Transformation Planning Lead

Short company description

Euro-Testing Software Solutions is involved in software consulting, having experience of approx. 20 years on the market in Romania and abroad, through specific IT solutions and services offered in the following areas:

• Software Testing (manual testing, testing automation, performance testing, outsourcing, training and certification, etc.)

• Cyber ​​Security

• DevOps/DevSecOps

• Implementation and Customization of Atlassian & OpenText products (MicroFocus) and other niche products/solutions

• AI based Decision Intelligence solutions.

Requirements

Essential Experience
• Significant experience in programme planning, integrated planning, PMO, TMO or portfolio planning roles within complex technology transformations.
• Proven track record building and maintaining integrated programme plans across multiple products, workstreams and teams.
• Strong experience using Jira, Advanced Roadmaps and associated planning, dependency management or portfolio reporting tools.
• Experience using AI-enabled tooling to improve planning accuracy, identify risks and highlight optimisation opportunities.
• Experience managing complex dependency networks, milestones and critical path activities.
• Experience operating within Agile and Product-Led delivery models.
• Strong analytical, stakeholder management, facilitation and communication skills.
• Experience supporting programme governance and senior leadership decision-making.
• Experience coordinating planning activity across internal teams, suppliers and delivery partners.

Desirable Experience
• Experience supporting platform modernisation, infrastructure, cloud or datacentre transformation programmes.
• Experience operating within highly regulated or mission-critical environments.
• Understanding of Product Lifecycle Management and portfolio planning disciplines.
• Experience using Clarity, Confluence, Power BI and equivalent enterprise reporting tools.
• Experience supporting quarterly planning and outcome-based delivery models.
• Understanding of software engineering, DevSecOps and modern delivery practices.
• Financial markets or Financial Services experience.

Key relationships include:
• FTRP and Real-Time Engineering Programme Leadership.
• Transformation Management Office and programme governance functions.
• Product Owners and Product Leads.
• Product Delivery Managers and Agile Delivery Leads.
• Engineering, Architecture and Platform Leads.
• Strategic delivery partners and suppliers.
• Portfolio and transformation leadership.

Success Measures
• Integrated FTRP roadmap and plan established, baselined and maintained with clear ownership, milestones and governance cadence.
• Material dependencies tracked with owners, dates, impacts and agreed resolution paths.
• Delivery forecasts supported by reconciled plans, clear assumptions, visible risks and evidence-based variance reporting.
• Planning information is consistent, traceable and current across workstreams.
• Quarterly planning outputs translate into clear milestones, dependencies and delivery commitments.
• Governance reporting provides clear evidence for executive decisions and intervention.

Responsibilities

Role Purpose
The Transformation Planning Lead coordinates planning across Product, Engineering and Programme teams so objectives, roadmaps and delivery execution stay aligned, risks are visible early and leadership action is timely.
• Interpret the integrated transformation roadmaps into programme plans across FTRP streams. The over-arching plan is known as the Golden Thread.
• Maintain the Golden Thread from strategic objectives to roadmaps, milestones and delivery execution.
• Manage cross-team, cross-product, workstream and supplier dependencies.
• Support quarterly planning, roadmap alignment, prioritisation and delivery forecasting.
• Surface critical path activities, constraints and schedule risks early.
• Provide leadership, on a weekly basis, detailed with clear insight on delivery commitments, any delays, and risks.

This role does not replace Product Owners, Product Delivery Managers or Agile Delivery Leads. It connects their outputs into one programme view for FTRP leadership, supporting trade-off decisions, escalation and delivery assurance.

Transformation Planning and Roadmap Management
• Own and maintain the integrated FTRP programme delivery plan.
• Consolidate plans across products, engineering teams, migration workstreams and suppliers.
• Ensure delivery plans align with programme outcomes, roadmap commitments and governance milestones.
• Maintain planning assumptions, dependencies, milestones and critical path analysis.
• Provide scenario analysis to support sequencing, prioritisation and recovery decisions.

Dependency Management and Coordination
• Establish and govern programme-wide dependency management processes.
• Identify, track and manage cross-team, cross-product, cross-workstream and supplier dependencies.
• Drive dependency resolution through weekly delivery and governance forums.
• Escalate material constraints and schedule impacts with clear options and recommended actions.
• Ensure dependency impacts, owners and target resolution dates are visible and actively managed.

Quarterly Planning and Product-Led Delivery Alignment
• Support preparation, facilitation and follow-up for quarterly planning events vis-a-vi, the Golden Thread inputs and output targets.
• Partner with Product Owners and delivery leads to translate outcomes, priorities and roadmap intent into executable plans.
• Consolidate roadmap commitments, sequencing and planning assumptions across products and teams.
• Ensure plans have measurable outcomes and aligned to programme priorities.

Planning Tooling and Data Governance
• Own programme planning structures within Jira and Advanced Roadmaps.
• Promote consistent planning standards, hierarchy, traceability, dependency mapping and data quality across delivery teams.
• Maintain a current view of scope, milestones, dependencies, risks and delivery status.
• Highlight progress, milestone status and dependency health.
• Work with teams to ensure planning information is current, accurate and actionable.

Risk, Issue and Change Management
• Identify schedule and dependency risks before they materialise as programme-level issues.
• Monitor planning impediments and drive resolution with clear owners and dates.
• Assess the impact of proposed changes on milestones, dependencies and critical path activities.
• Support mitigation, recovery and re-planning activities where required.
• Maintain a clear audit trail of material planning assumptions, decisions and changes.

Governance, Reporting and Executive Insight
• Provide accurate, weekly planning reporting to programme leadership and governance forums.
• Maintain delivery transparency through Jira, Clarity and associated governance tooling.
• Produce roadmap, milestone, dependency, critical path and schedule health reporting.
• Support Programme Operating Groups, Steer Cos and executive governance forums with clear status, risks and decisions required.
• Enable evidence-based decision-making through objective, trusted planning information.

Continuous Improvement and Adoption
• Drive improvements in programme planning practices, tooling and governance.
• Promote transparency, accountability and planning discipline across FTRP.
• Support adoption of common planning standards across internal teams and delivery partners, ensuring ways of working are repeatable, auditable and embedded beyond individual planning cycles.
• Contribute to improved delivery predictability and transformation execution maturity.
• Share planning knowledge and build sustainable capability within the TMO and delivery organisation.

Other info

This role supports a large, multi-year transformation programme changing the real-time technology platform and the way the wider business and engineering teams operate. The programme includes hundreds of people, multiple workstreams and migration activity across 34 locations.
The Programme Planner will own and maintain the overall integrated programme plan, bringing together:
• The new platform roadmap
• The real-time application roadmap
• The migration roadmap
• Dependencies across multiple workstreams and locations

The candidate will work within a small transformation management team and partner closely with:
• The Programme Director and programme leadership
• Five delivery leads
• PMO or programme management colleagues
• Finance and business management
• Resourcing teams
• Software delivery and real-time engineering teams

The candidate should be able to explain clearly:
• What the candidate personally owned
• How multiple workstreams and roadmaps were connected
• How dependencies and schedule risks were identified
• How Jira was structured and used
• How planning data was analysed
• How senior stakeholders were challenged when required
• What measurable difference the candidate made to programme delivery

Working arrangements
• Location: Bucharest, Romania
• Hybrid working applies
• One day per week in the office, if extended beyond April, the expectation is three days per week in the office

Interview process
The expected process is likely to include three interviews:
1. Initial planning and technical capability discussion
2. Interview with the Programme Director
3. Interview with another stakeholder from the central real-time engineering organisation