Senior Delivery Lead - Content Tools

The Economist Group is the leading source of analysis on international business and world affairs. We deliver world-class, thought-provoking content through a range of formats, from web and app to newspapers and magazines, conferences, film and audio. What ties us together is the objectivity of our opinion, the originality of our insight and our advocacy of economic and political freedom around the world.

With a growing global subscriber base and a reputation for insightful analysis and opinion on every aspect of world events, The Economist is one of the most widely recognised and well-read current affairs publications and the foundation of our digital consumer product portfolio. 

Introduction

We are seeking a Senior Delivery Lead to join The Economist Group’s Project Management Office. The role will help plan, manage and deliver a project that will transform The Economist Product capabilities in relation to our content management system and editorial tools capabilities. These projects will have an impact across a number of business and technology stakeholders and planning needs to consider significant business and technology change.

You will work closely with the Programme Lead and Head of Product across multiple teams within the project to ensure end-to-end delivery, continuous improvement of the content and distribution agile ecosystem and line management of other Delivery Leads within the programme. It is important you have experience working with scaled agile methods as we will be using them to manage the project. Experience in working and delivering within a large programme would also be beneficial.

The Economist’s content teams are a passionate group of digital professionals who look after a number of digital products and services, both facing our readers and internal teams. We are a multi-disciplinary team working in a fast-paced and collaborative environment, who value honest opinion and open debate. We’re in the business of building modern, state-of-the-art products, and delivering a first-rate user experience is essential. Experience working with a digital CMS in the media or publishing industry is essential.

• Lead and manage two delivery teams comprising both, internal and external delivery resources
• Perform the role of Scrum Master
• Review end-to-end delivery of the team and agile ways of working to ensure the team is working optimally across product, design, engineering and QA
• Use agile metrics to optimise team planning, estimation and ways of working
• Create and maintain a detailed project plan
• Identify and manage risks, issues and dependencies across the project
• Proactively monitor progress, resolving issues and initiating appropriate corrective action
• Executing the PMO-defined governance framework including facilitation of key Project forums e.g. Executive Steering Committees
• Ensure effective quality assurance and the overall integrity of the project
• Manage communications with a range of stakeholders including at an executive level
• Report the progress of the project at regular intervals through status reporting
• Line manage other Delivery Leads.

• Significant experience working within B2C Product transformations
• Deep understanding of product management methodology and practices
• Significant experience in successfully managing and delivering complex business-facing projects
• Expertise and experience running Agile and Waterfall projects
• Strong understanding of a variety of Agile approaches e.g. Scrum, Scrum at Scale, Kanban, SAFe with the ability to use them appropriately where needed
• Advanced user of JIRA and Confluence
• Strong stakeholder management skills with the ability to influence at all levels across various businesses
• Good knowledge and application of project management methodology and techniques
• Adopt pragmatic ways of working across multiple methodologies (Agile, Waterfall, Hybrid)
• Exceptional leadership, time management, facilitation, and organisational skills
• Comfortable producing detailed status reports and managing risks, issues and dependencies in a RAID log
• Good knowledge of budgeting and resource allocation procedures
• Able to assess complex challenges, apply a logical framework and present a compelling case for change
• Excellent coaching / mentoring skills
• A highly collaborative work style and the ability to work in a team environment
• Able to manage competing priorities
• Adaptable and comfortable working in areas of significant ambiguity
• Experience in being able to challenge and influence decisions
• Pragmatic and flexible, with a willingness to take on different roles and responsibilities in order to successfully deliver a project
• Experience in managing Content Management Systems within the Publishing or Media industry would be beneficial