Lead Program Manager

Overall Ambition: Lead the delivery of a business-critical transformation programme focused on modernising our Stock & Ordering capabilities. Co-ordinate and drive execution across multiple product, technology, and operational teams to ensure successful delivery of complex, integrated systems at scale.

The Stock & Ordering Services Programme: This is a high-impact, multi-million-pound initiative at the heart of our Supply Chain and Finance operations. The programme spans core capabilities including Stock Management, Ordering, Receipting, Invoice Reconciliation, Ingredient and SKU Master Data, and Digital Transformation of our stock management tooling. As Programme Lead, you’ll be accountable for shaping and driving this transformation—managing domain teams, stakeholders, and suppliers to realise strategic outcomes and long-term value.

Key Responsibilities

• Programme Leadership: Define the delivery structure and ways of working to ensure value is delivered quickly, efficiently, and sustainably. Own the programme’s roadmap, outcomes, and success metrics.
• Stakeholder & Team Management: Build strong relationships across Technology, Product, Supply Chain, Finance, and Restaurant Operations. Align priorities, resolve conflict, remove blockers, and maintain momentum.
• Delivery Execution: Lead multiple cross-functional domain teams and third-party partners to deliver end-to-end solutions. Maintain visibility of delivery health, ensuring on-time and on-budget execution.
• Commercial Management: Own the programme budget, track actuals and forecasts, and manage supplier performance. Ensure contracts are structured to support accountability and value realisation.
• Risk & Dependency Management: Proactively manage cross-team and cross-programme risks, assumptions, and dependencies. Embed governance, escalation routes, and contingency planning.
• Agile Enablement & Delivery Best Practice: Champion agile delivery across the programme. Promote lean thinking, iterative delivery, and high-quality outputs. Embed metrics, retrospectives, and a continuous improvement mindset.
• Roadmap & Prioritisation: Work closely with Product Managers and SMEs to define and refine the strategic roadmap, ensuring a laser focus on value and feasibility.
• Vendor Collaboration: Manage third-party partners and system integrators to ensure effective delivery. Govern integration points, service levels, and collaboration practices.
• Leadership & Coaching: Provide guidance to product managers, delivery lead and senior team members. Support performance, unblock challenges, and foster a delivery-first culture.

Skills & Experience

• Proven experience leading large-scale technology programmes in complex environments.
• Strong understanding of digital transformation, particularly within stock, ordering, or supply chain domains.
• Expertise in agile delivery frameworks (Scrum, Kanban, SAFe) and experience embedding agile at scale.
• Understanding of data management concepts (e.g. master data, data quality, reconciliation).
• Able to challenge and support engineering and product leads on delivery feasibility and estimates.
• Understanding of APIs, integration patterns, and data flows between systems.
• Familiarity with enterprise architecture (e.g. ERP, stock/order management platforms) and technical design governance.
• Familiarity with cloud platforms (e.g. GCP, AWS, or Azure).
• Ability to review and validate technical documentation and test plans.
• Demonstrated ability to manage £multi-million budgets and drive commercial outcomes.
• Experience delivering across distributed teams and third-party suppliers.
• Strong stakeholder engagement skills with C-Suite exposure.
• Comfortable navigating ambiguity and complexity to drive clear outcomes.
• Experience defining delivery governance, KPIs, and programme metrics.
• Practical knowledge of risk management, dependency tracking, and programme controls.

Why Join Us? As a Programme Lead at Nando’s, you will be at the forefront of a critical digital transformation, shaping the future of how stock flows through our ecosystem. This is a fast-paced, outcomes-driven role with the opportunity to make a tangible impact across our 480-restaurant estate and central functions. If you thrive in complexity, enjoy solving delivery challenges, and are driven by business impact—we want to hear from you.