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Head of innovation & deployment

Location: UK (any office)

Capability: Audit

Experience Level: Partner (Salaried)

Type: Full Time

The Team

The KPMG Audit Technology team is dedicated to building cutting-edge solutions in close collaboration with the Audit function. We blend audit expertise with the latest technology skills, enabling us to understand the challenges auditors face daily and develop strategically important products that simplify their lives whilst enhancing Audit Quality.

 As a crucial member of the team, you will collaborate with a talented mix of Architects, Data Scientists, Engineers, Experience Designers, Business Analysts, Testing specialists, and Product Owners. Together, we build, deliver, and manage a portfolio of truly exciting products.

In recent years, our products' size and scale have rapidly expanded, leading to significant growth in our technology capability. There's never been a better time to join us.

With our ambitious growth plans, your future here is something to get excited about. As a valued team member and leader, you’ll stay current within the latest trends in technology and audit delivery.

The Role

We’re looking for an experienced technology leader to join the Audit technology leadership team.

The head of Innovation and Deployment will oversee both the product lifecycle and deployment of technology solutions to the Audit business.

The individual will be responsible for researching new and emerging technology that could impact the audit business and using this knowledge and collaboration within the global organisation to shape a technology roadmap that aligns to the audit strategy. The individual will oversee a team of product portfolio leads who will ultimately deliver on the technology roadmap.

The individual will lead the development and delivery of a technology deployment roadmap that aligns to business needs and ensures auditors get the most from the technology available to them, delivering the return on technology related investment spend.

The individual will report to the Audit Chief Technology Officer and work alongside other members of the Audit Technology leadership team, and will have a combination of directors and senior managers reporting to them.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team of product portfolio owners, shaping the strategic roadmaps and priorities within these portfolios.
• Oversight of horizon scanning within the Audit business, ensuring emerging technology trends are identified and capitalised on.
• Oversight of a programme of work (linked to our Audit Quality Plan) related to technology usage in the business.
• Lead the development of an Audit technology deployment roadmap, taking into account individual product roadmaps and the needs of the Audit business.
• Oversee the monitoring & reporting on technology usage levels, tracking progress against key KPIs and identifying and implementing actions to increase usage levels.
• Work closely with the Head of Audit Technology & Solutions to ensure that the technology deployment roadmap is executed according to robust product roadmaps and high quality software development practices.

Experience & skills

• Extensive experience in a technology product-oriented field.
• Strong technical skills, including experience overseeing end to end technology product lifecycles – including ideation, business analysis, software development, deployment and support.
• Strong understanding of product lifecycle management and experience deploying technology solutions to a complex and regulated business.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to effectively collaborate with stakeholders at all levels of the organisation.
• Experience in managing and influencing senior stakeholders.
• Comfortable with ambiguity, fluid situations and a highly pressured environment.
• Ability & willingness to travel when necessary.
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team.
• Ability to manage a budget and resources.

People & Culture

• Embrace and embed our culture ambition of high challenge, high support which is grounded in Our Values.
• Operate with a curious and sceptical mindset ensuring that this is embedded in your everyday work.
• Actively lead and embed a coaching culture to get the best out of others in an environment where everyone in the team feels empowered to speak up or challenge where appropriate.
• Be inclusive and embrace the opportunity to work with other teams within Audit and across the firm in an integrated way. Have a sense of community, purpose, and fun.

The role of the Enterprise Architect Tooling Specialist is to develop the UK Firm’s technology strategy for ServiceNow and translate this into a roadmap that determines our investment priorities and transformation portfolio. The technology strategy needs to promote a seamless, end-to-end customer and employee experience by enabling the efficient creation and modification of effective and reusable technology components. In particular, the strategy should promote the use of modern, Cloud-based technologies; support typical ServiceNow use cases; create an operating model that satisfies the demands of the business for design, development, testing and release of new technologies; and establish a catalogue that supports the reuse of new technology components, whilst targeting legacy applications and technology for decommissioning. The ServiceNow Enterprise Architect should also help to execute and govern the strategy, by helping solution architects and projects to design solutions that are fit for purpose and conform to our standards and patterns.

An opportunity has arisen in our insurance tax team, specifically focused on the life insurance part of the market. The team provides tax advisory, tax compliance and tax audit services in the life insurance sector, with advisory work spanning a range of corporate, M&A and product tax issues. 

KPMG’s Insurance tax team, part of the wider FS tax team, is a group of around thirty tax professionals of all grades with a strong market reputation working with leading global and UK insurance groups. The team is spread across several sites including centres in London and Edinburgh. The team works as a national team and location does not dictate client allocation.

Our business covers the full spectrum of insurance clients, including major UK-based insurers, international insurance groups, life insurers, pension product and other specialist providers, and brokers.

The successful candidate will work directly for a range of partners and directors who are highly experienced and are recognised UK-wide as leaders in their areas of specialism with strong promotion opportunities.

We are looking for capable, enthusiastic professionals with experience of the life insurance market, and of corporate tax for life insurance groups.

The role involves leading delivery across a range of tax advisory, M&A tax, tax compliance and tax audit engagements in the sector. In addition to delivery, the role will include building client relationships as part of wider client service teams and embedding tax into opportunities where relevant, as well as taking tax propositions to clients.

Another key aspect of the role is to be a role model in terms of knowledge sharing and coaching staff so that they build their life insurance tax specialism and we have a team ready to meet market demand.

The role is a national role. Applications will be welcomed from candidates in any location, with Edinburgh and London being preferred base office locations.