Programme Manager
92% skill overlap
Your role
Programme Manager (Banking)
Full profileYour role
- L3 salary
- Not published yet
- Upcoming dated changes
- 10 changes ahead
What the role does
A Programme Manager in banking leads a group of related projects that deliver a major change for a bank: a core banking or trading platform replacement, a regulatory programme, a new operating model or a legal entity restructuring. The role owns the business case and benefits, sets programme governance, manages dependencies, risks and budget, and reports to executive sponsors. It combines programme management with knowledge of banking products, the trade lifecycle, control functions and regulatory expectations.
Read a day in the life
A day in the life
The programme manager leads a programme to move several business lines to a new trade processing platform. The morning starts with the programme board pre-meeting with the PMO lead, reviewing milestone status, budget and the top risks. A delay in one business line's testing threatens a regulatory reporting date, so the manager calls the workstream leads to agree options. Late morning goes to a meeting with operational risk and compliance on the controls needed before the next migration wave and the evidence they expect. After lunch the manager reviews the benefits case with finance: savings depend on closing legacy systems on time. A call with the vendor follows to agree extra testing support. Mid-afternoon the manager meets the change lead to review staff readiness in two operations centres. The day ends with preparing the update for the executive steering committee, including a recommendation to split the next migration wave into two and the cost of doing so.
Levels
- L1 Starting out
- L2 Independent
- L3 Senior or specialist
- L4 Leads a team or an area
- L5 Leads the function
Full level descriptions and job titles
The EFO level names are the common scale; job titles differ between employers.
| Level | What the work looks like | Typical years | Typical job titles |
|---|---|---|---|
| L1 Starting out | Rare at entry. Programme coordinator who supports integrated planning, reporting and governance and learns banking change, controls and products under supervision. | 0-2 | Banks: Analyst, Junior Analyst, Associate (asset servicing), Trainee, GraduateAsset servicers: Junior, Specialist (entry), Officer |
| L2 Independent | Manages a programme workstream or small banking programme: integrated plan, dependencies, risks, control sign-offs and reporting across several projects. | 2-5 | Banks: Analyst / Senior Analyst, AssociateAsset servicers: Specialist, Senior Specialist, Senior Officer |
| L3 Senior or specialist | Programme manager for a significant banking or regulatory programme. Owns business case, benefits, budget and governance, and manages senior stakeholders, vendors and control functions. | 5-9 | Banks: Senior Associate, AVP, Assistant ManagerAsset servicers: Senior Specialist, Expert, Team Lead (small team) |
| L4 Leads a team or an area | Senior programme manager or programme director. Leads large multi-entity or multi-country programmes, owns outcomes and investment, and is the escalation point for executive sponsors. | 8-14 | Banks: VP, Manager, Senior ManagerAsset servicers: Team Lead, Manager, Head of Section |
| L5 Leads the function | Head of transformation or change for a business line, legal entity or region. Accountable for the change portfolio, sets priorities and governance, and reports to executive committees. | 12+ | Banks: Director, Executive Director, Managing Director, Head of functionAsset servicers: Head of Department, Director |
Skills
Where the skill weights come from
Each role lists its skills with a tier and a weight. The weights of one role add up to 100 percent.
Source: the EFO role catalogue, built from the ESCO classification and reviewed by the editors.
The percentage is the skill's share of the role; the bars are drawn relative to the anchor skill, which is shown full.
