Head of Professional Services

About Doherty Associates

Doherty Associates (DA) have delivered IT solutions for over 30 years to world‑renowned, international clients. Our customers operate predominantly in the professional and financial services sector, including leading private equity and top tier law firms. We are a Microsoft Solutions Partner with five designations, hold a Tier 1 Microsoft CSP relationship and are ISO27001 & ISO9001 accredited. Our services are built on the Microsoft cloud ecosystem, aligned to the NIST Cyber Security Framework, and focused on quality, security, and long‑term client outcomes.

About The Role

Reporting to the COO, the Head of Professional Services is responsible for leading and evolving the Professional Services function, owning the end‑to‑end delivery of customer projects, ensuring they meet expectations by delivering consistently, profitably, and to a high standard. This senior leadership role is accountable for delivery governance, people leadership, commercial performance, and the continuous improvement of delivery capability.

The Head of Professional Services will hold an overall accountability for two critical business functions:

• The Project Management Office (PMO) that drives consistent governance, delivery discipline, and commercial control over our project portfolio.
• The technical delivery teams responsible for designing and implementing customer IT solutions (primarily Microsoft cloud, modern workplace and core infrastructure services).

The Head of Professional Services will also hold overall accountability for solutions design, their quality, customer satisfaction, utilisation, margin performance, and the maturity of the approach to project and engineering delivery at scale.

Responsibilities

• Leadership & Culture: Be a visible, credible leader by modelling core behaviours and setting high standards for delivery excellence, both internally and externally. Build a supportive, inclusive, high‑performance culture across PMO and technical delivery, underpinned by setting clear expectations, disciplined operating routines, effective coaching, and meaningful recognition. Effectively manage the employee lifecycle processes (recruitment, onboarding, probation, absence reviews, regular one‑to‑one meetings, performance reviews, etc.) and work closely with the HR Business Partner to ensure effective, consistent, timely completion of these processes to support wellbeing and staff growth.
• Project Management Office Ownership: Own the project delivery framework and ensure it is consistently applied (stage gates, RAID, reporting cadence, change control, lessons learned). Ensure project plans, risks, dependencies, and resource assignments are well managed and visible to stakeholders. Establish and maintain a robust change control model; for larger engagements, chair and own the governance process that assesses overruns and ensures scope changes are matched with appropriate commercials. Build a predictable portfolio delivery engine, with strong project discipline, consistent artefacts, accurate status, and early escalation.
• Technical Delivery Leadership: Meet commercial and client satisfaction targets by effectively leading the technical delivery organisation and ensuring solutions are delivered effectively, securely, and to a consistently high standard. Ensure technical teams collaborate effectively with Pre‑sales, PMs and Project Coordinators, actively breaking down silos and ensuring joined‑up planning, dependency management, and customer communications. Drive standardisation and repeatability through templates, playbooks, reference architectures, and delivery patterns to improve margin and predictability. Ensure end‑to‑end delivery accountability, including robust knowledge transfer into Managed Services and effective Service Desk enablement, as well as the creation and maintenance of all required documentation and knowledge articles.
• Customer Leadership & Stakeholder Management: Act as a senior escalation point and ensure customer outcomes through clear governance, reporting, and expectation management. Serve as executive sponsor for key customers, representing DA in senior stakeholder forums and translating business needs into prioritised delivery roadmaps.
• Commercial & Operational Performance: Own end‑to‑end Professional Services performance, including profitability targets and operational success metrics. Establish and maintain reporting that shows utilisation (forecast vs actual), margin, project profitability, delivery performance, and pipeline coverage. Ensure statements of work (SOWs) accurately reflect scope, effort, skill mix, and delivery method; reduce leakage and improve estimating accuracy as services evolve. Optimise resourcing across PMO and technical delivery to balance customer demand, staff wellbeing, and financial outcomes.
• Pre‑sales Support & Service Evolution: Partner with Sales to validate delivery approaches and ensure commitments are deliverable and scalable. Assist the Pre‑sales function in creating repeatable solutions and delivery processes (including adoption of automation/AI where appropriate) to accelerate time‑to‑value. Build relationships with key partners/suppliers and help evolve the service catalogue and technical capabilities, facilitating the ability to flex resources to changing demands.

Essential Knowledge, Skills & Experience

• Proven senior leadership experience running a Professional Services function within an MSP / IT consultancy environment.
• Demonstrable commercial acumen: estimating, margin management, utilisation control, and delivery governance.
• Excellent stakeholder management and ability to operate credibly with senior customer leaders.
• Strong delivery‑method expertise (Prince2 / PMP / Agile hybrid) and ability to embed scalable processes.

Desirable

• A credible understanding of Microsoft cloud ecosystem (M365 / Azure / Modern Workplace), security/compliance considerations, and transition to operations.
• Familiarity with cybersecurity frameworks (e.g., NIST or similar) and delivery governance in regulated environments.

Qualification, Skills & Experience

• Relevant project/programme leadership certifications (e.g., PRINCE2, PMP, MSP, Agile/Scrum).
• Degree‑level education or equivalent experience.

Leadership Qualities

• Gravitas and credibility at senior/executive level; accountability for outcomes, empathy and strong coaching style, adaptability, focus on continuous improvement and predictability.
• Accountability – a sense of full responsibility for the team’s performance.
• Empathy – ability to listen to understand, support, and acknowledge challenges.
• Adaptability – ability to apply a flexible approach that allows you to pivot as necessary and respond to a fast‑changing environment.
• Focus – ability to maintain the big picture view to help steer the team and strong planning skills.
• Positivity – ability to motivate the team to achieve goals, do their best, and exceed expectations.
• Stability – a steady, reliable approach in managing deliverables, maintaining energy and focus, and striving for constant progress.
• Risk‑taking – ability to navigate through risks and make decisive judgments so that your teams can readily accept and act upon your decisions.

What We Offer In Return

• Basic salary plus performance bonus.
• 34 days of annual leave (incl. 8 UK bank holidays and a day off on your birthday).
• Enhanced family‑friendly benefit schemes including company sick pay.
• Private medical insurance and Employee Assistance Programme.
• Income protection and life insurance.
• Company Pension scheme.