Senior Client Services Program Manager at NICE Ltd

•  The role includes developing, leading, and coordinating multiple, complex, customer facing, IT projects and programs, assuring successful delivery of Actimize products and services, and a high level of customer satisfaction. This demands timely and effective communication with internal and external stakeholders up to C-level. Working closely with customers aross a portfolio of client accounts, managing customer’s expectations, and ensuring that projects are successfully completed within budget, to agreed time scales, specified Quality, and are perceived to be successful by our clients.
• The role requires a strong individual that is highly energetic, committed, enthusiastic and resilient. They must have the ability to prioritise amongst multiple competing alternatives, and take ownership of complex situations, managing them to a successful conclusion. As this is a leadership role it also necessitates supporting, empowering, and motivating a team of uniquely talented individuals, enabling them to be successful and ensuring that they meet their objectives.

How will you make an impact?  

• Manage a number of projects for tier one clients of varying sizes utilising cross-functional Actimize teams distributed across multiple geographical locations.
• Establish effective governance according with best practice and common methodologies.
• Lead and manage a portfolio of client accounts, with multiple customer-facing software delivery engagements, delivered directly, and/or through a team of Senior Program/Project Managers.
• Provide effective, accurate and timely communications to all senior stakeholders. Scheduling and attend senior stakeholder meetings, including Steering Committees, and acting as a clear point of contact for client sponsors and senior management.
• Improve Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) returns for your portfolio of client accounts.
• Ensure effective Risk Management is proactively employed across the account portfolio. Actively collaborating with clients to ensure a rapid resolution, where necessary, avoiding, defusing, and managing escalations, should they arise.
• Ensure that scope is monitored and controlled on all projects and that any deviation is proactively addressed through change control, impact assessment, and re-planning to safeguard project baselines.
• Ensure that revenue forecasts, budgets and invoices are accurate and tracked regularly to ensure that Actimize projects meet their financial objectives.
• Manages cost, schedule and quality by overseeing project deliverables and ensuring project objectives are met.
• Assess and report the quality and efficiency of each stage of delivery of projects in your client portfolio. Proactively provide feedback on lessons learned, and contributing to the maintenance and development of project management resources, processes, and tools used within your Professional Services team.
• Proactively address performance issues within prescribed company guidelines.

Have you got what it takes? 

• Must be based in South Africa and have experience of managing complex IT implementation programs in across Africa.
• Must have highly developed soft skills, excellent stakeholder management and the gravitas needed to build long term relationships with clients and internal stakeholders alike.
• Must have excellent communication and presentation skills, written and verbal, and be comfortable communicating with a range of stakeholders, from team to C-level.
• Must be resilient and able to work well under pressure with challenging projects.
• Must have extensive experience of all aspects of client management, including crisis management, escalation management, over-commitment management, risk and issue resolution, managing pre-requisites, delay tracking, project reporting, and action tracking.
• Must have experience of leading a portfolio of customer facing professional services projects through a team of project managers.
• Must have experience of working in internationally distributed matrix-management structures.
• Must have extensive previous experience of working in Professional Services and Financial Services / Capital Markets or Investment Banking.
• Must be highly organised, energetic, resilient, proactive, articulate, equally comfortable working with the ‘big picture’ and ‘small detail’, commercially astute, and able to lead and delegate effectively.
• Must be able to proactively guide the client through challenges while avoiding escalations.
• Must be able to travel Internationally, if required.
• Minimum of 10 years + experience of managing complex IT software projects using established project/program management disciplines and methodologies. Recognized project management certification such as PRINCE2, PMP, MSP, etc… preferrable. While certification is important, candidates should be able to adapt to detailed processes and software delivery and project management practices & methodologies, such as Agile, Waterfall, Scrum, Kanban…
• Substantial experience of managing multiple concurrent IT/ software implementation and integration projects of varied size and complexity utilizing cross-functional teams in multiple geographical locations.
• Substantial experience of working with SMEs when developing scope/specification of large technical programs.
• Solid understanding of all phases of the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC), Data migration, Integration, Consolidation, Profiling, and Cleansing.