Head of Digital Technology - Strategy Portfolio and Governance

Welcome to KFC.

Take one man with a big idea, add 11 herbs and spices, grit, ambition, and buckets of heart – you’ve got KFC.

Since 1939, we’ve been bringing finger lickin’ good chicken to the world, and today we’re proud to be in over 1000 communities across the UK & Ireland. But without our people, none of it would be possible. Just like our recipe, they’re all original.

Join us. Bring it. And together, we can be part of something truly extraordinary.

Bringing it to the role.

We are looking for a Head of Digital & Technology Strategy, Portfolio & Governance to join Team KFC and help turn our Digital & Technology ambition into clear priorities, investment choices and measurable outcomes.

Working directly with our Chief Digital & Technology Officer and as a member of the Digital & Technology Leadership Team, you'll sit at the centre of how we translate strategy into action – connecting priorities, investment, capacity, risk and performance across our technology portfolio.

You'll lead a focused team supporting our strategy, portfolio and governance agenda, alongside specialist partners, consultants and contractors as required. You'll also work across the wider Digital & Technology organisation, influencing and enabling leaders beyond your direct team.

You'll bring the insight, challenge and structure that helps us make great choices about where we invest, what we prioritise and where we need to change course. You'll create the governance, operating discipline and portfolio visibility that keeps us focused on our highest-value opportunities and ensures decisions turn into action.

You'll also help the CDTO and Leadership Team operate with focus and pace – connecting priorities across Product, Technology and Data, surfacing dependencies and trade-offs, coordinating key governance and leadership rhythms, and directing attention to the issues that matter most.

This isn't a traditional PMO role. You won't own individual product roadmaps or delivery execution – you'll enable the leaders who do, bringing together the enterprise view, challenging assumptions and helping the wider Digital & Technology organisation operate with greater clarity, pace and impact.

What you’ll do

Turn strategy into action

• Translate our Digital & Technology strategy and priorities into clear multi-year and annual plans, strategic principles, target outcomes and enterprise priorities, connecting plans across Product, Technology and Data.
• Act as a critical friend to the CDTO and Digital & Technology Leadership Team, framing options, dependencies and trade-offs and ensuring decisions translate into action.
• Enable the Digital & Technology Leadership Team to operate with focus, pace and discipline, bringing together priorities, insight and governance to support effective decision-making.
• Connect Digital & Technology strategy and governance with wider business priorities, ensuring execution remains aligned to agreed strategic direction.

Own our portfolio and investment choices

• Lead the integrated Digital & Technology portfolio and investment process, maintaining a clear enterprise view of priorities, investment, dependencies, capacity, commitments and portfolio-level roadmaps.
• Assess business cases and recommend where we should start, stop, sequence or accelerate investment based on value, risk, strategic fit, affordability and capacity.
• Ensure scarce funding and leadership attention remain focused on the highest-value opportunities, while individual product roadmaps remain owned by Product and Technology leaders.
• Use portfolio insight to identify where priorities, resources or investment need to be redirected as circumstances change.

Orchestrate the leadership agenda and operating rhythm

• Enable the CDTO and Leadership Team to operate effectively through strong planning, orchestration, governance agendas, decision follow-through and Digital & Technology calendar management.
• Connect issues across team and functional boundaries and direct leadership attention to the most consequential topics.
• Coordinate the planning and organisation of franchise days, Digital & Technology Leadership Team offsites, wider Digital & Technology offsites, and vendor and partner days.
• Create the structure and discipline needed to ensure key decisions are followed through and commitments remain visible.

Create strong governance, performance and risk discipline

• Design and run the Digital & Technology governance framework, operating cadence, decision forums and portfolio controls, with clear decision rights and escalation paths.
• Maintain clear portfolio KPIs, risk and dependency views, delivery confidence and executive reporting, providing leaders with the insight needed to intervene early.
• Partner with Technology, Information Security, Legal, Risk and other control functions to ensure material strategic, operational, supplier and investment risks are understood, owned, mitigated and escalated appropriately.
• Surface material issues early and maintain governance discipline without duplicating day-to-day delivery management.

Lead financial and commercial insight

• Lead annual planning, budget construction, rolling forecasts and in-year financial performance for the Digital & Technology portfolio, working closely with Finance Business Partners and budget owners.
• Provide clear visibility of CapEx and OpEx, commitments, variances and scenarios, surfacing corrective actions early.
• Give the CDTO Leadership Team a single, decision-ready view of spend, outlook and financial choices.
• Own the quality of portfolio financial insight, business cases and investment recommendations, escalating material variance, control or overspend risks early.

