Head of Professional Services
PFH Technology Group
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Benefits offered by this job
Job summary
PFH Technology Group is seeking a Head of Professional Services to lead a 20-strong team across five practice domains in a Dublin/Hybrid setting covering Ireland and the UK. The role reports to the Director of Delivery and focuses on technical governance, delivery quality, and strategic development of the PS practice.
The ideal candidate will bring a delivery background with strong commercial acumen, and a proven ability to scale a professional services organisation while maintaining technical
Qualifications
- Over 10 years in IT professional services, technology consulting, or managed services.
- Proven track record managing a technical team of 10+ people with development and wellbeing accountability.
- Hands-on delivery background across at least two PFH practice domains with credibility across others.
- Experience owning or contributing to a practice P&L, utilisation, or commercial opportunities within accounts.
Responsibilities
- Lead across five practice domains with governance and architectural integrity.
- Own practice P&L, utilisation targets (75–80%), and commercial terms for PS engagements.
- Develop people: mentors, career paths, performance reviews, and succession planning.
- Define and execute the practice capability roadmap, vendor partnerships, and reusable IP.
- Oversee delivery governance and ensure smooth handover from pre-sales to delivery.
Skills
Job description
PFH Technology are looking for a Head of Professional Services to join our growing team.
Department: Professional Services
Reporting to: Director of Delivery
Location: Dublin/Hybrid, Ireland & UK
Contract: Permanent, full time
Team Size: 20 direct or functional reports across 5 practice areas
Travel: Moderate - client visits/vendor events/UK practice activity
PFH Technology Group is one of Ireland's leading technology services companies, delivering end-to-end ICT solutions across Modern Infrastructure, Networking, Cybersecurity, Digital Workspace, Managed Services, and Professional Services. We operate across Irish and UK markets, partnering with enterprise and public sector organisations to design, deliver, and manage complex technology environments.
Key clients include HSE, Gas Networks Ireland, Cork County Council, Vodafone, and a growing roster of enterprise accounts. The Professional Services practice is a revenue-generating profit centre at the heart of PFH's growth strategy, having grown from €3.5m to €6.5m over three years and targeting €12m+ over the next 24–36 months.
The Head of Professional Services provides the technical leadership, commercial governance, and people management layer that PFH's PS practice requires to operate at scale. This role is accountable for the 20-person team of engineers, consultants, and architects that sits beneath the Director of Delivery — a population that currently spans five distinct practice domains and delivers the majority of PFH's professional services revenue.
This is not a project manager role. It is not a senior consultant role with a management title attached. The Head of PS owns the health, performance, and direction of the practice as a whole — from how work is won and resourced, to how it is delivered and quality‑assured, to how the people within it are developed and retained. The successful candidate will have come from a delivery background and still hold the technical credibility to lead a senior engineering and architecture population, while operating with the commercial awareness of a practice P&L owner.
PFH's PS practice has doubled in three years. The next phase of growth – is to double in size again - cannot be led by a Director of Delivery who is simultaneously accountable for 20 technical direct reports, programme governance, field operations, managed services, and board-level strategy. The Head of PS role creates the management infrastructure that scale requires - technical governance, utilisation discipline, career architecture, and practice identity. This is the most important hire in the Delivery Organisation's current growth phase.
The Head of PS has functional leadership across five practice domains. Each domain is led at a senior technical level by Principal Consultants or Lead Architects, who are themselves direct or functional reports to the Head of PS. The Head of PS is responsible for the coherence, quality, and commercial performance of all five practices as a unified portfolio.
Server, storage, HCI, virtualisation (VMware, Hyper-V), SAN/NAS design and migration; data centre transformation and consolidation projects
4–5
SD‑WAN, firewall architecture (Cisco FTD/FMC, Fortinet), Azure vWAN, network design, ExpressRoute, cybersecurity overlay and secure access
4–5
Modern Workplace, M365, Teams, Intune, Entra ID, Azure AD, Copilot readiness, Microsoft security stack; Inforcer multi‑tenant management
4–5
Azure architecture, cloud migration, IaaS/PaaS design, hybrid connectivity, cloud governance frameworks, FinOps discipline
3–4
EUC strategy and design, VDI, device management, digital employee experience; bridge between PS and EUC Field Operations
3–4
- Own the technical standards, delivery quality and architectural integrity of all five practice domains.
