Head of PMO & Delivery Operations

About the role

AppliedAI builds and deploys Opus, an enterprise AI workflow automation and agentic process orchestration platform, serving government, financial services and healthcare clients. Its Solutions Delivery team covers sales handover through to day-to-day operations, and is growing across the UAE, the US and Malaysia. The Head of PMO & Delivery Operations reports to the VP of AI Solutions Delivery and owns both project management (PM career track and portfolio governance) and delivery operations (standards, SOW creation, utilisation, PSA tooling, quality reviews and the governance pack). The role is on site in Abu Dhabi.

Key responsibilities

• Define and enforce the delivery lifecycle: stage gates, rebaselining rules, change control, RAID and escalation paths, and own the RACI across PMO, practice leads and regional delivery leads.
• Run the portfolio cadence: weekly RAG review, monthly portfolio review with the VP, and quarterly business reviews for key accounts, keeping one source of truth for project status, financials and resourcing in Precursive.
• Own the bid and SOW review gate, including bid/no-bid decisions, estimation standards, rate card compliance and sign-off before any SOW leaves the building.
• Forecast demand versus capacity across UAE, US and Malaysia, apply allocation and capacity caps, and partner with practice leads on resourcing and handover from pre-sales.
• Build PM and Project Specialist career paths, set hiring rubrics, onboarding standards and certification plans, and coach PMs on client management and commercial awareness.
• Own CSAT follow-up and recovery plans for at-risk accounts and act as senior escalation point for delivery issues.
• Evolve playbooks, templates and dashboards, run a PMO improvement forum, introduce automation and AI tooling, and prepare the delivery model for partner-led delivery.

Required profile

• 12+ years in project or programme delivery, including at least 5 years leading a PMO or delivery function in professional services, SaaS or technology consulting.
• Track record running a multi-project portfolio with real P&L, margin and utilisation accountability.
• Ability to scale governance frameworks and reporting cadences as the business grows.
• Experience leading distributed teams across time zones and strong executive and client-facing communication.
• PMP, PgMP or equivalent certification.
• Strongly preferred: AI, automation or data platform implementation delivery; Agile and hybrid certifications (SAFe, PMI-ACP); GCC market or regulated-sector experience; experience scaling delivery through partners.

Required skills

• Hands-on experience with a PSA platform such as Precursive, a Salesforce-based PSA, or equivalent.
• PMP or PgMP certification.

What we offer

• Career growth and professional development opportunities.
• 21 days of paid annual leave.
• Comprehensive private health insurance.
• Visa sponsorship for international candidates.