Cloud Infrastructure Solutions Manager

Job Introduction

Why TBI?

Are you passionate about the possibilities of transforming government, public services, and economies through the power of technology? Do you see a path to progress through the collaboration between global leaders, policymakers, and technologists in meeting the challenges of tomorrow, today? Are you motivated by the challenge of creating solutions with senior political leaders to bring innovative digital infrastructure to governments and emerging economies?

At the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI), we work at the highest levels of government to help leaders go further and faster to make their citizens’ lives better. Moving the dial on the great global challenges of our time requires engaged, focused and motivated leaders. When political leadership is effectively deployed, at the highest levels, incredible things can be achieved. Using our distinctive expertise and global outlook, our expert advisors and embedded teams advise governments all over the world in strategy, policy and delivery, underpinned by technology.

Why Cloud?

National digital infrastructure is a critical backbone of a modern government and economy, and countries wanting to drive growth and transform need to adopt a Cloud-first strategy. However, many countries lack sufficient strategies and policies to guide effective investment in Cloud, the required digital skills and knowledge, and delivery capability. To support our ongoing and growing work in this area, TBI is hiring a Cloud Solutions Manager to support the development of our broader offer, strategy, toolkits and partnerships on Cloud to support national digitisation objectives.   

Our work in this area ranges from supporting governments to design national Cloud migration strategy and policies, to helping to develop public-private partnerships and investments in Cloud infrastructure such as data centres, to implementation and delivery support. Our landmark partnerships include a leading Cloud infrastructure and PaaS/SaaS provider, allowing TBI to inform the evolution of technology solutions to better meet the needs of governments and citizens.

Where does this role sit in TBI?

The Cloud Solutions Manager will report to the Senior Advisor, National Digital Infrastructure, within TBI’s new Global Client Solutions (GCS) team in our Government Advisory division. GCS is a hands-on centre of excellence, developing and distributing the best of TBI across our countries to enhance the quality and impact of our advice to senior political leaders. GCS works across a range of sectors and functional areas: strategy, policy, delivery, and technology. We provide valuable counsel, technical input, quality assurance, thought leadership, and surge capacity to support our country teams and embedded advisors. We lead the development and evolution of centralised solutions, methods, tools and offers to ensure we have the tools and expertise to effectively propose and respond to senior political leaders on their biggest challenges.

Within GCS, this role helps to advance our technology advisory offer to senior political leaders and supports The Tomorrow Partnership,  the Institute’s work bringing together political leaders, changemakers, and technology innovators to the world’s most critical challenges. We believe tomorrow will belong to those who responsibly harness the power of technology for the good of all, leaving no one behind. 

What does this role entail?

The Cloud Solutions Manager will be responsible for outlining, managing, and growing our Cloud offers, solutions, and partnerships working closely with the Senior Advisor, National Digital Infrastructure. You will work closely with TBI country teams to support assessment of government cloud capabilities and needs and advise on solutions and pathways based on use cases and workloads. During delivery, you will work with TBI teams and government counterparts to advance cloud infrastructure projects from planning to fruition and actively resolve blockers.

To successfully deliver your remit, you will need to work collaboratively across the Institute. You will work closely with our other sectoral and offer leads, such as our Head of eGovernment and sectoral leads such as our Director of Health to ensure our cloud solutions and offers enables other initiatives to flourish. In your efforts to lead and expand partnerships, you will work with our Global Innovation Unit and Strategic Partnerships and Initiatives Team. You will also work closely with our global Tech and Public Policy Team, providing a unique opportunity to close the gap between progressive policy, thought leadership and hands-on implementation.

Key Responsibilities

This role is suitable for an exceptional candidate with significant experience in public sector cloud infrastructure implementation and technology-enabled transformation, either in the private sector or as part of government advisory and delivery.

Key responsibilities will include:

Strategy and collateral development

• Support the evolution of TBI’s Cloud infrastructure offer (as part of our broader national digital infrastructure strategy) and value proposition
• Support discussion guides to equip TBI teams to communicate about the importance of cloud infrastructure and enabling policies in a nation’s digital transformation objectives
• Develop internal frameworks, guides, and documents which effectively capture the cloud infrastructure offer and solutions, and enable country teams to effectively engage with and match the solution to government needs leverage your input
• Develop training materials to ensure TBI country teams and government counterparts understand the specifics and value addition of our Cloud infrastructure solutions and offers
• Support the setting of TBI country strategies and portfolio planning by providing input on Cloud infrastructure options and design choices, ensuring solutions match government need and ambition, and enabling countries to draw from our documented offers and tools (through e.g. internal upskilling & education programmes)
• Develop, and quality assure high-calibre external (e.g. government) facing proposal documents and deliverables, working with country teams, ensuring complex and technical terms are easily understandable by senior political leaders and the value and impact of cloud is conveyed.

