John Copley
UK
Summary
Results-driven professional with a strong background in recovery and stabilisation of multi-supplier delivery frameworks. Demonstrates expertise in managing senior stakeholders and vendors in politically sensitive environments, achieving critical service outcomes. Experienced in software delivery, data migration and validation, emphasising technology-user experience alignment and measurable business impact. Proficient in hybrid agile/waterfall methodologies and regulatory compliance, utilizing advanced AI tools to streamline reporting processes.
Overview
32
32
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work history
Senior Project & Acting Programme Manager
Peterborough City Council
Peterborough, UK
2024.04 - 2025.12
- Brought in to deliver and stabilise £2.2m education system replacement programme (Liquidlogic EYES) covering SEND, Education, Health and Care Plans, Free School Meals, Admissions and Early Years
- Rebuilt programme governance, reporting and board control for high-risk statutory programme
Digital Delivery Manager and Scrum Master
Spirax Group
Cheltenham, UK
2023.02 - 2024.04
- Led global digital delivery across mobile apps and e-commerce
- Delivered 3 mobile apps to 200+ field engineers worldwide
- Directed £5m US e-commerce rebuild supporting $120m annual revenue
- Managed senior stakeholders across UK, EU and US time zones
Delivery/ Senior Project Manager - Digital Payments
Nationwide
Swindon, UK
2020.11 - 2023.04
- Led agile delivery across planning, forecasting, cost control, resourcing & RAID management
- Delivered digital wallet provisioning (Apple Pay & Google Pay)
- Implemented vulnerable customer second-card capability
- Re-platformed debit card estate supporting 20m+ daily transactions
- Reduced fraud exposure by 15% through VISA card controls rollout
Delivery/ Senior Project Manager - Digital Payments
Nationwide
Swindon, UK
2017.04 - 2020.03
- Stabilised Faster Payments through £20m resilience programme
- Led transition from waterfall to agile ways of working across Payments delivery directorate
- Rebuilt payments history platform using new scrum teams and cloud-based architecture (AWS, Azure, MongoDB, OpenShift)
- Owned portfolio of complex change, representing delivery at Digital and Payments resilience boards
- Delivered £8.5m of regulatory and customer-facing change
- Mobilised and led offshore delivery teams in India to scale capacity
Senior Delivery and Technical Leadership Roles
Lloyd's Bank
London And Bristol, UK
2005.02 - 2012.09
- Led £125m banking transformation, major migrations, and national payment remediation programmes at Lloyd's Bank
Earlier Career Summary
Safeway, Sainsbury's, Natwest, Commonwealth bank
London, Sydney and Frankfurt
1993.09 - 2005.02
Senior delivery and technical leadership roles across several blue-chip organisations - Lloyd's, Nationwide, HP, DWP and major retailers including Sainsbury's. Led £125m banking transformation, major migrations, and national payment remediation programmes at Lloyd's Bank. Graduate trainee in CICS, Cobol and DB2.
Education
Bachelor of Science - Computing
Liverpool John Moore's University
LiverpoolSkills
- Proactive recovery and stabilisation
- Multi-supplier delivery and governance reset
- Go-live readiness and cutover control
- Senior stakeholder management in hostile or political environments
- Data migration and validation (large, messy, legacy estates)
- Hybrid agile / waterfall delivery
- Statutory and regulatory delivery
- Mobilising and leading teams quickly (onshore/offshore)
- Stabilised high-risk programmes, delivering service-critical outcomes without disruption
- Built decision-making governance with strong board visibility and control
- Strong alignment of technology, user experience and measurable business results
- PRINCE2 Practitioner
- Jira, Confluence, Miro, Figma, Office Timeline Pro, Office 365
- Advanced use of AI tools (Otterai, ChatGPT) to accelerate delivery, reporting and analysis
- Cost control management
- Agile project delivery
Certification
- PRINCE2 Practitioner
Interests and Commitments
Adoptive dad to my two boys and registered foster carer, Active actor and performer at Cotswold Playhouse; tennis club member; singer in bands and theatre, Community champion – founded Stroud pride
Earlier Career (summary)
Senior delivery and technical leadership roles across several blue-chip organisations - Lloyd's, Nationwide, HP, DWP and major retailers including Sainsburys. Led £125m banking transformation, major migrations, and national payment remediation programmes at Lloyd's Bank.
Tools
Jira, Confluence, Miro, Office Timeline, Figma, MS365, Otter.ai, AI-assisted reporting and analysis.
References
References available upon request.
Timeline
Senior Project & Acting Programme Manager
Peterborough City Council
2024.04 - 2025.12
Digital Delivery Manager and Scrum Master
Spirax Group
2023.02 - 2024.04
Delivery/ Senior Project Manager - Digital Payments
Nationwide
2020.11 - 2023.04
Delivery/ Senior Project Manager - Digital Payments
Nationwide
2017.04 - 2020.03
Senior Delivery and Technical Leadership Roles
Lloyd's Bank
2005.02 - 2012.09
Earlier Career Summary
Safeway, Sainsbury's, Natwest, Commonwealth bank
1993.09 - 2005.02
Bachelor of Science - Computing
Liverpool John Moore's University