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About the Company

Headquartered in Toronto, our client is a major global financial institution with over 85,000 employees around the world. This role will lead the group that delivers and maintains all internal (employee facing – computers, phones, mobile, software and hardware) and external (customer facing – banking, trading and monetary vehicles supported by electronic systems) infrastructure technology solutions that support the enterprise.  The group plays a critical role by providing the computing / network foundation to support over 1600 applications, and process hundreds of millions of transactions daily, all while supporting productivity and mobility. The Head of Workspace Engineering is tasked with envisioning and creating a unified workspace strategy for the enterprise.

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Scope of Position

Reporting to a Vice President of Infrastructure Engineering, the successful candidate will oversee a team of approximately 70+ IT professionals responsible for the overall design, delivery and execution of the company’s workspace platforms and infrastructure. More specifically, this role will:

• Develop and execute strategy as it relates to the introduction and engineering of Desktop, Thin Client, BYOD, and Mobile infrastructure in a multi-platform environment.
• Develop a comprehensive roadmap strategy for all the client’s workspaces that will look 12-36 months into the future.
• Work with partners within Technology to develop an in-depth understanding of business needs while identifying economies of effort across the various areas.
• Drive the team’s efforts to optimize solutions as well as ensure that cost savings initiatives are sustained.
• Act as thought leader, innovator and agent of change for the programs and services under management.
• Work with other teams to implement best practices for platform management
• Act as a change leader for all activities within or generated by the team.
• Maintain knowledge and understanding of external development, market conditions and their impact.
• Lead the team in the identification and implementation of process improvements that will result in the enhancement of the customer experience and reduction of costs.
• Lead teams to deliver solutions in assigned functional area, meet SLA’s, Interface with IT, finance, audit, business unit management and other areas of the firm to ensure integrated processes, efficient introduction of new technologies, retirement of obsolete technologies and support for business-led initiatives.
• Work with vendor platform providers and engineering peers to keep abreast of trends, products, frameworks, and applications.
• Be proactive in identifying emerging technologies and innovative solutions in building more robust platform domains.
• Effectively identify and manage stakeholder engagement and impacts across the enterprise.
• Engage executive stakeholders appropriately to review progress and obtain input, validation and approval of key decisions.
• Coordinate with the Strategic Sourcing Group and Vendor Management teams to appropriately select, engage and manage external service providers as required.
• May interact with regulatory and compliance bodies on behalf of the bank on items relating to ITS technology and tools.

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Key Competency Profile

Candidates should exhibit the following competency profile.

Communication

• Comprehends communications from others and responds appropriately
• Expresses ideas in a clear, fluent and concise manner
• Written and oral arguments are compelling and responsive to the needs of the audience

People Management

• Adapts management style to achieve optimum results
• Clarifies roles and responsibilities
• Establishes and communicates clear priorities and sense of direction

Leading Change

• Acts as a catalyst to change and stimulates others to change
• Challenges the status quo and champions new initiatives
• Develops an effective action plan to implement change and monitors results
• Recognizes when change is necessary

Strategic Approach

• Able to stand back from immediate problems in order to focus on more far reaching ideas Develops a strategic plan to realize the vision
• Revises strategy in light of changing circumstances
• Takes a long-term view of organizational success
• Works to clarify long term organizational goals

Influence

• Articulates the key points of an argument persuasively
• Directly and indirectly impacts the decisions/opinions of others
• Mobilizes people into action
• Negotiates skillfully and convinces others to own point of view

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Key Candidate Qualifications

• In depth experience in infrastructure, as it specifically relates to workspace engineering, across multiple platform domains and technology areas.
• Experience in leading a team of technology managers.
• Experience reporting to and communicating with executive stakeholders (e.g. VP, SVP, EVP level executives).
• Proven ability to collaborate across a large organization to effectively realize outcomes.
• History of making an impact, developing and executing on strategies and delivering superior results in both the short and long term.
• Proven ability to leverage deep subject matter expertise to develop and deploy a vision and align others to that vision. Known for providing creative thought leadership while also listening and engaging others to provide input in the shaping of that vision.
• Passionate to succeed and acts as an internal advocate for projects; remains resilient under pressure.
• Adapts to new different or changing requirements , quickly grasps new concepts adapts and reflects on lessons learned – comfortable with ambiguity, analyzes and evaluates, defines problem/challenge, identifies alternatives and makes timely decisions.

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