Head of Strategic Programme Management Office (SPMO)

Job description

Head of Strategic Programme Management Office (SPMO) Gerrards Cross Do you want to help shape software that affects thousands of lives? Who are we? We are ranked as the UK’s #1 construction specific software player and our mission is simple; to provide market leading end-to-end software solutions to the construction and construction like industries across the entire build life cycle. If you are looking to build an exceptional career with an award-winning company you’ve come to the right place. Our teams are based in the UK, Europe, and India, working on products that are used on a global scale. We have a clear and defined road map to deliver over the next 3 years, which is centred around a large-scale digital transformation as well as continuing our growth and expansion. We embrace diversity and equality and want our employees to be comfortable bringing their whole selves to work. We are committed to building a team with a variety of backgrounds, skills and views. Creating a culture of Equality isn’t just the right thing to do, it improves every aspect of our business. Purpose The Head of the Strategic Programme Management Office (SPMO) is accountable for enabling, governing, and scaling Causeway’s transition to an AI-native operating model, whilst maintaining delivery excellence and strategic accountability. This is simultaneously a delivery governance role and a transformation leadership role. The SPMO ensures that every mechanism, process, and decision point serves two purposes: it must drive better outcomes and accelerate the shift to how we work as an AI-native organisation. The postholder will challenge governance that merely adds friction, and design frameworks that embed AI-first thinking into how Causeway defines, prioritises, and executes strategic work. The guiding principle remains: if governance does not influence an outcome, we do not need it. But in an AI native environment, that principle takes on new meaning. Governance must enable rapid experimentation, support teams operating with AI copilots and agents, and manage the human change required to work differently at hypergrowth. Key Responsibilities Strategic Leadership & Governance • Define and own the SPMO operating model, ensuring governance is outcome-focused, proportionate, and agile – and explicitly designed to support AI-native delivery patterns. • Champion outcome-focused governance, regularly challenging and removing process that adds friction without value, especially as teams operate at increased velocity with AI tools. • Act as a trusted adviser to the Executive and senior leadership on portfolio health, risks, priorities, and dependencies, with particular attention to transformation and change readiness in an AI-first context. • Provide clear, accurate, and timely representation of the current state of the portfolio to inform strategic decision-making, using leading indicators of project health relevant to AI-augmented teams. Portfolio Oversight & AI-Native Reporting • Establish and maintain a consolidated view of all in-flight projects, including status, risk, resource, and financial position, with visibility into how AI tools are changing team velocity and resource requirements. • Design reporting frameworks that surface learning velocity, experimentation cadence, and model/product health metrics – not just traditional stage gates and burn-down charts. • Lead regular portfolio reviews and governance forums, ensuring decisions are tracked and actions are executed, with governance models that scale as the organisation grows. Governance for Experimentation & AI-First Delivery • Own and continuously improve the SPMO front door process to reflect AI-native delivery patterns: rapid small experiments, learning gates (not just kill decisions), and proportionate governance based on project uncertainty. • Define and manage SLAs for project approvals and governance sign-off that support rather than inhibit the velocity benefits of AI-augmented teams. • Work with teams to establish success metrics for AI-native projects, including AI-specific risks (bias, hallucinations, model drift, data quality) and governance frameworks to manage them. • Design and implement governance frameworks that encourage and support rapid iteration, not traditional stage gates that become blockers in an AI-first context. Transformation Leadership & Change Management • Lead the human change management programme supporting Causeway’s shift to AI-native ways of working. This is not a technology programme – it is a people change that touches every role and mindset. • Partner with the CPO and CTO to design capability-building programmes: what does it mean to work AI native, what skills shift, and how do we upskill and support people who are anxious about AI adoption. • Communicate the why and how of AI-first transformation to all levels of the organisation. Governance decisions must be framed within this transformation narrative. • Identify and manage early warning signals of transformation fatigue or resistance, and act on them. Hypergrowth plus major change carries a burnout risk if not actively managed. Stakeholder Engagement • Build trusted relationships with Portfolio Leaders, Heads of Department, and senior stakeholders, with particular attention to how AI adoption is affecting their teams and their confidence in transformation. • Conduct structured discovery with key stakeholders to establish baseline governance, agree reporting cadence, and identify change risks early. • Act as a visible and credible leader, representing the SPMO with confidence