Introducing our new Head of Delivery, Jamie Leven
Meet Jamie Leven, Definia’s new Head of Delivery, who joined the team in March 2026. With a career spanning geo-political risk, digital, management consulting and fintech, Jamie brings a sharp, cross-sector perspective to leading complex transformation programmes.
Marketing Manager Alice Hankin caught up with him to find out what shapes his thinking on delivery, AI and the early warning signs that most teams miss.
Welcome to Definia! Can you tell us more about yourself and your professional background?
My career has taken seen a variety of project and programme management roles across a blend of organisations including geo-political risk consultancy, a digital agency, a management consultancy and a FinTech, and that breadth of experience has shaped how I approach delivery.
More recently, my focus has shifted towards driving operational excellence and improved ways of working across organisations, including project-to-product transformation and AI adoption. I’m equally comfortable with structured delivery frameworks and fast-moving agile environments, and more often than not, the best results come from knowing how to blend both.
What drives me is keeping delivery grounded in real business value. That means working closely with stakeholders at every level and making sure that what we’re delivering is still aligned to the outcomes that actually matter.
What are you doing in this new role at Definia, and how do you help clients?
I lead our Delivery team, which means I’m accountable for the quality and consistency of service across all of our client engagements — whether that’s managed service, advisory or full programme delivery.
In practice, that covers how we shape engagements, making sure the right people are on the right work, implementing best-practice frameworks and providing the support the team needs to ensure our clients meet their intended outcomes.
You’ve worked across both structured and fast-moving, agile environments — there’s a lot of noise about which is better. What’s your view?
For me, there is no ‘better’ option. Both approaches offer real opportunities and genuine drawbacks, and every organisation needs to determine what works best for them given their context, their culture and what they’re trying to achieve. The methodology is a vehicle — it doesn’t steer itself.
What the most successful programmes I’ve been part of have in common is this: a well-articulated strategy with clear outcomes and scope; an appropriate, understood decision-making framework; and empowered teams, fully aligned to programme goals, working collaboratively with the right communication channels in place.
Strip the programme back to its core — why are we doing this, what are we trying to achieve, what are the genuine requirements — and both waterfall and agile can be highly effective.
How is AI changing the way programmes are delivered?
If applied properly, AI can free up significant time to focus on the work that only a human can do: building relationships, making decisions, solving problems, navigating programme politics.
At Definia, we’re increasingly exploring how to make that a reality. The organisations that will move fastest aren’t necessarily those adopting the most tools — they’re the ones that are focused in their approach: selecting the right tools, deploying them with appropriate governance and applying the right level of change management to drive effective adoption.
Programmes go off track all the time — what are the early warning signs that most organisations miss, and what do you do when you spot them?
They’re often subtler than people expect. A gradual decline in communication, meeting engagement or attendance. Teams beginning to work in silos, quietly hiding friction rather than surfacing it. Milestones shifting incrementally without changing the final launch date — or worse, scope creep starting to appear.
When those signals show up, the best response is immediate and transparent: a focused programme health check, honest conversations with the team and reliable data to re-align leadership. The goal is to decisively re-scope before a minor drift becomes a major disaster.
Interested in how Definia approaches programme delivery? Get in touch with Jamie Leven and the team to find out how we can support your next transformation.
