Head of Delivery - Development Unit
Methods, United Kingdom
Job Description
Job Title Head of Delivery - Development Unit
Reporting to: Director of Development
Accountable for: Portfolio of projects (in the 10m to 20m range total, mix of assurance and hands-on delivery/portfolio management)
Direct Reports: (TBC pending business plan outputs, delivery teams will report through this role, line management for DM and BA roles)
Contract Type: Permanent
Methods:
Since our establishment in 1990, Methods has partnered with a range of central government departments and agencies to transform the way the public sector operates in the UK. Our mission is to help safeguard public-facing services and apply digital thinking to make sure the future of our public services is centred around our citizens.
The Technical Delivery portfolio is a key part of Methods’ growth strategy, focusing on Software and Cloud Engineering, Consultancy, Technical Architecture and Cyber Security. Our aim is to deliver profitable growth and value by establishing and maintaining a strong community of practice and reputation for quality software amp; cloud engineering built on a DevOps culture and Continuous Delivery principles to support digital, data and technology transformation across Government.
Job Purpose and Scope:
As well as some hands-on consultancy/delivery, the Head of Delivery is responsible for planning, delivery and assurance across our portfolio of work; from inception to completion and ongoing continuous improvement. This includes Operations responsibilities and being the interface with internal functions (finance, HR, business assurance, resourcing etc)
This is a senior management role that will contribute to building and managing the Division and its’ collateral (such as operating model, playbook, tooling and process), as well as delivery and assurance of outcomes. There is also strong strategic emphasis for Methods on building permanent capacity and capability; so supporting recruitment, retention, and an effective community of practice and DevOps culture (within the Development Unit initially, but also the wider Group) is also a key goal.
You will also be involved in pre-sales (contributing to bids, budgets, estimating and contracts work), and taking ‘won’ business into production, working with other functions (e.g. resourcing)
Role:
Delivery:
- Do hands-on Portfolio Management (roughly 40% billable utilisation is the goal) for the Portfolio’s projects, this is usually a mix of agile delivery management at the portfolio level, and consultancy
- Lead delivery capability amp; function (including line management and mentoring of delivery managers and scrum masters, so as to deliver excellent outcomes)
- Portfolio overview (from DM perspective), accountability for outcomes (plan, quality, budget, margin)
- Internal amp; External projects
- As well as delivering commercial outcomes, we are committed to building an effective internal operating model, playbook, and productization around common tooling (a ‘preferred SDLC’ and approach)
- This needs to link to staff development/academy overlay as well as objectives for seniors
- Alignment with business plan (we need to track sales/margins/delivery vs plan amp; review bi-weekly)
Assurance
- Assure delivery operations (vs plan, budget, quality, scope; functional amp; non-functional; in conjunction with other seniors)
- Focus on key accounts (in conjunction with DMs amp; Account Managers) amp; support new business development activity (e.g. providing input to bids, estimating, planning)
- Demonstrate excellent stakeholder and relationship management skills. Collaboratively avoid and solve project issues by managing risk and delivery effectively, and respond decisively to escalations
- Liaise effectively with Business Assurance (to ensure work aligns to internal processes and systems e.g. SalesForce, Sharepoint)
Operations
- Liaise effectively with other Methods business units (e.g. where we augment other Portfolio projects)
- Manage operations (in line with internal/external project goals and outcomes) ensuring Group functions are engaged (tracking, billing etc)
- Track and maintain business plan targets in terms of utilisation/efficiency
Planning
- Delivery planning for portfolio for both technical and non-technical roles, balancing utilisation with contribution to internal initiatives; so as to meet Plan goals (our target is overall 80%+ utilisation of perm capacity)
- Estimating for new requirements (including relevant inputs to bids), assessing client needs and team challenges proactively to create and enable effective, innovative and efficient solutions
General Mana