Delivery Platform Lead

Sand Technologies is a fast-growing enterprise AI company that solves real-world problems for large blue-chip companies and governments worldwide.

We're pioneers of meaningful AI: our solutions go far beyond chatbots. We are using data and AI to solve the world's biggest issues in telecommunications, sustainable water management, energy, healthcare, climate change, smart cities, and other areas that have a real impact on the world. For example, our AI systems help to manage the water supply for the entire city of London. We created the AI algorithms that enabled the 7th largest telecommunications company in the world to plan its network in 300 cities in record time. And we built a digital healthcare system that enables 30m people in a country to get world-class healthcare despite a shortage of doctors.

We've grown our revenues by over 500% in the last 12 months while winning prestigious scientific and industry awards for our cutting-edge technology. We're underpinned by over 300 engineers and scientists working across Africa, Europe, the UK and the US.

About the role

The Flo Platform Delivery Lead plays a pivotal role in ensuring the seamless execution and iterative delivery of the Flo Platform strategy. The Delivery Lead owns the overall delivery quality and makes sure the delivered parts of the platform fit together coherently. They are the steward of technical excellence, innovation, reliability, coherence, and scalability, ensuring the platform grows in a robust and secure manner.

If this role is performed well, the Flo Platform will deliver strategic value across the organization:

1. People and Teams using the platform feel empowered and more productive, and use regularly to make smart data-informed decisions.
2. Strategic leaders and stakeholders have access to accurate platform success metrics and contribute to its roadmap direction.
3. The Platform team operates as a single coherent team, with delivery in purpose-driven squads that are aligned to the platform goals.

To achieve these outcomes, the person in this role collaborates directly with the Platform Product Lead and Platform Compliance Lead to align platform delivery with organizational goals and regulatory requirements, ensuring a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and collaboration. The person should be seen as a technical thought leader amongst the squad leaders and the Keystone teams.

Specific Responsibilities

Strategic Planning & Execution

1. Collaborate with the Product Leader and Compliance Leader to align trimester-based roadmaps with platform goals, funding streams, and regulatory requirements.
2. Prioritize and sequence platform initiatives to maximize value while maintaining platform reliability and coherence.
3. Support squads in translating high-level objectives into actionable delivery plans, balancing innovation with operational feasibility.
4. Own Delivery Risk across all squads, proactively identifying and resolving challenges to maintain delivery momentum.
5. Facilitate risk mitigation strategies, ensuring squads deliver value consistently and sustainably.
6. Follow transparent frameworks for reporting on risks, delivery progress, and cross-squad dependencies.
7. Understanding AI and data risks.

Squad Enablement & Support

1. Create an environment where squads are empowered to make decisions within their scope while staying aligned with the platform strategy.
2. Foster a culture of collaboration, accountability, and continuous improvement within squads, ensuring clarity of purpose.
3. Clear blockers and operational challenges, enabling squads to remain focused and productive.

Stakeholder Collaboration

1. Act as a trusted liaison between squads, the Product Leader, Compliance Leader, and other stakeholders, ensuring alignment without creating bottlenecks.
2. Facilitate cross-team communication to address dependencies and maintain a unified platform strategy.
3. Share regular updates with stakeholders, providing insight into progress, challenges, and opportunities for improvement.

Operational Excellence

1. Driving technical excellence throughout the squads, ultimately accountable for "building the set of platform services right."
2. Technical orchestration of the platform services.
3. Accountable for delivering the eco-systems and technology stacks we choose to leverage.
4. Advocate for agile principles and scalable delivery practices, tailoring approaches to the Flo Platform's unique needs.
5. Monitor and optimize squad performance, identifying opportunities for efficiency and better outcomes.
6. Drive the adoption of sustainable delivery practices and tools that enhance long-term success.

Requirements

Experience

1. Proven track record in technical delivery leadership within platform, AI/ML, or enterprise technology environments.
2. Experience fostering collaboration between product, compliance, and technical teams to align on strategic goals.
3. Demonstrated ability to lead effectively in dynamic, fast-scaling organizations.
4. Delivering AI applications in multiple client environments.

Skills

1. Exceptional risk management and mitigation abilities, with a focus on supporting squads to overcome challenges.
2. Strong interpersonal and communication skills, with proven influence across diverse stakeholders.
3. Deep understanding of evolutionary architecture, agile methodologies, and platform design principles.
4. Deep understanding of emerging AI, data, and cloud technologies and the eco-systems to deliver them in.
5. Proven ability to prioritize competing demands in a rapidly changing environment.

Leadership Skills

1. Ability to influence without authority and unite stakeholders around a shared vision.
2. A servant-leadership mindset that prioritizes enabling teams to succeed.

Education

1. Bachelor's degree in a relevant field (e.g., Computer Science, Engineering, Business) or equivalent experience.
2. Advanced certifications in agile, program management, or delivery leadership are advantageous.

Personal Attributes

1. Courage: Willingness to speak up, challenge the status quo, and embrace new challenges.
2. Humility: Openness to learning, seeking help when needed, and a focus on serving others.
3. Adventure: A passion for setting ambitious goals, tackling difficult tasks, and finding joy in the journey.
4. Initiative: Proactive problem-solving, a sense of ownership, and a willingness to go above and beyond.
5. Resilience: The ability to bounce back from setbacks, persevere through challenges, and emerge stronger.

Due to the considerable amount of virtual work and interaction with colleagues and customers in different physical locations internationally, it is essential that the successful applicant has the drive and ethic to succeed in working in small teams physically but in larger efforts virtually. Self-drive to communicate constantly using web collaboration and video conferencing is essential.

If you're excited about the opportunity to lead technical excellence in AI-driven platforms and work on groundbreaking solutions that impact millions of lives, we'd love to hear from you! Join Sand Technologies and be part of a team shaping the future with meaningful AI.