- Establish and maintain a practice governance framework: peer review, solution assurance, design authority sign‑off on complex or high‑value engagements.
- Act as the escalation point for technical decisions across practices — the person consultants and architects come to when a problem requires collaboration.
- Drive cross‑practice collaboration: identify where multi‑domain engagements (e.g. Network + Cloud + Security) require orchestrated delivery and ensure the right people are coordinating.
- Represent PFH's PS capability in pre‑sales and solution design discussions alongside Sales and Solutions Architecture.
- Own the practice P&L contribution: revenue, gross margin, and utilisation performance across all 20 PS FTEs.
- Maintain billable utilisation at target (75–80%) through active pipeline visibility, intelligent resourcing, and bench management — not reactive firefighting.
- Work closely with the Head of PMO and Client Value Director to ensure PS resources are allocated against the right engagements at the right time and at the right commercial terms.
- Identify and develop the commercial opportunity within the existing client base — where does current PS work create the opening for expanded scope, deeper advisory, or new service lines?
- Contribute to the annual operating plan: headcount forecasting, day rate strategy, practice‑level revenue targets, and investment requirements.
- Provide direct line management to senior consultants, architects, and practice leads; ensure all 20 PS FTEs have a clear manager, a development plan, and a career trajectory.
- Define and own the PS competency and grade framework: what does a Grade 1 Engineer look like vs a Grade 4 Principal? What does progression require? What does excellent look like at each level?
- Build the talent pipeline: identify high‑potential engineers, create stretch opportunities, and proactively develop the next generation of Consultants and Architects before you need them.
- Partner with the Director of Delivery on annual talent reviews, performance management, and succession planning.
- Lead the PS practice culture: create an environment where technical excellence is recognised, continuous learning is expected, and people feel they belong to something with a direction.
- Own the practice capability roadmap: which certifications, which vendor partnerships, which technical domains need investment over the next 12–24 months?
- Drive vendor relationship management at a practice level — Cisco, Microsoft, Fortinet, VMware, and others — ensuring PFH maintains and advances its partner status and deal registration position.
- Develop reusable IP: solution templates, architecture patterns, delivery playbooks, and knowledge assets that reduce delivery risk and improve consistency across engagements.
- Identify new service line opportunities — where is the market moving, and where should PFH be positioning its PS capability ahead of demand?
- Oversee the quality of practice‑level documentation, SOWs, and technical proposals — not writing them all, but ensuring the standard is consistently high.
- Maintain visibility across all active PS engagements: not to manage individual projects (that is the PMO's role) but to spot delivery risk, resource strain, or quality issues before they become client problems.
- Participate in delivery governance alongside the Head of PMO — providing the technical lens to complement the programme management lens.
- Support the Client Value Director in evidencing and communicating the value of PS delivery to key account clients.
- Ensure smooth handover from pre‑sales and solution design into delivery — scope is understood, resources are confirmed, and the client's expectations are aligned with what PFH has agreed to deliver.
- 10+ years in IT professional services, technology consulting, or managed services — with a meaningful portion in a senior technical or delivery leadership role.
- Proven track record managing a technical team of 10 or more people, with accountability for their performance, development, and wellbeing.
- Hands‑on delivery background across at least two of the five PFH practice domains — depth in one, credibility across others.
- Demonstrated commercial awareness: experience owning or contributing to a practice P&L, managing utilisation, or developing the commercial opportunity within an account base.
- Experience operating in a multi‑practice or multi‑discipline professional services environment — able to see the portfolio, not just individual engagements.
- Track record of developing people — promoting from within, building competency frameworks, creating career pathways for technical professionals.
The Head of PS does not need to be an expert across all five practices. They do need to be deeply credible in at least one or two, and broadly conversant across the rest. Specifically:
Working knowledge of server, storage, and virtualisation architectures; able to review and challenge design decisions at a senior level.
Solid understanding of enterprise networking and security architecture; able to engage credibly with senior network and security architects.
