Head of Delivery and Service - UK Security Clearance eligibility required

Location: London, UK (Hybrid - min 2 days per week in office)

Contract: Permanent, Full-time

Package: £90,000 - £110,000 + 10% Bonus + 10% Shares + Benefits

About Us

Appvia is a specialist cloud and platform engineering consultancy and product house helping organisations build, secure, and scale in the cloud. We work with public and private sector customers to design modern cloud platforms, embed strong engineering practices, and enable teams to deliver software faster and more reliably. Our focus is on platform engineering, DevOps, automation, and cloud-native delivery - creating foundations that balance developer velocity with security, resilience, and governance.

We deliver across four complementary service lines: Platform Engineering, Modernisation & Migration, Data & AI, and Managed Services (24×7 cloud operations, FinOps, and platform management). Our team of 100% UK-based, SC-cleared engineers brings practical expertise from building open‑source tools for the Kubernetes and CNCF ecosystem. We work with organisations including the Bank of England, the Home Office, London Stock Exchange and Ralph Lauren.

About the Role

As Head of Delivery and Service, you will be a senior leader responsible for ensuring the success of Appvia’s delivery management across all customer engagements, leading our managed service capability, and acting as a lead delivery principal on short‑term, outcome‑driven work where required. This role bridges agile project delivery with ITIL‑aligned service management, ensuring that Appvia’s customers receive outstanding outcomes from both our consulting engagements and ongoing operational services.

You will own the end‑to‑end delivery lifecycle from engagement inception through to steady‑state service operations, building the processes, frameworks, and team capability that allow Appvia to scale delivery quality as we grow. You will be equally comfortable running a sprint planning session, chairing a Change Advisory Board, and presenting delivery performance to a customer’s C‑suite. This is a hands‑on leadership role for someone who leads by example and thrives in a fast‑moving, growth‑oriented consultancy environment.

Important: As some of our public sector clients require Security Clearance, you will need to be eligible, meaning:

• British Citizen or ILR
• To have resided in the UK for at least the last 5 years
• Have no criminal records
• Have no financial irregularities

Delivery Management

• Own the delivery management function across all customer engagements, ensuring projects are delivered on time, within budget, and to agreed scope and quality standards.
• Establish, continuously improve, and govern Appvia’s delivery framework, embedding agile best practices (Scrum, Kanban, SAFe where appropriate) across all teams.
• Act as the escalation point for delivery risks, blockers, and customer concerns, working proactively to resolve issues before they impact outcomes.
• Partner with the sales and pre‑sales teams to shape engagements, define statements of work, and ensure deliverability of commercial commitments.
• Provide delivery governance through regular reporting, RAID management, and stakeholder communication at all levels.
• Coach and mentor delivery managers and scrum masters across the business, building a high‑performing delivery community of practice.

Lead Delivery Principal

• Personally lead delivery on strategic, short‑term, outcome‑driven engagements such as Platform Accelerators, Landing Zone deployments, Cloud Assessments, and AI Accelerators.
• Act as a hands‑on delivery lead: facilitate ceremonies, remove impediments, and drive pace and focus in cross‑functional engineering teams.
• Define and track success metrics for each engagement, ensuring outcomes are evidenced and communicated to customers.
• Manage the transition from project delivery into managed service operations, ensuring seamless handover with full knowledge transfer.

Managed Service Leadership

• Lead and grow Appvia’s Managed Services capability, encompassing 24×7 cloud operations, FinOps, security monitoring, and platform management for customers across AWS, Azure, and GCP.
• Define and own the service management framework, incorporating ITIL best practices across the full service lifecycle: Incident Management, Problem Management, Change Management, Service Level Management, Configuration Management, Release Management, Knowledge Management, and Continual Service Improvement.
• Establish, negotiate, and manage Service Level Agreements (SLAs), Operating Level Agreements (OLAs), and underpinning contracts with customers and third‑party providers.
• Own the service catalogue and ensure it accurately reflects Appvia’s managed service offerings and support levels.
• Implement and manage ITSM tooling (e.g. Jira Service Management, ServiceNow or equivalent) to support efficient service operations and reporting.
• Chair regular Service Review meetings with customers, providing performance reporting against SLAs, trend analysis, and improvement recommendations.
• Drive continual service improvement initiatives informed by incident trends, customer feedback, and operational data.
• Ensure robust Major Incident Management processes are in place, including communication protocols, post‑incident reviews, and root cause analysis.
• Own capacity and availability management, including proactive monitoring, scaling recommendations, and FinOps‑aligned resource optimisation.