Plan capacity, organisation and strategic partners

• Maintain an enterprise view of demand versus capacity across Digital & Technology teams and strategic partners.
• Work closely with HR / People & Culture and Procurement Business Partners on workforce, capability, sourcing and partner choices.
• Ensure portfolio commitments are realistic and that resources can be flexed at pace as priorities change.
• Bring capacity, capability and partner considerations into investment and portfolio decisions.

Make sure our investments deliver

• Establish a consistent approach to defining, baselining and tracking the benefits expected from Digital & Technology investment.
• Ensure named business owners, measures and accountability are in place for major investments.
• Compare realised value with approved business cases and challenge where expected benefits are not materialising.
• Recommend corrective action, re-scoping or stopping work where value, risk, capacity or strategic fit no longer support continued investment.

About You

• A strategic thinker who can turn complexity and ambiguity into clear choices and action.
• Commercially and financially minded, with strong judgement around value, affordability, risk, opportunity cost and investment trade-offs.
• Comfortable operating with senior executives and influencing decisions without relying on formal authority.
• A confident critical friend who can challenge assumptions, priorities and risk while building alignment.
• Highly analytical, but equally able to turn complex information into a simple, compelling and decision-ready narrative.
• Able to see across a broad portfolio, connect the dots and focus leadership attention on what matters most.
• Comfortable moving between strategic thinking and practical coordination and orchestration in a fast-moving environment.
• Collaborative, resilient and highly organised, with the pace, discretion and discipline to manage competing priorities and drive effective follow-through.
• Able to work effectively across functions outside Digital & Technology and build alignment across competing objectives.

Experience

Required

• Typically 10+ years' experience in technology / digital strategy, portfolio management, governance, transformation, enterprise PMO, technology finance or strategy consulting, including substantial experience operating with executive leadership and complex, multi-year investment portfolios.
• Proven track record of investment prioritisation, business-case challenge, financial planning, governance, risk management and performance management, with evidence of redirecting resources based on value, risk and capacity.
• Strong experience of working across complex Digital & Technology environments and bringing together multiple priorities, dependencies and stakeholders into an integrated portfolio view.

Preferred

• Experience in consumer-facing retail, restaurants, franchise or other high-volume digital environments.
• Experience working in product-led / agile technology operating models.

Knowledge & expertise

• Expert knowledge of technology strategy enablement, portfolio and investment management, governance frameworks, business cases and benefits realisation, financial management including CapEx / OpEx, performance management, capacity planning, strategic risk, controls and dependency management.
• Broad understanding of modern Digital & Technology environments across Product, Engineering, Architecture, Data, Cyber, Infrastructure and vendor ecosystems, with enough breadth to integrate and challenge decisions at portfolio and governance level without owning individual product roadmaps or delivery execution.

Education / qualifications

• Degree or equivalent professional experience preferred.
• MBA desirable.
• Relevant postgraduate, strategy, portfolio / programme, finance, risk or business qualifications advantageous

Buckets of Benefits

A career with KFC offers much more than just fantastic earning potential. We reward achievement with amazing incentives and benefits, including:

with our Restaurant Support Centre located in Woking, Surrey – a 24-minute train ride from London Waterloo. Depending on job requirement, travel across the UK & Ireland may be required.

• Generous pension with up to 11% company contribution.
• ‘Fri-Yay’ time – finish up at 1pm every Friday, all year round.
• Live Well Days - 5 days per year to disconnect from our day-to-day (in addition to 25 days annual leave and bank holidays).

o You can buy or sell up to 5 extra days of your core annual leave allowance each year.

o After 5 years’ service, annual holiday allowance increases to 30 days.

• Bonus – We work hard and do our best work to succeed together. When the company and individual goals are reached, you’ll be rewarded through our bonus scheme.
• Wellness– We want you to be your best self, so you’ll have access to lots of wellbeing initiatives and programmes, including Telus Health, and 1:1 Mental Health coaching sessions with our partner Sanctus.
• Private healthcare, including access to Digital GP, with the option to increase to include family cover.

o Flexible and Voluntary benefits including Dental Insurance, Health Screening and Gym Discounts.

• Insurances – All colleagues are covered by our life and income protection insurance which provides protection and peace of mind.
• Study Support may be available for job-related qualifications.
• Parental Leave – We offer enhanced paid leave and flexible return to work options for those important times.
• Colleague Discount – If you love KFC as much as we do, you’ll received a 25% discount.

Ready to apply?

Don’t tick all the boxes? Don’t worry. If you don’t match all the criteria for the role and still think you’d be a great fit, we’d love to hear from you.