Lead Technology Programme Manager

Description:

We're looking for an experienced Lead Technology Programme Manager to take ownership of some of our largest and most complex cross-cutting technology programmes, bringing together people, priorities and plans to turn ambitious objectives into meaningful outcomes.
This is a highly visible role, working closely with our CTO, Technology Directors and senior technical leaders. You'll coordinate delivery across multiple teams, navigate competing priorities, tackle complex challenges and provide the clarity and confidence needed to keep critical programmes moving forward.
You'll be someone who can see the bigger picture without losing sight of the detail, influence without formal authority, and bring structure to complexity without creating unnecessary bureaucracy.

Your role will be to bring everything together, creating a clear picture of what needs to happen, who is responsible and how we'll get there.
You'll be responsible for:

Leading complex technology programmes: Take ownership of major cross-functional programmes, establishing clear objectives, delivery plans, milestones and measures of success, with a focus on achieving meaningful outcomes
Connecting teams and managing dependencies: Coordinate delivery across engineering, architecture, security, product and operational teams, ensuring commitments are understood, dependencies are managed and everyone is working towards shared outcomes
Navigating competing priorities: Identify capacity constraints, conflicting commitments and delivery challenges early, helping senior leaders understand the trade-offs and make informed decisions
Bringing clarity to complexity: Maintain a reliable, integrated view of programme progress, risks, dependencies and decisions, making complex information accessible and actionable
Solving problems and removing blockers: Get underneath delivery challenges, challenge assumptions and bring the right people together to resolve issues, particularly where responsibilities or priorities cross organisational boundaries
Managing risk and maintaining momentum: Anticipate potential challenges, test delivery assumptions and develop credible plans, particularly where security, regulatory or compliance deadlines cannot move
Creating effective governance: Establish proportionate programme controls, steering groups and reporting that support accountability, timely decisions and successful delivery, without slowing teams down
Influencing senior stakeholders: Provide clear, insightful updates to Technology leadership, the Executive team and boards, translating technical complexity into meaningful information about progress, risk and decisions
Strengthening our delivery approach: Work as part of our central delivery function to improve programme standards, portfolio visibility and ways of working, while recognising the specific needs of our Technology teams
Our engineering teams work largely in agile environments, using modern cloud technologies and practices. You'll be comfortable working in this way while recognising when more structured planning and governance are needed.

Requirements

We're looking for an experienced technology programme leader who combines strong delivery expertise with sound judgement, technical curiosity and the ability to build trusted relationships across an organisation.
You'll have successfully led large, complex technology programmes and be able to demonstrate not just what was delivered, but how your leadership, decisions and interventions made a difference.

We're particularly interested in your experience of:

Delivering at scale: A strong track record of leading complex technology programmes involving multiple teams, workstreams and senior stakeholders, with demonstrable outcomes
Influencing without authority: Bringing together autonomous teams with competing priorities, building alignment, resolving disagreements and driving progress without directly managing the people responsible for delivery
Working in technical environments: Enough technical understanding to work confidently with engineers, architects, security specialists and technology leaders, ask insightful questions and understand the implications of technical decisions. You don't need to have been an engineer yourself
Making difficult delivery decisions: Recognising unrealistic commitments, navigating ambiguity, managing competing demands and knowing when to challenge, intervene or escalate
Managing complex challenges: Recovering programmes that have gone off track, resolving significant dependencies or successfully delivering against fixed deadlines and external commitments
Communicating with impact: Translating complex technical information into clear, concise and compelling updates for different audiences, including Executive and board-level stakeholders
Managing risk and governance: Establishing effective programme controls, anticipating risks and using governance to enable decisions rather than create unnecessary processes
Solving problems strategically: Applying structured thinking to identify root causes, challenge established approaches and find practical solutions that improve delivery
Using delivery tools effectively: Experience with Jira or similar tools to coordinate work across teams, while maintaining a clear programme-level view of progress and priorities
Above all, you'll be proactive, collaborative and comfortable operating in ambiguity. You'll know how to build momentum when the way forward isn't obvious, ask the difficult questions when needed and balance strategic thinking with a willingness to get into the detail.
You'll also be adaptable in your approach, equally comfortable working with agile engineering teams and applying structured, milestone-based planning where the situation demands it.It would be great if you also have experience in:

Cyber security, technology resilience or business continuity programmes
Cloud, infrastructure, platform or architectural transformation
Regulatory, compliance or audit-driven technology change
Significant technology procurement or supplier partnerships
Complex programmes involving substantial organisational or operational change