Programme Director - Strategic Transformation Programme Delivery

Programme Director - Strategic Transformation Programme Delivery

Location: UK Client-facing

Experience: 12-18 years

Level: Programme Director / Delivery Partner / Transformation Director

Programme Scale: scaling from 50 to 100+

Domain: Hospitality preferred; Retail, Travel, Consumer or other complex digital transformation experience considered

Role Overview

Seeking an experienced Programme Director to lead a strategic, multi-year Hotel Tech Transformation (AI embedded) programme for a major UK enterprise.

The portfolio will span modern operational platforms, web/mobile applications, Agentic AI & Automation, Robotics, Smart Technologies, RFID, IoT and data-led operations.

This is not a traditional programme-management role. The Programme Director will operate at two interconnected levels:

• 
  Client Transformation Leadership - partner with Product, Technology and Business leaders to translate strategic vision into executable roadmaps, products and measurable business outcomes.
• 
  Delivery & Engineering Leadership - lead a multidisciplinary technology organisation scaling from 50 to 100+ professionals, ensuring engineering quality, predictable delivery and disciplined execution.

Key Accountabilities
1. Strategy to Execution

• Translate strategic vision into outcomes, roadmaps, product backlogs, releases and measurable value.
• Connect multiple initiatives into a coherent transformation roadmap, identifying dependencies, synergies and reuse opportunities.
• Challenge priorities and sequencing to enable start-small, scale-fast delivery.

2. End-to-End Programme Delivery

• Own delivery across Product, Architecture, Engineering, Integration, QA, DevSecOps, Release and Service Transition.
• Maintain strong control of scope, milestones, commercials, dependencies, RAID and critical path.
• Lead programme recovery where required and ensure multiple workstreams converge around common outcomes and architecture.

3. Delivery Assurance & Governance

• Establish a rigorous delivery cadence across sprint/release reviews, architecture, engineering, RAID, commercials and executive governance.
• Personally review critical deliverables and identify gaps before they reach the client.
• Ensure every key client interaction has a clear agenda, expected outcomes, decisions, owners and actions.
• Provide concise executive and programme dashboards covering progress, outcomes, risks, financials and decisions required.

4. Engineering & Technology Leadership

• Maintain sufficient technical depth to challenge architecture, engineering and delivery teams on code quality, APIs/integration, cloud platforms, data, testing, CI/CD, security, NFRs and production readiness.
• Conduct targeted engineering deep dives when delivery or quality indicators require intervention.
• Ensure platforms, environments, architecture and security approvals are established early and do not become delivery bottlenecks.

5. AI-First Engineering & Automation

• Embed GenAI, Agentic AI and automation throughout the engineering lifecycle - Discovery, Design, Development, Code Review, Integration, Testing, Documentation, Release and Operations.
• Drive measurable improvements in productivity, quality, automation coverage and release velocity.
• Ensure operational automation opportunities progress systematically from idea prototype industrialisation measurable value.

6. Client, Team & Commercial Leadership

• Build trusted relationships with senior Product, Technology and Business stakeholders and operate as a credible transformation partner.
• Lead and develop a high-performing organisation scaling from + people, with the right balance of leadership, domain expertise and engineering capacity.
• Own programme financial performance, capacity, utilisation and commercial commitments.
• Manage escalations decisively, bringing evidence, options and recommendations rather than simply reporting problems.

Candidate Profile

• 
  15-20+ years of technology experience with significant leadership of complex, multi-year digital/product transformation programmes.
• Proven experience managing £multi-million programmes and 50-100+ multidisciplinary technology organisations.
• Experience at Programme Director, Delivery Partner, Transformation Director, Engineering Delivery Director or equivalent level.
• Strong executive stakeholder management and ability to translate business strategy into executable technology outcomes.
• Strong understanding of modern product engineering, Agile delivery and engineering governance.
• Sufficient technical depth to challenge senior architects and engineering leaders across cloud, application engineering, integration, data, DevSecOps, testing and security.
• Strong understanding of GenAI, Agentic AI and intelligent automation, including their application within software engineering.
• Demonstrated programme recovery, transformation and commercial management experience.
• Hospitality experience desirable, but strong candidates from Retail, Travel, Consumer, Aviation, Financial Services or other large-scale digital environments are encouraged.

Leadership Profile

We are looking for a leader who is:

Executive enough to shape the transformation • Technical enough to challenge the solution • Hands-on enough to inspect the evidence • Commercial enough to manage the programme • Disciplined enough to run a tight ship

The successful candidate should be equally comfortable moving between an executive strategy discussion, programme delivery review, architecture/security conversation, engineering quality deep dive and commercial governance meeting.

This is not a traditional PMO role. It requires a hands-on technology transformation and delivery leader with end-to-end accountability for client outcomes, engineering quality and programme performance.