Strategy Director

Description Harmony is on a mission to be the best life safety partner to work with and for. Rated an “Outstanding Employer” by Best Companies in 2026, we are only getting bigger and stronger, and we’re looking for A-players to help us get there.

Department: Executive Employment Type: Full Time Location: London Description Harmony is on a mission to be the best life safety partner to work with and for. Rated an “Outstanding Employer” by Best Companies in 2026, we are only getting bigger and stronger, and we’re looking for A-players to help us get there. We are passionate about making a difference and obsessed with quality. Our goal is to build a world where every resident can sleep safely at night, knowing their home is 100% safe. Founded in 2016, Harmony Fire is a life safety consultancy with in-house construction, part of the Poyntington Holdings group alongside Auro Technology and Solidcor. With 250+ people across four UK regions, we specialise in housing, healthcare and education and partner with more than 80% of UK Housing Associations. As Strategy Director, you will lead our Strategy & Consultancy function and turn consultancy engagements into lifetime clients who take our full range of services. Reporting to the CRO, you will be the senior strategic authority on the Harmony Life Guard Framework, taking clients from first engagement through Discovery, Strategic Requirements, Strategy Development and Investment Plan sign-off, through to handover into Design & Construction. You will work with housing and healthcare property portfolios ranging from 100 to 3,000 blocks, turning ad hoc building safety risk problems into pragmatic, proportionate and defensible plans. Using a progressive approach that trades off accuracy, cost and time, you will help clients understand their risk to life, prosecution, reputation, finances and compliance, where that risk sits across their organisation, whether they are prioritising the right decisions, and whether their plan is working. You will also dig into asset management plans and Housing Revenue Account spend to make sure funding sticks through delivery. This is a senior client-facing role. You will lead director-level meetings, present to client boards and executive sponsors, and bring large groups of siloed stakeholders together to surface their real needs and agree simple next steps. Working closely with Client Relationships and Consultancy, you will lead the understanding of risk and the plan to reduce it, feeding into (but not leading) sales strategy, with the aim of converting consultancy work into large multi-year design and build contracts. Internally, you will matrix-manage a multidisciplinary team of Pre-Construction Managers, Strategy Associates, Fire Engineering Consultants and subject matter experts, forecasting resource twelve months ahead of need. You will also professionalise the Life Guard Framework, our Blackbox and prototype tools, using AI and technology to accelerate effectiveness, and contribute to strategic initiatives including the Risk Pro dashboard, Auro Prism and a recognised certification standard for life safety. The role is UK-wide, with travel to client sites.

Key Responsibilities

• Act as the senior authority on the Life Guard Framework across Phases 1 to 3, ensuring every output meets the standard required for client approval and contract progression.
• Own each client engagement from Discovery through Strategic Requirements, Strategy Development and Investment Plan sign-off, maintaining a clear strategic narrative for every account.
• Move clients from inaction to a defensible plan, sequencing remediation into a prioritised, phased, multi-year programme rather than a scattergun list of actions.
• Champion the diagnostic “MRI scan” approach as the evidence base for decisions, giving clients genuine intelligence rather than overstating risk or telling them what they want to hear.
• Lead discovery workshops, stakeholder interviews, building surveys and fire policy gap analysis, and present findings to client boards, executive sponsors and procurement teams.
• Develop fire strategies by building archetype with clear risk, cost and programme trade-offs, and lead delivery procurement and package appraisals.
• Deliver fully costed, risk-prioritised 5 to 15 year Fire Safety Investment Plans, including SLAs, social value plans and resident engagement strategies.
• Manage the handover from Consultancy to Design & Construction and secure the professional services contract for the next phase.
• Lead, mentor and performance-manage a multidisciplinary team across multiple concurrent client accounts, and build the business case for resource, headcount and hire-by dates ahead of demand.
• Ensure professional services contracts are correctly scoped, priced and executed, and elevate commercial risks and scope changes early.
• Apply rigorous Go/No-Go governance at every stage gate, with evidence-based recommendations to the leadership team.
• Ensure compliance with the Building Safety Act 2022, Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 and relevant British Standards, and embed golden thread data from day one.
• Assure the quality and competence of the supply chain and consultant base.
• Develop and professionalise the Life Guard Framework, Blackbox and supporting tools, using AI and technology to drive effectiveness, and feed into Risk Pro, Auro Prism and new product development.

Skills, Knowledge & Expertise

• Senior leadership experience in a strategy, consultancy or pre-construction role within building safety, fire safety, housing, healthcare or the built environment.
• Strong working knowledge of the Building Safety Act 2022, Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, golden thread requirements and relevant British Standards.
• Experience of master planning risk, cost and programme across large, multi-site property portfolios.
• Understanding of housing sector funding, asset management plans and the Housing Revenue Account.
• Confidence engaging at board and director level, presenting complex findings clearly and securing sign-off.
• Excellent facilitation skills, with the ability to bring siloed stakeholders together, understand how clients make decisions and move them towards a practical next step.
• A pragmatic, non-dogmatic mindset that finds the right route rather than the traditional technical one.
• Proven ability to build and lead high-performing, multidisciplinary teams and forecast resource well ahead of need.
• Commercial acumen, including scoping and pricing professional services and managing P&L and headcount cases.
• Experience of procurement strategy and delivery model appraisal.
• Appetite for using AI and technology to improve methodology and efficiency.
• The A-player behaviours we expect: extreme ownership, grit, customer obsession, and the honesty to say the negatives.
• Willingness to travel across the UK to client sites.

Job Benefits

This is a rare opportunity to lead the strategy function for one of the most significant building safety remediation programmes in the UK, at a business that is genuinely shaping how the country addresses its fire safety obligations. At Harmony, we ask a lot — and we give a lot back. The hours are real, the standards are high and the work is demanding, but for those who show up, deliver and go the extra mile, the rewards follow. A-players here enjoy a competitive salary, a Personal Development Plan with leadership mentoring and ongoing training, unlimited holiday, a performance bonus tied to framework milestones and commercial outcomes, private medical insurance, enhanced maternity and paternity, lunch, snacks and refreshments on us every day (fresh fruit and Takeaway Friday included), a team social budget, cycle to work, an auto-enrolment pension, two major company events a year and our Reward and Recognition scheme — including European mini-breaks for those who go above and beyond. It is a collaborative, high-energy environment focused on doing things the right way — and none of it is a perk for showing up; it’s what we share with the people pulling the business forward.

Harmony is an equal opportunity employer. We consider all applicants for employment regardless of age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, family or parental status, race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief. We want everyone who works with us to feel valued and to make a difference.

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