Release And Cutover Manager in Reading, Berkshire

Release and Cutover Manager
3 Month initial contract
£700 per day (Inside IR35)
Reading, Berkshire - 3 days per week on site

My client in the utilities industry are looking for a Release and Cutover Manager to join their fast paced team on an initial 3 Month contract.

As an integral part of the CPR Programme team, the successful candidate will report directly to the Head of Migrations and will have direct liaisons with key Business, Programme and IT Workstream leads.

The main purpose of this role is to be responsible for the end-to-end approach and planning of the technical and business cut over of the Evolve solution and wider portfolio of applications and interfaces.

The programme is in Deploy phase, there are a number of activities that need to be accelerated, one of which is the planning and execution of the cutover.

The role holder will create and be accountable for the overall business cutover plan which will specifically include:
* Developing a cutover approach for a large IT-enabled business transformation programme and creation of detailed technical cutover plans and cutover materials to support the agreed approach
* Collecting information from key stakeholders and translating this into an actionable detailed cutover run book
* Defining the detail of the sequence of activities needed to cutover to the new solutions- from when the readiness criteria are complete, through to the end of Early Life Support
* Defining the teams/locations required to deliver the IT and business transition
* Working with the Release and Deployment manager to coordinate activities required for both the dress rehearsal and production cutover.
* Providing detailed weekly status reports.
* Identifying and managing risks and issues via the RAID log and escalations where required.
* Lead the Release and Cutover team to successfully deliver the end to end of the migration events.
* Work closely with all workstreams and lifecycles, specifically focusing what cutover activities need to take place.
* Manage the CAB process and ensure timely governance approvals are received.
* Interface closely with the testing workstream and Hypercare to ensure a smooth transition across phases to production.

What you will be doing on the job
* Establish and maintain highly effective relationships within the CPR Programme, IT and business teams to ensure requirements are integrated into the overall cutover strategy.
* Primary deliverable outputs include:
o Responsible for creating and maintaining the business and technical cutover plan that integrates business, technical and data cutover activities across each customer release.
o Coordinate all cutover activities to ensure a successful cutover across to production systems.
o Track delivery of activities in the cutover plan and coordinate with teams to ensure timely and effective delivery.
o Plan and deliver a mock cutover to ensure all tasks, activities and procedures have been rehearsed and lessons learnt applied to the plan, ahead of go-live.
o Agree cutover entry/exit criteria for each customer migration event from legacy to Evolve.
o Coordination of cutover resourcing and logistics for both internal and external parties where applicable.
o Work closely with Business Readiness, Dual Running and Data Migration managers to ensure strategic alignment.
o Maintain knowledge and awareness of relevant issues, insights, practices and opportunities to identify and make recommendations for improved ways of working.
o Manage stakeholder relationships through effective matrix management which needs to include communication, negotiation, and issue management to ensure stakeholders are engaged throughout the project and project deliverables are met

Business Knowledge
* Good knowledge of the energy sector.
* Ideally, good understanding of how Business Energy operates.
* Proven cutover management experience (at least 2 full lifecycles) with the demonstrated ability and in-depth knowledge in all aspects of an implementation and the relationship between each phase.
* Experience of working in high-intensity project/programme environments.
* Ability to define and execute multiple detailed activity plans simultaneously, maintaining an ability to articulate progress and status clearly to key stakeholders.

Essential Functional / Technical Skills
* Preferred qualifications to include: PMP (Project Management Professional), PRINCE2 Practitioner, PRINCE2 Agile Practitioner, SAFe - Scaled Agile Framework, Agile Scrum Master.
* Proven experience on previous complex customer transformation programmes and strong track record of delivering business cutovers successfully end to end.
* Cutover Management experience with the ability to advice, guide, own strategies, approach execution, follow up and own go-no-go.
* Proficiency in working in a fast-changing technical, operational, and commercial environment, with strong business acumen.
* Excellent time management skills; able to effectively plans own and others' time

Personal Attributes / Competencies
* Ability to demonstrate a track record of business delivery.
* Strong stakeholder management and interpersonal skills to ensure effective engagement, collaboration and consultation with programme
* Proactive, hands-on approach to planning and delivery.
* Excellent communication skills for engaging stakeholders at all levels of the project and overall business.
* Dynamic, with the ability to manage complex workloads in time pressured environments.
* Strong focus on outcomes and attention to detail.

Disclaimer:

This vacancy is being advertised by either Advanced Resource Managers Limited, Advanced Resource Managers IT Limited or Advanced Resource Managers Engineering Limited ("ARM"). ARM is a specialist talent acquisition and management consultancy. We provide technical contingency recruitment and a portfolio of more complex resource solutions. Our specialist recruitment divisions cover the entire technical arena, including some of the most economically and strategically important industries in the UK and the world today. We will never send your CV without your permission. Where the role is marked as Outside IR35 in the advertisement this is subject to receipt of a final Status Determination Statement from the end Client and may be subject to change.