Head of Delivery - Contract

The Head of Delivery is an experienced practitioner who exemplifies what good looks like across the delivery roles. You are accountable for the effective delivery of complex, high-risk products and services that involve multiple teams, managing high technical or political risk. You will act as the main point of escalation. You will represent and champion the role within the department, across government, and in the industry. As a credible and influential leader, you will work with other heads of roles to promote effective cross-functional delivery.

This is a senior leadership role that requires a deep understanding of Agile and Lean practices, commercial and financial management, and the ability to lead and develop a high-performing community of practice.

About the team

The GovTech Barbados team is responsible for developing multi-disciplinary, user-centered digital teams within the Government of Barbados. Our goals are twofold: first, we want to deliver tangible impact to citizens through excellent public service design and delivery. Second, we want to build a sustainable and enduring digital mindset, skillset, and culture within the government. It’s an exciting time to join us as we accelerate our delivery phase. We are taking an agile, lean approach to this work, learning as we go from our end-users, public servants, and global experts in digital transformation.

About the role

As the Head of Delivery, you are a leader of the delivery management profession. You will lead the community of practice for this role, building capability and excellence. You will be responsible for the recruitment of the right people to the right teams and will support the professional development and continuous improvement of your community by coaching and mentoring delivery managers. You are a skilled team leader who can confidently communicate the value of the role to digital and non-digital stakeholders and are credible and influential across departments.

Key responsibilities

• Lead the community of practice for the delivery management role, building capability and excellence in Agile and Lean practices.
• Be responsible for the recruitment, professional development, and continuous improvement of your community.
• Work with other heads of roles to promote effective cross-functional delivery.
• Coach and lead teams in Agile and Lean good practices, creating and tailoring the right approach for a team.
• Experiment with new and innovative ways of working to improve delivery across the organisation.
• Act as the escalation point and resolve large or high-risk commercial management issues.
• Mediate between people and strengthen relationships, managing stakeholder expectations and moderating difficult discussions.
• Negotiate, influence, or set budgets in complex environments and write or input into business cases.
• Lead and coach teams through different phases of the life cycle, managing potential risks.
• Optimize the delivery flow of teams and actively address the most complicated risks, issues, and dependencies.
• Identify and challenge organizational processes, adding value and coaching the organization to inspect and adapt.
• Lead a continual planning process in a very complex environment, planning beyond product delivery and identifying dependencies across services.
• Change organizational structures to fixable and sustainable designs and lead on strategy for an entire organization.

Essential attributes

• You have a deep understanding of Agile and Lean practices, able to coach and lead teams and act as a recognized advocate for these approaches.
• You are a skilled commercial manager, able to act as the escalation point for high-risk issues and coach others in appropriate commercial management.
• You are an excellent communicator, able to mediate between technical and non-technical people and represent the community to large audiences.
• You have strong financial management skills, able to negotiate budgets and communicate business-value propositions.
• You have extensive experience in life cycle management, able to lead and coach teams through different phases and manage potential risks.
• You excel at maintaining delivery momentum, able to optimize delivery flow and identify innovative ways to unblock issues.
• You are skilled at making processes work, able to identify and challenge organizational processes and guide teams through the implementation of new processes.
• You possess advanced planning skills, able to lead a continual planning process in a complex environment and coach other teams.

You have a sophisticated understanding of team dynamics and collaboration, able to change organizational structures, build consensus, and coach an organization on team dynamics and conflict resolution.

Contract details

• Contract duration: One (1) year, with potential to extend
• Pay commensurate with qualifications and experience will be offered
• We prefer hybrid (remote and in-person) work, but we will consider entirely remote candidates

Reporting to

Mark Boyce, CEO, GovTech Barbados, or his designate

Terms of Reference

Terms of Reference for this contract are available here: Head of Delivery