People & Culture

• Build, lead, and develop the delivery and service management team, ensuring adequate capacity and capability to meet growing demand.
• Foster a culture of accountability, transparency, and continuous improvement across delivery and service functions.
• Represent the delivery and service management function at leadership level, contributing to company strategy and operational planning.

About You

You are a senior delivery and service management leader with a strong technical grounding, exceptional stakeholder presence, and a genuine passion for agile ways of working. You thrive in client‑facing roles where you can influence outcomes, lead complex programmes, and own the success of long‑term customer partnerships. You are comfortable operating in a fast‑moving, growth‑oriented environment and can adapt to evolving client needs and service models.

You’ll bring:

• A proactive, “get‑things‑done” mindset with the ability to take ownership of delivery and service outcomes and drive through ambiguity.
• Strategic thinking with execution focus – able to map business strategy to delivery plan to operational reality.
• Customer‑centric orientation: someone who prioritises client value, anticipates needs, and builds trust and long‑term partnerships.
• Collaborative leadership style with the ability to work across internal teams, influence without direct authority, and build shared ownership.
• Technical curiosity and continuous learning – staying ahead of cloud trends, platform engineering best practices, and ITSM developments.

Essential Experience

• 8+ years’ experience in delivery management, service management, or programme leadership within a technology consultancy, managed services provider, or SaaS company.
• Exemplary agile practitioner with deep, hands‑on experience across Scrum, Kanban, and scaled agile frameworks (SAFe, LeSS, or equivalent).
• Experience with IT service management functions, with comprehensive knowledge of ITIL 4 (or ITIL v3) across the service lifecycle.
• Proven ability to define, negotiate, and manage SLAs and OLAs for managed service contracts.
• Experience with Major Incident Management, post‑incident review, and root cause analysis disciplines.
• Demonstrable experience as a delivery lead on complex, multi‑workstream cloud and platform engineering engagements.
• Strong understanding of cloud‑native technologies, DevOps practices, and platform engineering concepts (Kubernetes, infrastructure‑as‑code, CI/CD).
• Proven people leadership: hiring, coaching, and developing delivery managers, service managers, and scrum masters.
• Excellent stakeholder management – confident communicating at C‑suite, technical, and operational levels.
• Experience shaping consulting engagements, including commercial awareness around statements of work, T&M, and fixed‑price delivery models.

Nice to Have

• Experience working with UK public sector clients, ideally within regulated or security‑cleared environments.
• Active SC Clearance (or previously held).
• Familiarity with FinOps practices and cloud cost optimisation.
• Experience with ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials Plus, or similar compliance frameworks.
• Certified Scrum Master (CSM), Professional Scrum Master (PSM), SAFe Agilist, or equivalent agile certifications.
• PMP, PRINCE2, or MSP qualifications.
• Hands‑on understanding of Kubernetes, container orchestration, and cloud platform architecture (AWS, Azure, GCP).
• Experience building or scaling a managed services business line from early stage.
• Experience implementing and operating ITSM tooling (ServiceNow, Jira Service Management, or similar).

Why join Appvia?

We are a self‑funded, London‑based consultancy, growing rapidly while staying true to what got us here: a human, engineering‑led culture built on trust, ownership, and getting things done. As we scale, we’re maturing as a business and expanding into new areas across platform engineering, software, data, and AI. We’re intentional about keeping our culture at the heart of it. We operate with a flat structure, agile ways of working, and a strong focus on collaboration, where good ideas come from anywhere and people are trusted to make an impact. We work alongside our customers to solve complex, real‑world problems: modernising systems, improving delivery, and building scalable platforms that enable long‑term success. If you want to be part of a team that values people as much as technology and gives you the space to grow while working on meaningful challenges, Appvia is the place to do it.

What’s on offer?

• Work‑life balance
• Flexible working with core hours of 10-4pm because we know life happens outside of work
• 25 days’ holiday a year, plus bank holidays
• An additional day off for your birthday
• Enhanced maternity and paternity to full pay
• Workplace Nursery Benefit to help working parents

For your well‑being

• Full Private Healthcare cover for you with partners and children covered
• 50% Death in Service
• Cycle to Work scheme
• Electric Car Scheme
• Pension plus a salary sacrifice option for even greater savings
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Free hygiene products available in the London office

Mental health support

• Free therapy through AXA
• Access to the Headspace App
• Trained Mental Health First Aiders

Other fun perks

• Learning budget of £1,000 a year
• Your own MacBook Pro while you work at Appvia
• Dog friendly office
• Wear what makes you comfortable
• Free snacks in the office
• Pool table & ping pong table
• Regular team socials, board game nights, industry meetups and more!

We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and actively encourage, respect, and recognise diversity of thought and background throughout the business. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to age, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, family or parental status, national origin, or veteran, neurodiversity, and disability status.