Head of Product & Delivery

Role Overview

Head of Product & Delivery at BlackStone eIT. This strategic leadership role oversees the entire product lifecycle, from ideation to launch and ongoing improvement, while ensuring efficient delivery and high-quality outcomes across product development and delivery teams.

Company Overview

BlackStone eIT is a technology organization with a Data & AI Office managing multiple concurrent product and delivery workstreams.

Role Purpose

Lead product development and delivery teams to align product strategy with business goals, foster cross-functional collaboration, and drive innovation to meet customer needs while maintaining delivery excellence and quality outcomes.

Key Responsibilities

Strategy & Product Development

• Develop and execute product strategies that align with company objectives and market demands.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to define product roadmaps, priorities, and success metrics.
• Establish and monitor KPIs to assess product and delivery team effectiveness.

Leadership & Team Management

• Lead and manage the product and delivery teams, providing vision, motivation, and support.
• Build and mentor high-performing teams.
• Manage resource allocation and budgeting to maximize efficiency and outcomes.
• Oversee contractor onboarding, work package definition, daily task allocation, and quality review.

Programme & Project Delivery

• Oversee programme delivery across all active workstreams: executive portal, data platform, governance, AI agents, and crisis management systems.
• Oversee project delivery processes to ensure timely, high-quality product releases.
• Execute sprint planning, backlog management, Definition of Done, mid-sprint check-ins, and sprint reviews with live demos.
• Implement best practices in Agile and other delivery methodologies to optimize performance.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives to enhance product quality and customer satisfaction.

Stakeholder & Vendor Management

• Maintain strong communication across departments, fostering a collaborative and innovative culture.
• Coordinate with external vendors: track classification vendor milestones against integration needs and agentic platform delivery against data readiness timelines.
• Deliver milestone reports to senior leadership and weekly status updates.
• Conduct requirements conversations with internal business owners.
• Represent the Data & AI Office at all levels when technical leadership is unavailable.

Scope & Risk Management

• Decide what gets cut when time is at risk, deferring gracefully and tracking deferred work.
• Maintain scope discipline and identify risks before they become blockers.
• Maintain a cleared backlog that proceeds when external dependencies are slow.
• Identify and escalate risks, understanding the difference between a delay and a blocker.

User Acceptance Testing

• Design and facilitate UAT with non-technical end users and senior leadership.

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Business, Computer Science, Engineering, or related field.
• Minimum 10+ years of experience in product management and delivery leadership roles.
• Proven track record of successfully managing product portfolios and delivery teams.
• Experience operating as a deputy or chief of staff to a technical executive.
• Experience in government, sovereign, or institutional environments is a strong plus.

Skills & Competencies

• Strong knowledge and experience with Agile methodologies and software development lifecycles.
• Excellent leadership and people management skills.
• Exceptional strategic thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making abilities.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, including at C-suite level.
• Technical fluency: can read an OpenAPI spec, evaluate engineering estimates, identify scope creep, and challenge complexity claims.
• Shipped working software to real users under a hard deadline and owned the outcome.
• Agile/sprint delivery in small engineering teams (2–8 people) producing working output.
• Vendor management: has managed external delivery engagements and held vendors accountable to milestones.
• Writing functional requirements with testable acceptance criteria.
• UAT design and facilitation for non-technical executives.
• Stakeholder communication at C-suite level: can write a one-page status note that senior leadership reads and trusts.
• Programme management across multiple concurrent workstreams (3–5 simultaneous).
• Task tracking tools: GitHub Projects, Linear, Jira.
• Experience with project management tools and product management platforms.
• Ability to manage multiple projects and priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Experience in the technology or software industry is highly preferred.

Additional Information

• Paid Time Off
• Performance Bonus
• Remote Job