How to hire a Fractional Head of Delivery

A Head of Delivery isn't a senior project manager. They design the systems and practices that make delivery predictable across your whole engineering organisation.

If you just need someone to manage a project, hire a project manager. If you need someone to fix why projects keep failing, you need delivery leadership.

Be wary of anyone who leads with methodology. "I'll implement SAFe" or "We need to do Scrum properly" are red flags. Good delivery leaders are pragmatic. They know several frameworks and build the lightest system that works for your team's size and stage.

Ask candidates what they'd do in their first two weeks. A good answer involves a lot of listening and watching before any framework gets introduced.

The best fractional delivery leaders build up your team so it doesn't depend on them.

Ask how they make sure the delivery improvements stick after they leave. Look for answers about coaching, documentation, and gradually handing ownership to your team leads.

Delivery challenges at a 5-person startup are completely different from delivery challenges at a 50-person scale-up.

Make sure your fractional delivery leader has relevant experience at your team size and stage. Someone who's only worked with large enterprise teams may over-engineer solutions for a small startup.

Before engaging a fractional Head of Delivery, agree on what improvement means for your company. It might be more predictable timelines, faster cycle times, better stakeholder communication or fewer production incidents.

Having clear metrics helps both sides stay aligned and know when the engagement is succeeding.