Head of IT Operations

The Firm

HFW is a sector focused global law firm.  We have over 500 lawyers working across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia.  We take a progressive approach to our roles in commercial business – thinking creatively and pragmatically to support our clients.  Whether we are solving complex issues within the construction, aviation or shipping industries, or providing advice across insurance, commodities and energy, we are specialist lawyers here to add value to our clients.  We think about the commercial solution first, and then underpin our advice with a solid foundation of legal expertise.

The Department

HFW has an IT Department of approximately 50 staff located in the London, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Dubai, Paris and Jakarta offices.  The IT Operations team operates from the London, Hong Kong and Melbourne offices.  There are three main groups within IT Operations – a Data Centre team, a Networks & Security team and an End User Computing team.

The Role

The Head of IT Operations will be responsible developing the technology strategy for the firm ensuring that the technology used if fit fir purpose, meets the needs of our users, is compliant and secure. The firm is growing and the demands placed on technology is increasing. The Head is also responsible for managing the IT Operations team globally and the day-to-day management of the firm’s global IT infrastructure, including its data centres, networking, storage, backup and server estate, and must ensure that these services are maintained such that availability, capacity and continuity levels are met in a controlled and consistent way.  He/she will work with other colleagues to ensure that new systems and services are delivered with minimal disruption to the firm, and that best practice techniques are adopted throughout the IT organisation.  The Head will be responsible for ensuring that the systems and technologies that the team delivers and implements are of the highest quality and provide secure, stable, scalable and highly resilient platforms upon which the firm can layer further technology solutions.  Careful management of a diverse team of technology professionals and third party delivery organisations will be essential to success.

Responsibilities

●          Accountable to the CIO for the development of the technology strategy of the firm (including hardware, networks, telephony and applications) and day-to-day management of the global IT operations.

●          Responsible for introducing and embedding best practice processes, in particular around change, availability, capacity and continuity management.  Management and reporting to formal service level targets against these disciplines.

●          Create, own and deliver an infrastructure roadmap in support of business objectives and as part of the overall IT Strategy.

●          Global responsibility for the inception, management and execution of projects to improve and maintain the firm’s infrastructure.

●          Together with the CIO and senior colleagues, craft, implement and monitor an appropriate IT security policy.  Responsible for the implementation and maintenance of best practice information security controls and access management technologies.

●          Working with business stakeholders and IT colleagues, oversee, approve and be accountable for key technology and service roadmap decisions.

●          Lead innovation activity within their area and participate in wider innovation forums as appropriate.

●          Ensure that projects are aligned with the overall IT strategy, both at inception and throughout their delivery and rollout.

●          Project management, including office openings, moves, application/infrastructure upgrades.

●          In consultation with other managers, determine the resources and skills needed to maintain and develop the firm’s infrastructure, understand any training required, and evaluate personnel.

●          Where possible, seek to leverage existing systems and services to minimise work overhead and maximise interoperability of applications and data.

●          Remain abreast of technology and provide technology thought leadership.

●          Work with other managers in IT to build a culture of high performance, pro-activity, business co-operation, continuous improvement and service delivery.

●          People management, including coaching, mentoring and developing, and liaison with internal and external clients.

●          Responsible for managing key vendor relationships, controlling costs and tendering for new suppliers when necessary. 

●          Train and develop team member capability to improve skills and performance.

●          Work with the CIO to determine, track and manage IT budgets.

●          Any other ad hoc duties as and when required.

The Person

Personality: Self-driven, results-oriented, highly commercially aware with a positive outlook, and a clear focus on high quality.  A natural forward planner who critically assesses their own performance.  Credible and comfortable in dealing with senior internal customers and stakeholders.  Reliable, tolerant, and determined.  Empathetic communicator, able to see things from the other person's point of view.  Professional demeanour.  Able to get on with others and be a team player.

Business Skills: Must be an excellent communicator with real understanding and empathy for the customer.  Should seek to position the customer and the customer’s interests first and foremost in every decision.  Able to demonstrate success and experience in improving customer service and customer satisfaction.  Able to work effectively in a partnership environment.

Technical skills: In-depth IT skills are key to ensure credibility with the IT teams in all regions.  An ability to understand and explain IT solutions and issues to a non-technical audience is critical.  A strong awareness of best practice techniques within the areas of networking, data centres, security, storage and mobility is mandatory.

Literacy and Numeracy: Commercially aware, able to understand basic business finance and write credible business cases and propositions.  Must be a competent writer of business correspondence and have a keen sense of audience.

Management Ability: Internal staff leadership and management is a critical part of the job.  A good grasp of how to manage and change a team rapidly is required.  The ability to work quickly and collaborate effectively with a global dispersed group of colleagues is essential.  We seek an inspirational and motivational leader who engages and develops their teams to achieve success and be “best in class” when it comes to the customer journey.

Key Skills & Experience Required

●          Degree in Computer Science or related area.

●          Ideally, 10+ years' previous and proven experience of successfully developing technology strategies and controlling IT Operations or an equivalent senior technical role within professional services.

●          4+ years' experience leading and coaching IT personnel.

●          Experience of managing a complex and global IT environment.

●          Experience of crafting and embedding operational processes and methodology and, ideally, ITIL certified at practitioner level or equivalent.

●          Experience in transforming and maturing teams to achieve world-class results.

●          Experience of managing third party hardware and software suppliers and negotiating commercial contracts.

●          Strong interpersonal, communication and leadership skills.

●          A good understanding of working with the business to align IT solutions with business needs.

●          Flexible with regard to working hours; normal office hours are seven working hours between 9.30am and 5.30pm but change windows are likely to require work outside this time.  International travel will also be required.

Additional Information

Kindly note that this job description is not contractual.  It will be reviewed periodically and may be amended or altered to meet the needs of the firm.

HFW aims to ensure equality of opportunity, and we are actively working towards improving the diversity of our staff.  All applications will be considered only on merit and the applicant's suitability to meet the requirements of the role.

Due to the volume of applicants, only those candidates shortlisted for interview will be contacted.

HFW collects and processes personal data relating to job applicants to manage its recruitment process.  The firm is committed to being transparent about how it collects and uses that data and to meeting its data protection obligations.  For information on how the firm will process your data, please see our Privacy Notice on our website (www.hfw.com/Privacy-Notice), in the section "What we collect and how we use it".