Head of Professional Services

Job Title: Head of Professional Services

Location: Hybrid - Reading or Leeds Area

Salary: Competitive

Job Type: Permanent – Full Time

• Are you the manager who makes sure the right people are on the right work at the right time – every time?
• Have you led and developed technical teams in a matrix, owning the people and the plan while others set the technical direction?
• Can you hold a shifting picture of capacity across multiple practices and keep it calm, clear and under control?

If yes, then let’s get to the important stuff!

As Head of Professional Services, you will own the delivery engine that sits behind every practice at TIEVA. This is the role that makes sure the right people are doing the right work at the right time – so our technical leaders can add value in their domains, and our engineers can build.

You will own line management, workload, planning and organisation for the consultants and engineers who deliver across the business. Work is scheduled sensibly, capacity is understood, conflicts get resolved, and every person you manage is supported, developed and clear on what they are doing. The output is a delivery engine that runs smoothly and people who are genuinely looked after.

You will operate in a matrix. You are the direct line manager for your people – their 1:1s, development, performance and wellbeing sit with you. Technical leadership sits with our Practice Technical Leads and Principal Cloud Architect, and Solution Scoping sits with the Head of Pre-Sales, your peer in delivery. You will make sure the team are delivering, are organised, available and not overloaded, partnering closely with leaders so direction and delivery stay aligned.

The newest challenge you will take on is our Solution Architect population, who work as a hybrid between Pre-Sales and Professional Services. They flex across both worlds depending on demand, which makes their scheduling the hardest in the business. Holding that balance – keeping pre-sales responsive without starving delivery, and vice versa – is a core part of the role, and the clearest example of the matrix you will run.

The Candidate

Line Management

• Act as the direct line manager for consultants and engineers across the practices – 1:1s, objectives, performance reviews, career development and wellbeing all sit with you.
• Handle the people side end to end – absence, conduct, onboarding, induction and HR matters, partnering with HR where needed.
• Be the consistent point of management your people go to – the person who knows what they are working on, how they are doing, and what they need next.
• Hold development conversations focused on the person’s growth, drawing on the Technical Leads and Principal for the technical view of their progression.

Workload and Resource Management

• Own workload management for the teams across all practices – who is on which engagement or piece of work, and when.
• Run the resourcing process so engineers and consultants receive work through a managed plan, not ad hoc direct requests.
• Collaborate with the Project Management Office to balance project and non-project work – they own the portfolio, governance and plans, you own the people and their capacity, and together you make the schedule work.
• Resolve capacity conflicts – when two demands compete for the same person, you make the call and re-plan in partnership with the relevant technical or commercial lead.
• Protect focus time and sensible booking discipline so technical teams are not fragmented across too many concurrent demands.
• Manage the Solution Architects’ split between pre-sales and professional services – the trickiest scheduling balance in the business, keeping both motions served without either being starved.

Planning and Organisation

• Maintain a clear, forward view of capacity, utilisation and upcoming demand across every practice.
• Forecast resourcing needs against the project and pre-sales pipeline, flagging gaps and pinch points before they bite.
• Track utilisation and bench time, balancing billable demand against available capacity.
• Coordinate the operating rhythm – booking discipline, intake of new demand, and the cadence that keeps work flowing predictably.
• Provide planning and utilisation reporting to the CTO and to the technical and commercial leaders who depend on your people’s availability.

Partnering Across the Matrix

• Practice Technical Leads and the Principal Cloud Architect – they set technical direction and own quality; you make sure the people delivering it are organised, available and developing, and you surface where capacity puts delivery at risk.
• Head of Pre-Sales – your peer. They own Solution Scoping; you coordinate the availability of consultants, engineers and Solution Architects to support it, and protect delivery capacity from being quietly eroded.
• Project Management Office – a key collaborator. They own the project portfolio, governance and plans; together you agree what gets booked and resolve where project and non-project work compete for the same people.
• Coordinators – you work hand in hand with the coordination function, enforcing the operating model and keeping scheduling clean.
• CTO – your reporting line. You give a clear, honest picture of capacity, utilisation, team health and delivery risk across the practices.

Required Skills & Experience

• Proven line management experience – a track record of managing, developing and retaining technical people such as consultants or engineers.
• Strong resource, capacity or delivery management experience in a services, MSP, consultancy or professional services environment.
• Comfortable operating in a matrix – managing people whose technical direction is set by someone else, without friction.
• Excellent planning and organisation – able to hold a complex, shifting picture of who is doing what across multiple teams and keep it under control.
• Confident resolving conflict – competing demands, over-allocation and difficult prioritisation calls, worked through with your peers to land amicable solutions.
• Strong stakeholder management – credible with technical leaders, commercial leaders and senior leadership alike.
• A clear, calm communicator – the kind of manager people trust and go to.

Desirable Skills & Experience

• Background in an IT services, MSP or cloud consultancy environment – familiarity with how technical delivery, PMO and pre-sales actually interact.
• Experience managing or scheduling hybrid roles that flex across pre-sales and delivery, such as Solution Architects or overlay resource.
• Exposure to a PSA or resource management platform such as ConnectWise, Autotask or similar.
• Familiarity with utilisation, capacity and forecasting reporting.

Qualifications / Accreditations

• People management or leadership qualification – ILM, CMI or equivalent (desirable).
• Willingness to pursue further relevant professional development.

Who We’re Looking For

• People-first – genuinely invested in the development and wellbeing of the people you manage.
• Organised – calm under a shifting set of demands, and able to keep the plan clear when others cannot.
• Decisive – makes the prioritisation call when two demands compete, and re-plans without drama.
• Boundary-aware – comfortable owning the people and the plan while leaving technical direction to those who own it.
• Collaborative – builds strong, trusting partnerships with technical and commercial leaders.

What you’ll get in return

As an Investors In People Platinum organisation, we pride ourselves on providing the highest quality experience for our people.

Financial

• Life Insurance
• Pension
• Car allowance(subject to role)
• £1,000 refer a friend bonus
• Generous uncapped commission scheme(sales role)
• Profit share bonus scheme(non-sales, subject to T&C’s)
• Will writing contribution
• Long Service Awards(financial and time rewards)
• Electric Car Scheme(salary sacrifice)
• Cycle to Work

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