Public Digital

Head of Delivery – Consulting Operations

Public Digital

full-time

Posted on:

Location Type: Hybrid

Location: London • United Kingdom

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Salary

💰 £90,000 - £130,000 per year

Job Level

Lead

About the role

  • Oversee Public Digital’s portfolio of consulting engagements (around 36 accounts in 2025, including circa 10 strategic accounts), ensuring delivery is sustainable, consistent, and commercially sound.
  • Establish and run delivery governance across the business, ensuring visibility of performance, risks, and client outcomes.
  • Track delivery performance across the firm (time, quality, budget, client satisfaction) and use insights to improve systems and practice.
  • Provide reporting to the MD, CFO and Exec on utilisation, margin, delivery quality, and portfolio health.
  • Define and embed delivery standards, frameworks and methods; support teams to apply them effectively and pragmatically. Delivery standards should reflect Public Digital’s internet-era principles: lightweight governance, empowered teams, transparency, working in the open, learning loops, and pragmatic application of agile and lean methods.
  • Run delivery health reviews, identify risks early, and intervene where necessary to protect quality, profit & team health.
  • Shape PD’s overall delivery strategy, ensuring our approach evolves as we grow.
  • Partner closely with our Client Delivery Resourcing Lead to ensure the right people are allocated to the right work at the right time.
  • Proactively manage upcoming demand & forecast resourcing needs across sector teams - both short and longer term.
  • Navigate the inherent tensions between utilisation, delivery quality, learning, and wellbeing - making trade-offs explicit and intentional rather than accidental.
  • Codify and strengthen our culture of delivery excellence across Public Digital’s consulting teams.
  • Coach and develop delivery managers and engagement leads where needed, raising capability and confidence across PD.
  • Support sector leads to manage resourcing, balancing specialists skills, development needs and team effectiveness and health.
  • Model inclusive, values-led leadership and help create a healthy, collaborative delivery environment.
  • Provide constructive challenge to Partners and Sector Leads where delivery approaches, resourcing choices, or commercial decisions undermine sustainability or quality.
  • Partner with Sales and Sector Leads during deal shaping to ensure delivery models, pricing assumptions, and resourcing plans are viable and aligned with margin targets.
  • Assure delivery feasibility and delivery economics prior to contract signature.
  • Test feasibility, profitability, and resourcing implications before contracts are approved.
  • Ensure engagement structures support sustainable delivery, utilisation targets, and strong client relationships.

Requirements

  • Significant leadership experience in delivery management, programme management, or consulting operations within a digital or professional services environment.
  • Strong practitioner background in agile, lean, or internet-era delivery approaches, with the ability to coach and adapt methods to context.
  • Experience overseeing complex, multi-sector client portfolios with a focus on delivery quality and commercial performance.
  • Strong understanding of financial levers such as margin, utilisation, and engagement profitability.
  • Comfortable operating at both strategic and detailed levels, from portfolio governance to hands-on problem solving.
  • Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills; able to influence senior leaders, build trust, and create healthy challenge.
  • A structured, systems-thinking approach to improving delivery processes, standards, and ways of working.
  • A commitment to inclusive leadership, team wellbeing, and building diverse, high-performing teams.
  • Demonstrated experience improving margin or utilisation through changes to delivery design, not just cost control.
  • Evidence of having intervened in underperforming engagements and reset delivery approach successfully.
Benefits
  • Deliver high-impact work with leading institutions around the world
  • An opportunity to work strategically at a leadership level, helping decision makers to make informed decisions.
  • Grow with us: the opportunity to grow and progress rapidly within an engaged, supportive environment
  • Be empowered to do your best work
  • Home and remote working, flexibility in how you deliver work
  • Focus on learning, development and progression
  • Reach a global audience as a thought leader: publish blog posts and other articles; speak at conferences and events as a representative of Public Digital
  • Buddy system and prioritised mental health
  • Generous holiday allowance (30 days plus public holidays), plus an additional office closure over the Christmas period
  • Private healthcare
  • Flexible benefits allowance
Applicant Tracking System Keywords

Tip: use these terms in your resume and cover letter to boost ATS matches.

Hard Skills & Tools
agile deliverylean deliverydelivery managementprogramme managementportfolio governancefinancial analysisdelivery standardsperformance trackingrisk managementsystems thinking
Soft Skills
leadershipcommunicationstakeholder managementcoachinginfluencingproblem solvingteam wellbeingtrust buildingcollaborationinclusive leadership