Head of Project Management / Head of PMO (f/m/d)

Purpose of Position

We are seeking a Head of Project Management to lead a globally distributed team of project management professionals responsible for delivering the strategic portfolio that powers Awin’s business objectives. You will directly lead the Senior Project Managers & Lead Program Manager, while overseeing the broader Project Manager and Project Operations functions.

Reporting to the VP of Corporate Development & Strategy, you will operate at the intersection of strategy, business, and technology, with accountability extending well beyond people leadership. You will oversee the strategic portfolio delivery, drive the company-wide goal-setting framework, and lead executive and shareholder reporting cycles. As a trusted advisor to senior leadership, you will bring clarity to ambiguity and translate strategic priorities to well-defined, executable programs and measurable outcomes.

Day-to-day, you act as the central connector across teams, driving alignment, influencing decision-making, prioritising resources, and removing blockers to execution. You will take a value-first mindset ensuring project success is measured not only by execution metrics, but by achievement of strategic, product, and commercial outcomes.

As a leader, you position the PMO as a centre of excellence, continuously evolving its capabilities to meet the changing needs of the business. Through an “always on” coaching approach, you will develop team capabilities and foster empowerment, continuous improvement, and learn-by-doing. You will maintain a strong understanding of Awin’s customers, technology landscape, and business model, using these insights to challenge thinking, shape priorities, and guide strategic decisions.

Key Tasks

• Own the PMO portfolio, including the project intake process. Ensure initiatives are prioritised, sequenced, and resourced in alignment with company strategy, business value, and capacity.
• Lead the shaping and mobilisation of strategic initiatives, defining the early structure, scope and execution approach required for Project Managers to effectively operationalise and deliver.
• Own the executive reporting cycle, including the preparation of C-level updates, Supervisory Board materials, and strategic portfolio communications.
• Drive thoughtful and innovative use of AI to evolve the PMO function, reducing low-value work to increase focus on strategic thinking and value creation while maintaining strong critical thinking and human judgement.
• Lead, coach, and develop the Lead Program Manager and Senior Project Managers; partner with the Lead Program Manager to support the growth of the (Junior) Project and Operations Managers.
• Define and manage portfolio decision pathways, ensuring authority at the right level. Support escalation partnered with recommendations that blend data, subject-matter expertise and experience.
• Monitor portfolio-wide signals to proactively anticipate risk, ensuing timely escalation and mitigation actions aligned with the appropriate leaders, teams, and resources.
• Be a partner to senior leadership, applying independent, system-thinking to challenge assumptions, identify trade-offs, and advocate for what is right for the portfolio as a whole.
• Partner with the VP of Corporate Development & Strategy to lead the annual OKR planning process, ensuring organisational goals align with and are delivered through the strategic portfolio.
• Evolve the PMO strategy, ensuring it’s embedded into day-to-day operations and continuously drives towards a value-driven culture centered on knowledge sharing and continuous improvement.

Skills & Expertise 

• 7+ years’ experience in Project or Program Management, including 3+ years in a people leadership role within a remote or hybrid digital environment. Experience leading people leaders and multi-layered teams is highly desirable.
• Deep, generalist project and program management experience across business and technology environments, applying pragmatic Agile, Waterfall, and hybrid delivery approaches. Able to operate credibly across multiple domains, translating between teams to drive alignment and execution.
• Project Management certification (PMP, PRINCE2, or equivalent) or relevant degree with applied knowledge of governance, portfolio prioritisation, dependency management, and resource optimisation.
• Experience using AI with an innovative mindset that’s focused on finding smarter ways of working, challenging PMO norms and reducing low-value work whilst preserving deeply human-first project leadership.
• High comfort in ambiguity, with tried and true practices that translate strategic intent into clear, executable approaches and operating structures.
• Strong systems-thinking capability, with the ability to see beyond portfolio boundaries to identify, manage, and mitigate cross-organisational dependencies and risks.
• High executive presence, with the ability to challenge assumptions, surface trade-offs, and influence senior stakeholders through uncertainty using sound judgement and strategic thinking.
• Outstanding executive communication skills, with the ability to synthesise complex data, insights, and context into concise, impactful, and visually compelling narratives.
• Adaptable and resilient when leading through change, maintaining focus, morale, and delivery momentum during periods of complexity, uncertainty, and transformation.
• Excels at context switching, seamlessly moving across strategic, operational, and people-focused topics, and between remote and in-person environments.
• Coaching-oriented leadership style that models psychological safety, inclusivity, diversity of thought, open feedback, and exemplary levels of accountability and ownership.
• Proficient in MS Office; experience with project management tools such as Asana is desirable.
• Fluent in written and spoken English.

You won't have all those skills. You won't have all that experience. But perfect is the enemy of good enough. If you think your skills and experience are a good fit for the role we describe, we'd love to hear from you. 

Our Offer

• Flexi-Week: We prioritise your mental health and wellbeing by offering you a four-day Flexi-Week (with one lighter or completely disconnected day per week) at full pay, with no reduction to your annual holiday allowance.
• Flexi-office: We offer an international culture and flexibility through our hybrid/remote working scheme which is designed to foster a culture of mutual trust and working flexibility.
• Work Expense Contribution & Remote Working Furniture: You will receive a monthly allowance to cover part of your running costs, as well as a furniture package to support you in setting up a comfortable workspace when working from home.
• Health and Wellbeing: With our support and access to various initiatives and sports offers, you can focus on your mental and physical wellbeing.
• Development: We’ve built our extensive training suite, Awin Academy, to cover a wide range of skills that support your professional and personal growth, with trainings conveniently packaged to help your overall development.
• Appreciation: Thank and reward colleagues by sending them a voucher through our peer-to-peer recognition programme.

Established in 2000, Awin is proud of our dynamic, social and inclusive culture.

Like all businesses, we’ve had to adapt and nurture our culture in a virtual environment. Our virtual ‘Life @ Awin’ hub brings our colleagues from across the globe together for various social activities.

Diversity & Inclusion are paramount to us, and we proudly pursue and hire diverse team members. We champion uniqueness and authenticity; this is who we are at our core. Our network of affiliate partnerships are diverse and transparent, as are the employees powering our vision to build the world’s leading open partner ecosystem. We welcome all backgrounds, identities, and experiences. If you need support at any point in the application or interview process, please let us know.

Awin is part of the Axel Springer group. Learn more at axelspringer.com/en/, and explore the Axel Springer Essentials here: axelspringer.com/en/inside/the-essentials-what-we-have-adapted-and-why  

Apply now to begin the next stage of your career at a progressive company that supports both your professional and personal development.