment Platform community within Investment Operations.
  

Experience and Skills

• Ability to define and document business requirements to a high standard
  
• Experience with the appropriate methods and tools (i.e. workshops, process flows, Visio) to achieve requirements capture and definition
  
• Ability to document process using formal methodology such as BPML/UML
  
• Experience working within a front office environment in an asset management firm
  
• Familiarity with broad range of investment products and instruments
  
• Experience of working with internal teams and third parties to ensure that requirements are met within agreed timescales
  
• Experience of full project life cycle including defining user requirements, defining test scenarios and user acceptance testing
  
• Good understanding of fund management business and processes
  
• Good inter-personal and organisational skills
  
• Good technical knowledge and ability to translate between IT and the business
  
• Ability to negotiate pragmatic solutions that meet conflicting business requirements
  
• Problem solving ability within a complex investment management environment
  
• Excellent oral and written communication skills
  
• Ability to operate under pressure and deliver to demanding deadlines
  
• Strong knowledge of Asset Management systems, such as Aladdin by BlackRock or Fidessa LatentZero.
  

We live by four behaviours at M&G and we ask all our employees to:

• Inspire Others - Support and encourage each other, creating an environment where everyone can contribute and succeed
• Embrace Change - Be open to change, willing to be challenged and able to adapt quickly and imaginatively to new ideas
• Deliver Results - Focus on outcomes, set high standards and deliver with energy and determination
• Keep it Simple - Cut through complexity and bureaucracy, be clear and decisive and never overcomplicate things