Release and Cutover Manager

Location Reading
Salary £650 - £700 per day
Job type Contract
Sector Technology
Reference BBBH22980_1684859642

Release and Cutover Manager

Hybrid working

Inside IR35

As an integral part of the CPR Programme team, the successful candidate will report directly to the Release and Deployment Manager 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 cut over of the Evolve solution and wider portfolio of applications and interfaces.

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

The role holder will create a 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.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

* Single point of contact and escalation point for Technical Cutover.
* 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 technical cutover plan that integrates business, technical and data cutover activities across each customer release.
o Coordinate all technical cutover activities to ensure a successful cutover across.
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 Cutover, 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


KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

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 business.
* Dynamic, with the ability to manage complex workloads in time pressured environments.
* Strong focus on outcomes and attention to detail.

ersg are an equal opportunities employer; we are committed to promoting equality of opportunity for all job applicants. We do not discriminate against applicants on the basis of age, sex, race, disability, pregnancy, marital status, sexual orientation, gender reassignment or religious background; all decisions are based on merit.