Practice Head-Mainframe and Legacy Modernization

This leadership role serves as the Practice Head for the Mainframe and Legacy Modernization managing a portfolio size of $100m+ and circa 2500 employees. The role holder is responsible for developing and maintaining differentiated portfolio of offerings, driving practice growth, managing client relations by building strong contextualized value proposition for clients across the value chain, shape the delivery engine and build capability and talent readiness to deploy solutions to clients.

The ideal candidate for this position will need to have a deep understanding of technology, domain and industry, coupled with strong leadership capabilities. A strategic and problem-solving mindset is crucial, along with a proven track record of driving high performance measures.

1. Practice Strategy and driving profitable growth
2. Define the practices’ vision, roadmap, portfolio of offerings and strategic direction
3. Lead large scale modernization and migration initiatives
4. Engage with clients to identify business opportunities by providing relevant solutions to increase delivery led growth
5. Identify opportunities for deployment of next generation technology, solutions, services and operational efficiencies across the practice thereby driving profitable practice growth. In addition, execute the industrialization of the AI into the services being delivered to the clients.
6. Support sales and pre-sales teams with acquisition and traction of new deals by understanding the client needs and providing support in developing solutions

1. Demonstrate Thought Leadership
2. Position the Practice as a thought leader by Creating point of views (POV’s), white papers, technical papers on advanced topics to establish Wipro’s authority in the domain / fields of play
3. Publish and write case studies to highlight successful used cases and expertise to solve complex business issues
4. Interact with clients at the solutioning stage prior to deal closure to defend solutions, persuade on value add and demonstrate competitive leadership in the practice domain
5. Engage with Advisors and analysts to position the value proposition and differential wrt competition
6. Engage with relevant partners in building the partnership that drives value to Customer – Wipro - Partner

1. Solution Development

1. Interlock with other practices to develop winning solutions
2. Build strong pool of Technologists and Architects to bring Practice Technology thought leadership to solution development and implementation
3. Drive and deploy effective technical scope management and solutioning across practice, engage in deal solutioning for complex programs, help define solutions for client
4. Determine right solution choices to ensure Wipro will be able to deliver the right solution with the right outcomes
5. Review proposals / deals for effective delivery feasibility and provide solution and revenue (deal size) approvals to sales before sales can book an order

1. Delivery Management

1. Institutionalize the capabilities of the Nex-Gen Solutions , including AI into the delivery teams. Mobilize the certification and learning programs inline with the benchmarked industry standards.
2. Collaborate and influence internal key stakeholders to ensure fulfillment, technology support and flawless delivery of projects
3. Review and finalize the account/ project delivery structure by evaluating the budget, costs, risks and staffing requirement
4. Monitor and review account/ project health by conducting periodic cadence to take proactive measures to resolves issues/ possible escalations
5. Ensure 100% compliance to Project SLA’s, information security protocols etc. (all clients contractual obligations)

1. Client Relationship Management

1. Drive high client satisfaction by creating strong value proposition for clients across the value chain thereby
2. Share Wipro’s capability and initiatives to support and fulfill clients needs
3. Partner with the clients to drive transformation to adapt to new delivery models and instil new ways of working in client organization

1. Capability Development and Talent Management
2. Spearhead demand forecasting and resource planning aligned to requirements
3. Create and deploy a workforce plan to fulfil the required demand from all the talent channels including external and internal sources.
4. Build and execute the future ready workforce strategies and drive fungibility or multi skill approach within the practice
5. Lead upskilling initiatives across the practice by identifying essential skills required to facilitate and drive right supply chain across the practice
6. Build strong talent pool and leadership pipeline
7. Set high performance standards for team and practice

1. Innovation and Modernization

1. Lead the evolution of the mainframe practice into hybrid/cloud and DevOps model.
2. Evaluate and adopt emerging tools and technologies such as DevOps for mainframe, COBOL modernization, AI/ML for ops
3. Enable cross platform integration ( mainframe to distributed /cloud) using modern tools and accelerators

Behavioural Competencies

1. Deep technical knowledge in their specific practice area –

- Knowledge of cloud – native modernization tools ( eg: AWS Mainframe Modernization, Azure’s Modernization Center, IBM zCloud).
- Knowledge of current and upcoming technology (automation, tools and systems) to build efficiencies and effectiveness in own function/ Client organization
- Deep specialized understanding of the practice domain, overall market & competition and nuances of delivery in that domain
- Ability to bring in knowledge of core trends, future perspective on disruption, new and upcoming capabilities to develop new solutions for clients and skills within practice

1. Ability to work in a matrix organization and identify areas of opportunities
2. Ability to build partnerships
3. Proven experience in client relationship management and business development
4. Demonstrated leadership and management of large teams including decision making, problem solving
5. Strategic perspective & systems thinking
6. Excellent communication skills and executive presence

Measurable KPIs

The role incumbent will be accountable for the following measurable KPIs, targets for which will be set up as part of the goals and objectives discussion. There may be additional measures that may be assigned from time to time as well.

- Client and team satisfaction
- Revenue and bookings growth
- Utilization / billability of your team (>95%)
- Referenceable client relationships
- Reusable assets and/or IPs developed and contributed to the repository

5-Habits for Success at Wipro

- Being Respectful, this requires that you treat others how you want to be treated
- Being Responsive, this requires that you always acknowledge, commit and respond within reasonable timeframes
- Always Communicating, this requires that you ensure information flows (including difficult news) in a timely, proactive and consistent manner
- Demonstrate Stewardship, this requires that you put the interest of Wipro ahead of everything else (business unit / team / self)
- Building Trust, this require that you demonstrate a high say-do ratio in everything you do without externalizing failures