at all levels and articulating the governance / transformation link clearly. Team Leadership & Capability • Lead, develop, and inspire the SPMO team, fostering a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and delivery focus. • Build SPMO capability in AI-native delivery, governance, reporting, and stakeholder management. This team needs to understand both traditional and emerging delivery models. • Set clear expectations, objectives, and development plans for direct reports, with particular emphasis on building AI fluency and transformation leadership capabilities. Continuous Improvement • Identify and implement improvements to delivery and governance practices on an ongoing basis, recognising that AI-native models are still evolving and require continuous learning. • Stay current with industry best practice in programme management, governance, and AI-native delivery. Causeway should be leading, not following. • Lead post-project reviews and lessons-learned exercises, capturing insight and ensuring transformation learning is shared across the organisation. Key Skills, Experience and Qualifications Essential • Significant experience leading a PMO, SPMO, or equivalent governance function in a technology-driven organisation undergoing rapid growth or transformation. • Proven track record of delivering portfolio-level governance and reporting at pace in complex, fast moving environments. • Demonstrable experience building and owning intake / front door processes with SLAs, accountability frameworks, and proportionate governance. • Experience engaging and influencing at senior leadership and executive level, with credibility to challenge and advise leaders respectfully. • Hands-on experience conducting portfolio discovery, establishing governance baselines, and reconciling reporting across multiple teams from a standing start. • Strong understanding of both waterfall and agile delivery methodologies, and willingness to learn emerging AI-native patterns. • Experience leading significant organisational change or transformation programmes and supporting teams through major change. • Exceptional communication skills: able to translate complex portfolio data into clear, actionable insight for senior audiences, and explain AI-first thinking in ways that resonate across the organisation. • Strong analytical mindset: ability to spot patterns, risks, and dependencies across a broad portfolio, and to identify early warning signals of transformation resistance or change fatigue. • Ability to challenge constructively and hold stakeholders to account in a professional and collaborative manner, particularly when governance is becoming friction rather than value. • Highly organised, with the ability to manage multiple competing priorities without losing sight of detail or the strategic transformation narrative. • Confident facilitator and presenter, able to engage senior leadership and teams at all levels with equal credibility. • AI literacy: comfortable discussing how AI tools and models affect delivery, teams, and organisational capability, and intellectually curious about emerging patterns. • Degree-level education or equivalent professional experience. • PRINCE2 Practitioner, MSP, PgMP, or equivalent programme management qualification. Desirable • Experience in a SaaS, cloud, or infrastructure-led technology business, particularly one scaling rapidly. • Familiarity with how AI tools and models are changing delivery velocity, team composition, resource allocation, and project success metrics. • Exposure to strategic transformation programmes (e.g. CE+ or similar) or company-wide technology changes. • Experience operating in a shared resource model, balancing BAU and strategic delivery workloads at scale. • Exposure to AI/ML concepts and how they change project governance, risk management, and team capabilities. • Agile / Scrum certification (SAFe, AgilePM, Kanban, or equivalent). • ITIL Foundation or above. • MoP (Management of Portfolios) certification or knowledge of portfolio governance frameworks. • Formal training or demonstrated fluency in organisational change management / transformation leadership. • Understanding of AI/ML concepts and their impact on delivery and team capabilities (no deep technical depth required; intellectual curiosity and fluency are sufficient). Our Values We are United . As part of a team, we’re better together. We are Agile . Be the change, we’re on a journey. We are Trusted . Do the right thing, we own this. We are Driven . Get stuck in, we make it happen. Benefits As a leader in employee engagement and people management, there are fantastic benefits and rewards at Causeway. We strive, year on year, to achieve recognition as an award-winning workplace that our employees love. We’ve selected just a few of the many benefits available below to show you how we take care of our Causeway stars. 25 days annual leave + public holidays, increasing with length of service. 4% matched pension. Income protection and life assurance. Access to our award-winning benefits platform. We take mental health seriously and have a dedicated EAP available 24/7. £100 allowance towards a fitness club. Dell discounts. Private Medical Insurance. Paid study leave + volunteering days. Car Scheme. Like all responsible companies Causeway is aware of the need to recognise the importance of protecting our environment and addressing the climate emergency. Causeway is a carbon neutral company and we offset our calculated carbon footprint. However, we recognise that offsetting is not a permanent solution, so we set environmental objectives to reduce our footprint year-on-year.