Critical
- Change management and adoptionWeight 12.2%Relevant to you
- Project governance and reportingWeight 8.2%Relevant to you
- Target operating model designWeight 8.2%Relevant to you
- Risk and issue management (RAID)Weight 8.2%Relevant to you
- Business case and cost-benefit analysisWeight 8.2%Relevant to you
- Trade lifecycleWeight 8.2%Relevant to you
Important and supporting skills 17
Important
- Project planning and dependenciesWeight 4.1%Relevant to you
- Project budget managementWeight 4.1%Relevant to you
- Leading without formal authorityWeight 4.1%Relevant to you
- Stakeholder managementWeight 4.1%Relevant to you
- Reading organisational and political contextWeight 4.1%Relevant to you
- Prioritising with incomplete informationWeight 4.1%Relevant to you
- Professional written communicationWeight 4.1%Relevant to you
- Vendor and service contract managementWeight 4.1%Relevant to you
Supporting
- Project tools (Jira, Asana)Weight 2.0%Relevant to you
- Microsoft PowerPointWeight 2.0%Relevant to you
- Verbal communication and presentingWeight 2.0%Relevant to you
- Effort estimation and capacity planningWeight 2.0%Relevant to you
- Commercial acumen and business senseWeight 2.0%Relevant to you
- Defining and using KPIsWeight 2.0%Relevant to you
Useful
- Advanced Microsoft ExcelWeight 0.7%Relevant to you
- Querying data with SQLWeight 0.7%Relevant to you
- Agile delivery (Scrum, Kanban)Weight 0.7%Relevant to you
Processes
The work the role takes part in.
- Change and project delivery
- Regulatory change management
- Securities settlement
- Trade capture and booking
- Trade confirmation and affirmation
What each process covers
- Change and project deliveryMain
- Regulatory change managementMain
- Securities settlementMain
- Trade capture and bookingMain
- Trade confirmation and affirmationMain
Where the role concentrates
How AI is changing the role
AI tools now consolidate cross-project reporting, model dependency and schedule risk and summarise large document sets.
Read the full assessment
AI tools now consolidate cross-project reporting, model dependency and schedule risk and summarise large document sets. Coordination effort falls. Bank programmes increasingly include AI adoption, and the European Banking Authority reports wide AI use in EU banks with rising governance expectations. Value grows in sequencing change safely, balancing regulatory deadlines with cost, managing executives and control functions, and leading people through change. The World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report 2025 lists leadership and social influence and analytical thinking among the skills employers expect to grow.
Dated changes for this role
- ESMA guidelines on allocations and confirmations for T+1Relevant to you
- CSDR settlement discipline rules updated for T+1 in three stepsRelevant to you
- ECB Pontes: DLT settlement in central bank moneyRelevant to you
- CRD6: non-EU banks need EU branches for core banking servicesRelevant to you
- UK cryptoasset regime: application window and start dateRelevant to you
Salary snapshot
Salary figures are not published yet
The L3 salary range for this role, with its sources, will appear here when the salaries section opens.
Certifications
- PMP
- PRINCE2 Practitioner
- Certified ScrumMaster
- Professional Scrum Master I
- CBAP
- CAPM
Concepts to know
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Do this job? Suggest a correction
Sources
Business caseA business case is the document that justifies a proposed investment or change by setting out the problem, the options considered, costs, benefits, risks, timing and the recommended option. It is approved before funding and revisited at each stage gate.
Trade lifecycleThe trade lifecycle is the sequence of steps a trade goes through from order to final maturity: execution, capture, enrichment, confirmation, clearing, settlement, reporting, lifecycle events such as resets, coupons and corporate actions, and termination. Front, middle and back office teams each own parts of it, with controls at each hand-off.
PMO (project management office)A PMO is the team that supports and oversees projects or a whole portfolio: it sets standards and templates, collects status and financials, maintains RAID logs, prepares governance packs and tracks benefits. Project, programme and portfolio PMOs differ in scope.
Operational riskOperational risk is the risk of loss from inadequate or failed internal processes, people and systems, or from external events. It includes legal risk and excludes strategic and reputational risk. Examples are fraud, processing errors, cyber incidents and outages.
Steering committeeA steering committee (SteerCo) is the senior group that directs a project or programme: it approves scope, budget and major changes, resolves escalated risks and issues, and decides at key gates whether work continues. It meets on a fixed cycle, often monthly.