Technical delivery and coordination support

 To support TBI country teams advising and supporting delivery with senior political leaders:

• Build a pipeline, in collaboration with the Partnerships team and senior advisor national digital infrastructure, and coordinate the delivery of a global portfolio of Cloud infrastructure initiatives, ensuring alignment and communication with broader initiatives
• Coordinate across TBI, government counterparts, and solution provider partners to ensure the successful delivery of initiatives, impact, and that country teams can access the best of the Institute
• Provide hands-on technical input and thought partnership in the scoping, design and delivery of Cloud initiatives, generating creative solutions and framing them in a compelling way
•  Bring solution knowledge and expertise to support and troubleshoot the implementation of Cloud initiatives, working collaboratively
• Travel to country locations to provide hands-on surge support, such as government workshops, discovery workshops, or user needs/requirements gathering
• Support recruitment and induction for new hires and mentoring and coaching where needed
• Work closely with our Impact and Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning teams to contribute to a learning culture which effectively captures and utilises lessons to continuously improve our work

External engagement and partnerships

• Develop and enhance our partnership with leading innovators, technology companies, implementation partners, and thought leaders in the Cloud infrastructure space, improve our offer and advice to governments
• Support the management of our partnership with a leading Cloud infrastructure and PaaS/SaaS provider (together with the Strategic Partnerships and Initiatives team) – collaborating on joint strategy and partnership governance, escalating challenges when needed
• Shape and embody a positive culture that drives innovation and delivery. Play a key role in the broader community at TBI and will be expected to build strong working relationships

Person Specification

We are looking for an experienced candidate with:

• Relevant experience in management consulting, government advisory, or working for large-scale Cloud infrastructure providers
• Demonstrable experience designing or supporting digital transformation efforts in government, with a focus on Cloud infrastructure implementation
• Experience and understanding of government functional priorities and challenges in emerging economies, with experience in Africa, Eastern Europe, and/or Asia
• A strategic, entrepreneurial, and pragmatic view, and the ability to challenge the status-quo and develop plans for successful delivery of challenging, ambitious objectives
• Outstanding strategy and coordination skills - able to set strategic direction in ambiguous environments, juggle multiple projects at once and take a hands-on approach to achieve results
• A strong consulting toolkit, enabling you to explain complex topics in simple terms, develop polished client-facing deliverables, and helpful frameworks and tools to bring scale to your expert advice to teams
• Demonstrable experience in managing partnerships across public, social, and private sector organisations
• Strong communication and influencing skills, from executive office level through to technical level, is adept at speaking to senior leadership
• Adept at navigating ambiguous environments and is comfortable in a rapid growth environment and at managing up and beyond hierarchy
• Comfortable to travel about 20- 30% of the time to global locations

The following is also desirable:

• Experience engaging or working on public policy as an enabler of digital transformation (e.g. data sovereignty and privacy regulations)
• Language skills, such as French

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About The Institute

The Tony Blair Institute (TBI) is a mission-driven not for profit organisation. We exist to equip political leaders and governments to build open, inclusive and prosperous societies. We work hard, every day, to make a difference. When governments work well they are able to create economic and social change in a way that promotes fairness, social justice and opportunity. We work relentlessly to support leader and governments with the challenges they face. Giving them practical solutions and actionable insights, that once implemented, can be transformative for their people  

We do this within two connected divisions: 

 Government Advisory 

Our Government Advisory teams work directly with political leaders and governments around the world to implement reforms that improve the lives of their citizens. It works with a variety of partners and its outputs cover a range of disciplines and projects across countries in Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and South Asia.

 Policy Futures 

Our Policy Futures work encompasses three broad areas: 

• Renewing the Centre: developing a bold and innovative domestic policy programme to help renew the centre ground of British politics; 
• Tech and Public Policy: exploring the policy challenges and opportunities presented by the technological revolution; and 
• Extremism Policy Unit: creating solutions designed to tackle the threat of extremist ideologies in the UK and around the world. 

As an organisation, the core beliefs we all embrace are: 

• Open and Progressive: you’ll believe in the value of teamwork 
• Bold and Pragmatic: you’ll approach everything you do with integrity and authenticity 
• Optimistic Changemaker: you’ll be focused on results 

TBI believes embracing diversity and inclusion make us a better place to work.  It’s our goal to reflect everyone in society and we actively welcome applications from individuals and groups who are under-represented in the workplace. We celebrate difference be it ethnicity, religion, age, gender or gender identity, sexual orientation or disability. We will only ever assess you on your abilities and fit for a role. We’re happy to discuss any adjustments you need to ensure a level playing field during recruitment and, if you\'re successful, discuss any adjustments you might need to thrive in your role.