Head of Delivery (IT Strategy, Portfolio Delivery, Consultancy)

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If you are anything like me, you've probably opened this advert thinking the following...

'This recruiter is crazy, that job title covers multiple different roles! He is probably one of those recruiters who thinks Java and JavaScript are the same thing, that Tomcat is a distant cousin of Top Cat and that Apache refers to a heavily armed helicopter'.

And you are probably right, about some of it anyway!

Yes this job title and subsequent advert seemingly covers multiple roles.

But there is a very simple reason for that... this role is literally the definition of 'hybrid'.

To give you some background, the role sits with one of our growing clients based in the North of England. They are a small to medium sized software partner (50-100 employees and counting) who specialise in a range of technology services including Microsoft (SharePoint, Dynamics CRM, .NET), Salesforce and AWS Cloud/Infrastructure. They have a growing reputation within the tech space and a small but stable list of large customers who are spread across the North East, Yorkshire and East/West Midlands. 2018 is a huge year for them growth-wise and this role represents a highly strategic part of that headcount.

So now all of that is out of the way, lets focus on the role.

As they haven't settled on an official job title for this yet, they are currently calling it 'Head of Delivery' as this role combines a range of disciplines.

Simply put, your role will involve managing the project delivery function for 2 of their key customers and will encompass a number of skills and responsibilities including IT operations management, service delivery management, programme management, stakeholder management and consultancy.

You will get involved in board-level IT strategy, helping shape the way the organisation delivers services to their customers and you will be expected to understand both technical strategy and business strategy.

Simply put, you will have a number of strings to your bow and I have elaborated on a couple of the key requirements below:

Stakeholder Management - First and foremost, this role will be highly stakeholder-facing. You will be expected to liaise with both technical and non-technical stakeholders, working with both the internal business and stakeholders on customer-site. The vast majority of this role will be based on client site in the West Midlands and you will be expected to manage stakeholder expectations throughout the duration of the projects. Therefore, the ability to influence stakeholders is absolutely crucial and strong communication skills are a must.

Programme & Project Portfolio Delivery - You will be heavily involved in the delivery process (full lifecycle), working closely with stakeholders to ensure smooth delivery of their services/solutions. You need to demonstrate experience working with a range of delivery methodologies (Agile, Waterfall, PRINCE2, PMP) and experience managing a range of projects rather than just the one.

Commercial Acumen - Demonstrating strong commercial awareness, relationship management and even new business development is a crucial element of this role. Part of your role will involve essentially working as an 'Account Manager' so an understanding of pre-sales, resource/budget management and cost effective delivery is an essential requirement for this role.

Consultancy - Fundamentally, due to the nature of the business being a consultancy, your true role could quite easily be called 'Consultant', so experience working in a consultancy-based environment would be an enormous asset. The consultancy model is a challenging one so somebody who understands the fast-paced and sometimes surprising nature of working for a consultancy would likely fare much better in this role.

So there you have it… admittedly a hybrid role with a number of different core elements to it. If you have read through this and think this is something you'd like to have a discussion about then give me a shout and we can discuss this further.

You can call me on either 0191 338 7540 or 07943721308. Alternatively, you can send me an email to [email protected] or simply send me a connection on LinkedIn by searching for 'Liam Haghighat' (I am pretty easy to find!!).

Anything discussed will remain completely confidential.