Head of Delivery & Consulting Operations

Team: Business Partnering

Salary: £90,000 - £130,000

Location: United Kingdom(Hybrid - with regular in-person client meetings)

Job Type: Permanent 

Working pattern: Full time

We’re open to exploring other working patterns on a case-by-case basis, where possible and in line with business needs.

Closing date: 25/ 03/ 2026 (9:00am) - We encourage early applications as we reserve the right, if required, to close this role ahead of the date advertised.

Who we are

We are Public Digital, a digital transformation consultancy. We help global institutions that matter thrive in the digital era. We apply the culture, processes, business models and technologies of modern delivery to help teams build and run excellent services. Working with the leaders doing strategy, and the teams doing delivery, we operate globally, advising large organisations and governments on six continents.

We're values-driven and we articulate them in our positions on the Public Digital website.

Attitude as much as skill is critically important to us as a team and we look for entrepreneurialism, initiative, kindness, and a willingness to pitch in. We fundamentally believe transformation is about people, and that change comes from creating great teams and the conditions to successfully empower them.

About the role

We’re looking for a Head of Delivery & Consulting Operations to bring coherence, consistency, and commercial discipline to how we deliver work across our consulting portfolio.

This role sits at the intersection of client satisfaction, delivery excellence, commercial performance, and resourcing. You’ll shape the systems, frameworks, and governance that underpin great delivery, coach and challenge engagement leads and help us scale sustainably as our work grows in scope and complexity.

You’ll work closely with Partners, Sector Leads, and our Resourcing function, ensuring Public Digital’s consulting practice is effective, sustainable, and set up to deliver real impact for clients.

This is a strategic, hands-on role for someone who is a confident practitioner of agile and lean approaches, a strong systems thinker, and someone who knows what good delivery looks like across multiple complex engagements.

This role carries real authority to set expectations, intervene in delivery, and challenge senior leaders where engagement design, resourcing, or commercial assumptions risk delivery quality or margin. Success depends on constructive challenge as much as collaboration.

You don’t replace line management or Partner accountability on our strategic accounts: you strengthen the system, visibility and standards that enable great delivery.

Delivery portfolio & quality assurance

• 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.

Resourcing & utilisation

• 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.

Leadership & culture

• 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.

Commercial discipline

• 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

What we're looking for

PD looks for a range of strengths in areas and awareness and knowledge in others. You do not need to meet all of the following to apply but we’d love to see solid experience in 6-7 of these.

• 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.

How you will be assessed:

We want to understand your background, experiences, perspective, and what motivates you to work with us.

We start with an initial sift of all applications, assessed against the "What we’re looking for" criteria in the advert.

If you’re shortlisted, the selection process may include a mix of the following :

• A short phone interview (up to 30 minutes) with a member of our talent team. Someone from the hiring team may also join.
• A 1 hour panel interview with someone from our Consulting team as well as the Leadership team.
• If successful you’ll receive a case study in advance, along with full details about the format of the next stage.
• A 1 hour peer interview where you'll present the case study.
• A 30 minute "vibe check" with your future team member.

Each stage is designed to be a two-way conversation, giving you the chance to get to know us too.

We value authentic applications that reflect your own experience and thinking. While we recognise AI tools are increasingly common, applications should clearly represent your personal perspective and judgement.

Benefits

Why you should apply

• 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

Be a part of our amazing work culture. To read more about it please visit our Careers page which gives more details about our culture, employees and benefits.

We're an equal opportunities employer. We're committed to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace where everyone can be their best. Public Digital's mission is to help institutions thrive in the internet era - to do that well, we aim to hire and empower people who reflect the diversity of the users, communities and organisations we work with. 

We actively encourage applications from under-represented and minoritised groups, including those with lived experience of the challenges we're working to address. We're keen to hear from curious, collaborative and thoughtful people regardless of gender, age, ethnic identity, religion, socio-economic status, sexual orientation, neurodiversity or physical disability.

If you're excited about this role but your past experience doesn't align perfectly with every requirement in the job description, please apply anyway, you may just be the right candidate for this or other roles in our wider team.

Things you need to know

• Salary
  We’ll offer a salary that reflects your experience and the skills you show throughout the process. We aim to be as competitive as possible based on what you bring to the role.

• Flexible working
  We support flexible working, and you can split your time between home and our London office. Most of the team comes in around once a week to collaborate, but there’s no set requirement to be in regularly.
• However, as this is a client-facing role, there may be times when you'll need to travel to a client’s office or attend in-person meetings, depending on the needs of the project. While we offer flexibility where we can, we also appreciate the same in return when it comes to meeting client expectations.

• Right to work
  You’ll need to already have the right to work in the UK when you start. We’re not able to sponsor visas for this role.

• Reserve list
  If the current live roles are filled but we consider you right for PD, you will be offered the chance to join our reserve list. This means we can get back in touch if a similar opportunity comes up within that time, and you won’t need to reapply.

• Closing date
  We encourage you to apply early, as we review applications on a rolling basis. Due to the high volume of applications we’ve been receiving, we may close the role before the advertised deadline and won’t be able to accept applications once it’s closed.
• We aim to give at least 24 hours’ notice of early closure by updating the job advert where possible. Reviewing applications as they come in also helps us get back to candidates sooner, so you're not left waiting.