Familiarity with the Microsoft stack and modern workplace landscape; able to sponsor and support the practice without being its lead technologist.
Understanding of Azure architecture principles and cloud migration patterns; able to support practice positioning and quality assurance.
Awareness of Virtual Desktop environments and associated services. The interface between PS and field operations; understands the commercial and delivery model differences.
Thinks about the practice as a whole — its direction, its capability, its reputation — not just the project in front of them.
Understands how PS revenue and margin is built, protected, and grown; not afraid of a financial conversation.
Genuinely interested in developing others; coaches rather than directs; creates career visibility for their team.
Able to communicate technical matters to non‑technical stakeholders and commercial matters to technical teams; adapts style.
Understands what good delivery governance looks like; can spot when something is going wrong before it becomes visible to the client.
Experienced working with major technology vendors; understands the commercial dynamics of partner programmes and deal registration.
- Relevant vendor certifications across one or more of the PFH practice domains (Cisco, Microsoft, Fortinet, VMware, or equivalent).
- Formal project or programme management qualification (PRINCE2, PMP, MSP) — a plus but not a substitute for delivery experience.
- Experience in a PS practice within a value‑added reseller (VAR) or managed services provider (MSP) environment.
- Familiarity with PSA tooling, resource management, and utilisation reporting in a professional services context.
- Security/governance certifications relevant to the security and cloud practices.
- A senior leadership role with genuine autonomy to shape the direction and culture of a growing PS practice.
- Direct reporting line to the Director of Delivery — a trusted senior peer relationship with strategic visibility.
- A practice on a clearly defined trajectory with the commercial momentum and client portfolio to make that credible.
- Significant vendor partnerships across DELL, HPE, VMware, Citrix, Microsoft, Fortinet, Palo Alto, and others — with access to partner programmes, technical communities, and accreditation pathways.
- A team of technically strong engineers, consultants, and architects who want to be led well — the culture is already positive; this role accelerates it.
- Competitive remuneration, commensurate with the scope and seniority of the role, including performance‑related elements.
- Support for ongoing professional development: technical certifications, leadership development, and industry engagement.
- Hybrid working model with a Dublin base, flexibility in day‑to‑day working, and a team that operates across Ireland and the UK.
You started in delivery. You know what it's like to be on‑site with a client at 6pm trying to make something work. That credibility is still with you, and the people you'll lead will feel it.
But you've moved beyond individual delivery. You've started thinking about the team — how they're performing, where they're going, what they need to get better. You find yourself more interested in the question of why someone is struggling than in fixing the problem yourself. You've started building things: processes, frameworks, standards. You've seen what happens when a PS practice doesn't have a strong technical leader, and you know you can do it better.
You're commercially aware without being commercially driven. You understand that utilisation matters, that margin protects investment, that a well‑run practice is a profitable one — but you lead with quality and people, and the numbers follow.
You communicate well across levels. Your team trusts you technically. Your peers respect your commercial judgment. Your clients feel like they're dealing with someone who takes their problems seriously.
This role is being created because the practice has grown to the point where it needs its own leader. That means you will be, to a meaningful extent, defining the role as you go — building the framework, setting the standards, establishing the rhythm. If you need everything to be defined before you start, this isn't the right move. If you're energised by the opportunity to build something, it might be exactly right.
PFH Technology, owned by Ricoh - a Japanese based global ICT company, is a premier provider of end‑to‑end ICT solutions and a managed services portfolio scaling from SMEs to large Enterprise organisations. We have unrivalled vendor relationships. We can procure, design, deploy and support all your ICT needs. Our ISO certified Custodian Cloud Services and Custodian Managed Services provide the technology and expertise to mitigate risk and reduce your costs immediately. We have a nationwide network of over 750 dedicated professionals, ready to meet your ICT needs, with offices in Dublin, Cork and Galway.
We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at PFH. We do not discriminate on the basis of age, disability, civil or family status, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, race, religion, or any other legally protected status.
We are committed to ensuring that individuals with disabilities or access needs are provided with reasonable accommodation during the recruitment process, to perform essential job functions, and to access the full benefits of employment. Please contact us if you require accommodation at any stage.
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