Practice Lead - Project Management and PMO

Job Purpose

Own and lead Avec's Project Management and PMO practice, ensuring effective delivery across a large and diverse ICT consulting portfolio while improving practice consistency, quality, commercial performance and delivery governance.

This is a hands-on senior operator role. The Practice Lead will manage and develop Avec's Project Managers, own the PM/PMO methodology, support sales and solution shaping, govern the active portfolio and personally lead billable delivery work where required.

Role context

• Portfolio scale: Avec currently manages around 150 active projects across agile, waterfall and hybrid delivery models, ranging from short multi-week engagements to multi-million-dollar, multi-year programs.
• Practice ownership: The role takes over the Project Management and PMO practice responsibilities previously held by the Director of Delivery, enabling broader delivery leadership and business growth.
• Adjacent practice influence: The role will influence cross-practice delivery across Business Analysis, Testing, Enterprise Applications and Transformation, Data and AI, Cyber and other delivery capabilities where project outcomes require coordinated delivery.
• Role split: The expected split is approximately 50% billable delivery, 40% practice leadership and governance, and 10% sales and business development support.

Key responsibilities

• Practice leadership: Lead, manage, coach and develop Avec's Project Managers, including line management, performance reviews, utilisation, capability uplift, mentoring and assignment input.
• Portfolio governance: Run daily portfolio checks, project health checks, utilisation reviews, PM community forums and monthly practice reporting across the project portfolio.
• Delivery consistency: Improve consistency in PPM usage, RAID management, project controls, reporting, governance rhythms, delivery artefacts and portfolio data quality.
• Methodology ownership: Own the Project Management and PMO methodology for Avec and drive practical implementation across agile, waterfall and hybrid engagements.
• Practice improvement: Recommend improvements to tools, templates, governance, reporting and delivery controls, then implement agreed changes with Director of Delivery approval.
• Billable delivery: Personally lead project management, program management, PMO establishment, advisory work, troubled project recovery or governance uplift assignments as required.
• Troubled project intervention: Identify delivery risk early, intervene at the right level of detail and support recovery of at-risk or troubled projects.
• Client engagement: Chair or support client steering committees where required and interact confidently with executives, CIOs, Program Directors and senior client sponsors.
• Commercial management: Own practice P&L contribution, utilisation, forecasting, project budgets, pricing support, timesheet discipline, revenue recognition and margin awareness.
• Sales support: Support the Director of Delivery, account leads and sales teams with solution shaping, estimating, pricing, proposal content, commercial review and client presentations.
• AI-enabled delivery: Lead the practical embedding of AI into project delivery ways of working, including reporting, RAID, estimation, assurance, portfolio analysis and productivity use cases.
• Hiring and capability: Lead hiring and interviewing for new Project Managers and contribute to the ongoing development of Avec's PM capability model.

Key deliverables

• Portfolio governance cadence: Daily portfolio checks, project health checks, utilisation review, PM community of practice and monthly practice reporting.
• Practice reporting: Clear reporting across portfolio, program, project, resource, commercial and delivery quality lenses.
• Delivery improvement roadmap: A prioritised set of improvements covering PPM consistency, RAID discipline, reporting quality, project controls and practical AI adoption.
• Practice financial view: Accurate utilisation, forecast, project budget, revenue recognition, margin and P&L contribution inputs.
• Reusable practice assets: Improved templates, playbooks, governance artefacts, slide decks and delivery tools that support repeatable, high-quality delivery.
• Client-facing material: Clear proposal inputs, executive presentations, steering committee packs and delivery artefacts suitable for senior client stakeholders.

• Consulting experience: 10+ years' experience in ICT consulting, project delivery, program delivery or PMO leadership, with prior consulting or professional services experience strongly preferred.
• People leadership: Experience leading teams of at least 10 people, ideally across a project management, PMO, delivery or consulting practice environment.
• Portfolio delivery: Strong practical experience managing large mixed portfolios across agile, waterfall and hybrid delivery models.
• Commercial delivery: Experience with fixed-price, outcomes-based or at-risk delivery, including estimating, pricing, project finance, budget control and commercial review.
• Practice finance: Strong financial acumen, including practice P&L, utilisation, forecasting, timesheet discipline, revenue recognition and project margin management.
• Client interaction: Credibility interacting with senior client stakeholders, including executives, CIOs, Program Directors and client sponsors.
• Formal qualifications: Relevant certifications such as PMP, PRINCE2, AgilePM, Scrum Master, MSP, SAFe or equivalent are highly regarded but not mandatory.

Core competencies

• Hands-on ownership: Operates as a doer and builder, not a governance-only manager. Will personally run projects, prepare materials, fix issues and improve practice assets.
• Commercial judgement: Understands how consulting businesses make money and balances client outcomes, quality, utilisation, margin and delivery risk.
• Delivery discipline: Strong planning, scheduling, RAID, governance, reporting, financial control, estimation and delivery assurance discipline.
• Leadership and coaching: Builds capability, gives clear direction, coaches Project Managers and creates an engaged, high-performing PM community.
• Executive communication: Communicates clearly, directly and with commercial awareness in written materials, presentations and senior stakeholder forums.
• Continuous improvement: Improves ways of working through pragmatic tools, reusable assets, better data, practical governance and measurable adoption.
• AI mindset: Technically inclined and preferably AI savvy, with genuine interest in reshaping project delivery in an AI-enabled world.

• 'AVEC Anywhere' - work from anywhere in the world for 2 weeks/year!
• ‘AVEC Time Out’ – 6x extra leave days a year for resting, learning and growing
• Award-winning workplace culture
• Industry leading parental leave policy
• Extremely attractive and competitive bonus scheme
• Annual 'TALENTFEST' conferences
• Equity program (everyone gets a piece of the pie!)
• Global mobility
• Opportunities for development and career progression

Apply now and be part of our journey at AVEC.