IT Business Services Manager - Regions (US & Australia)

Department: IT

Employment Type: Permanent - Full Time

Location: London

Description

The IT Business Services Manager – Regions is responsible for owning and leading the technology product portfolio, roadmaps, and value delivery for Lancashire’s regional business platforms across the United States and Australia. This role ensures that regional technology solutions are aligned with business strategy, regulatory obligations, and Group technology standards, while delivering measurable business value. The role is accountable for product ownership, prioritisation, and strategic direction, providing a clear separation between product leadership and project delivery execution.

In addition, the role is pivotal in engaging regional business stakeholders, fostering strong partnerships with leadership teams in the US and Australia to ensure technology decisions support local business needs whilst remaining consistent with Group-wide governance, architecture, and security standards. The IT Business Services Manager – Regions collaborates closely with Project Managers and delivery teams, facilitating transparent communication, effective prioritisation, and alignment of work sequencing with agreed product roadmaps and business objectives.

Third-party management is a key aspect of the position, with responsibility for overseeing strategic vendor and platform relationships for regional systems. The IT Business Services Manager – Regions ensures that suppliers are held accountable for roadmap alignment, service quality, value delivery, and compliance with regulatory and operational requirements. This includes managing trade-offs and dependencies between Business as Usual (BAU) and change initiatives, maintaining transparency with internal and external stakeholders, and ensuring effective sequencing of technology investments.

The role plays a critical part in strengthening Lancashire’s operating model by centralising product ownership responsibilities that have historically been embedded within operational or delivery roles, ensuring clarity of accountability, consistency of prioritisation, and effective decision-making across regional platforms, as well as facilitating robust stakeholder engagement and proactive third-party management.

Specific Responsibilities

• Own and lead the technology product vision, strategy, and roadmaps for regional business systems supporting the United States and Australia, including underwriting, policy administration, claims, finance, reporting, and system integrations.
• Act as the single accountable product owner for regional platforms, ensuring clear ownership of prioritisation, investment decisions, and business outcomes.
• Hold accountability for product ownership responsibilities, including backlog prioritisation, definition of scope and outcomes, and acceptance criteria for regional technology initiatives.
• Provide a clear separation between product ownership and delivery execution, ensuring Project Managers remain accountable for delivery planning and execution, while this role owns what is delivered and why.
• Partner closely with Project Managers and delivery teams to ensure work is sequenced and prioritised in line with agreed product roadmaps and business priorities.
• Develop and maintain multi‑year regional technology roadmaps, balancing regulatory requirements, operational resilience, technical debt, and strategic growth objectives.
• Act as the primary IT partner to regional business leadership in the US and Australia, adopting a pragmatic, business‑focused approach that bridges regional business strategy and Group technology. The role ensures Group solutions and standards are considered at key decision points, with Group platforms taking precedence where solutions are comparable.
• Oversee prioritisation across Business as Usual (BAU) and change initiatives, ensuring transparency of trade‑offs, dependencies, and sequencing.
• Manage strategic vendor and platform relationships for regional systems, ensuring suppliers are held accountable for roadmap alignment, service quality, and value delivery.
• Work closely with architecture, information security, data, integration, procurement, and risk teams to ensure regional solutions are compliant, resilient, and sustainable.
• Identify and drive opportunities to reduce technical debt, rationalise platforms, and transition to managed services or SaaS solutions where appropriate.
• Ensure regional platforms meet operational resilience, audit, and regulatory expectations across all jurisdictions. 
• Produce clear, data‑driven reporting for senior leadership on portfolio performance, roadmap progress, risks, and value delivery for regional technology platforms.

Essential Skills & Requirements

• Proven experience in a senior IT product, platform, or regional technology leadership role within insurance or regulated financial services.
•  Strong track record of product ownership and portfolio prioritisation, with demonstrable experience separating product leadership from delivery execution.
• Strong experience with US underwriting platforms, ideally within the US direct insurance market, including exposure to both E&S and admitted carriers. 
• Experience operating across multiple geographies, balancing regional business needs with Group standards and governance.
• Strong understanding of SaaS platforms, system integrations, and third‑party vendor management.
• Experience working within regulated environments, with knowledge of information security, data protection, and operational resilience requirements.
• Excellent stakeholder engagement and communication skills, with the ability to influence senior business and technology leaders.

The Lancashire Way

At Lancashire, we believe our culture sets us apart. The way we behave and approach our work day-to-day is what makes us unique and creates a positive experience for our people, business partners and other stakeholders. Honesty and integrity in all we do is a given and The Lancashire Way reflects our true character and spirit.
Straight-talking We feel empowered to share thoughts and ideas, because everyone’s voice matters.

CollaborativeWe work together towards common goals, share knowledge and support each other.
Hard-working We all have a stake in the company’s success and are proactive in contributing to our goals and vision.
Responsible We focus on achieving tangible results with consistent standards across the Group.
Positive We engage with brokers, clients, communities, stakeholders and colleagues professionally and passionately as proud ambassadors of Lancashire.