Head of PMO

About the Role
This is a group-level leadership role accountable for how the organization runs: turning strategy into delivered outcomes, and doing so productively and cost-efficiently. Reporting to the COO, the Head of Operations owns the Group PMO, leads the delivery of the company's strategic initiatives, and drives an AI-first operational excellence agenda that measurably improves productivity, efficiency, and cost performance across the group, allowing for business scaling without a proportional increase in cost or headcount.

The role encompasses four main mandates:

• Business & Delivery Operations: Own the group’s operating rhythm and ensure that commitments made to clients, partners, and the Executive Team are delivered on time, to quality, and within budget.
• Portfolio & Strategic Initiatives: Run the Group PMO and lead the company's highest-priority cross-functional initiatives, from business case through to benefits realization.
• Operational Excellence: Define, measure, and continuously improve productivity, efficiency, and cost using data, process redesign, and automation.
• AI-First Operations: Make AI the default starting point for how work is done, embedding it across processes, delivery, and decision-making to enhance scalability, efficiency, and effectiveness.

The Head of Operations acts as a trusted adviser to the COO, CEO, and Executive Team, providing a fact-based view of business and delivery performance and recommending where to invest, stop or redirect effort.

Key Responsibilities
Business & Delivery Operations

• Own the group operating rhythm, overseeing monthly business reviews, quarterly business reviews (QBRs), and the annual planning cycle, tracking decisions and actions through to closure.
• Oversee delivery performance across business units, including client and partner launches, ensuring commitments are met within agreed scope, time, quality, and cost.
• Establish delivery governance, service standards, and escalation paths, intervening early when delivery is at risk.
• Manage cross-functional dependencies between Commercial, Product, Technology, Content, and Finance for unified delivery.
• Lead group-wide capacity and resource planning to align headcount, skills, and recruitment forecasting with agreed priorities.

Group PMO & Portfolio Management

• Lead, mentor, and develop the Group PMO team; set frameworks, standards, and tools for programme and project management across the group (Agile, hybrid, or waterfall).
• Own the group project portfolio: intake, business case review, prioritization, and resource allocation aligned with strategic and commercial objectives.
• Maintain governance artefacts including risk, assumptions, issues, and dependencies (RAID) logs, and decisions and actions logs.
• Provide transparent portfolio reporting and executive dashboards covering progress, financials, risks, and benefits.
• Embed project closure, benefits tracking, and lessons-learned practices into operations.

Strategic Company Initiatives

• Translate company strategy and annual objectives (e.g., OKRs) into a prioritized, resourced, and sequenced roadmap of company initiatives.
• Lead or sponsor delivery of high-priority cross-functional initiatives such as new market entries, operating model changes, platform migrations, integrations, and transformation programmes.
• Define the business case, success measures, and expected benefits for each initiative, tracking benefits realization post-launch.
• Lead change management and communication needed for initiative adoption and sustainability.

Operational Excellence

• Define and manage the group operational excellence programme, focusing on end-to-end process improvements.
• Map and redesign core business processes to eliminate waste, duplication, and unnecessary hand-offs.
• Identify and lead process automation opportunities enhancing operation speed, quality, and scalability.
• Ensure documentation of policies, processes, and procedures is created and implemented effectively.

AI-First Operations & Scalability

• Champion an AI-first operating model; assess core processes for AI automation, augmentation, or removal before increasing headcount or cost.
• Build and own the group AI adoption roadmap for operations, collaborating with Technology, Data, and Security to prioritize use cases based on business value, feasibility, and risk.
• Manage AI use cases from pilot to scalable production (e.g., AI assistants for workflows, automated reporting, intelligent document processing).
• Define and measure business impacts of AI initiatives (time saved, cost avoided, cycle-time reduction) and discontinue those that do not deliver.
• Promote AI literacy and adoption through training, playbooks, and champions ensuring integration into daily operations.
• Establish responsible AI governance for operational use, ensuring compliance with data privacy, security, accuracy, and oversight regulations.

Productivity & Efficiency Measurement

• Design and maintain the group productivity and efficiency KPI framework (e.g., cycle time, time-to-market, throughput).
• Establish baselines, set targets with business leaders, and report performance to the Executive Team.
• Create a single source of truth for operational data and dashboards, collaborating with Finance and Data teams.
• Conduct regular performance reviews, identifying root causes of underperformance and agreeing on corrective actions.

Cost Efficiency

• Collaborate with Finance to monitor operational costs and budget adherence across the group.
• Identify and implement cost-optimization opportunities, with verified savings tracked by Finance.
• Govern investment decisions ensuring initiatives are funded based on clear business cases and returns.
• Oversee vendor and supplier governance for operational services, ensuring contract compliance and performance.

Operating Model, Risk & Governance

• Contribute to the development of the group operating model, including roles and decision rights.
• Support workforce planning to align with growth and priorities.
• Maintain the group operational risk register and ensure compliance with policies.

Leadership & Stakeholder Management

• Build a culture of high performance and continuous improvement through effective leadership and talent retention.
• Advise the COO, CEO, and Executive Team based on company priorities, presenting facts clearly.
• Communicate progress to the Executive Team and stakeholders, escalating issues as necessary.

How Success Will Be Measured

• Strategic initiatives delivered on time and budget, with agreed benefits realized.
• Measurable improvements in agreed productivity and efficiency KPIs against baseline.
• Verified cost savings and avoidance against annual targets.
• Measurable business impact from AI adoption and sustained usage across teams.
• Predictable, transparent executive reporting from a single source of truth.
• Group-wide adoption of PMO standards and operating rhythm.
• Engagement, development, and retention of Operations and PMO team members.

Requirements

• 12+ years’ experience in operations, PMO, transformation, or strategy-execution roles, including at least 5 years in a leadership position.
• Proven track record in delivering complex, cross-functional strategic initiatives in an international setting, ideally within mobile, telco, digital media, or technology sectors.
• Experience in defining and managing productivity and efficiency KPI frameworks, delivering quantifiable improvements.
• Strong commercial acumen with a history of verified cost savings and effective budget management.
• Proficiency in process improvement methodologies (e.g., Lean, Six Sigma) and project methodologies (Agile/Scrum, PRINCE2).
• Advanced analytical skills, including Excel and dashboarding/BI tools (Power BI, Tableau), familiarity with Jira, Confluence, MS Project, and Smartsheet.
• Hands-on experience applying AI for operational efficiency and demonstrated success in scaling AI initiatives.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, suitable for executive level reporting.
• Proven ability to influence and build relationships at all organizational levels.
• Strong leadership skills with a focus on team development and retention.
• Solid technical understanding of cloud technologies and related systems.
• A degree in Business, Engineering, or a related field; an MBA is advantageous.

Benefits
Opportunity to work for a dynamic international company with a flat hierarchical structure, where your voice matters and your impact is visible.