Client Delivery Manager

Purpose of the Role

The Client Delivery Manager is the single point of accountability for the delivery of a major enterprise software platform to a large utility client. The role owns the client relationship day-to-day, drives contractual milestones through to formal acceptance, and protects both the delivery schedule and the commercial terms of the contract.

This is a governance and relationship role, not an engineering one. The postholder works in partnership with CTO and  with a Product Manager who owns scope definition, and with Business Development Director who owns the commercial relationship above the project.

Key Responsibilities

Client Relationship

• Act as the client's primary point of contact for all delivery matters.
• Run the weekly status meeting and issue the written status report and action log.
• Maintain and actively manage the client stakeholder map - control centre engineers, IT, procurement, and the executive sponsor.
• Escalate early and in writing. No issue should reach the company first from the client's side.

Delivery Governance

• Own the master schedule and drive it against contractual milestones.
• Maintain the RAID log (risks, assumptions, issues, dependencies) and review it weekly with the delivery team.
• Coordinate FAT, SAT, UAT, training, and go-live readiness in partnership with the Technical Delivery Lead.
• Chair the bi-weekly steering committee with both executive sponsors.

Commercial Protection

• Drive milestone acceptance sign-offs, which are the contractual triggers for invoicing.
• Enforce change control: no scope moves without a documented, priced, and signed change request.
• Flag margin risk, schedule slippage, and dependency failures to the Delivery Director before they translate into cost.
• Support Business Development on change order pricing and expansion opportunities.

Internal Coordination

• Translate client requirements and complaints into work the engineering team can consume.
• Interface with the Product Manager on scope definition and backlog priority, protecting the product roadmap from unmanaged client-specific demands.
• Direct the Project Coordinator on documentation, minutes, trackers, and the invoicing pack.
• Shield the engineering team from unmanaged client interruption.

Post Go-Live

• Transition the account into support and SLA governance.
• Identify follow-on work and hand qualified opportunities to Business Development.

Requirements

Essential

• Bachelor's degree in engineering, computer science, or a related field.
• Seven or more years in delivery or project management of enterprise software for large organisations.
• Demonstrated experience delivering to Egyptian utility, government, or state-owned clients - including procurement culture, approval chains, and formal correspondence.
• Track record of owning contractual milestones through to client acceptance and payment.
• Strong technical literacy: able to read architecture diagrams, interrogate estimates, and recognise when an engineering explanation does not hold.
• Fluent Arabic and English, including formal written reporting (French or German is a plus).

Desirable

• Exposure to SCADA, EMS, ADMS, or OT environments in any capacity.
• Familiarity with utility control centre operations.
• PMP, PRINCE2, or an equivalent project management qualification.
• Prior experience working with transmission or distribution utilities.

Attributes

• Comfortable being the person who says no to the client.
• Writes clearly and often - the paper trail is part of the job.
• Curious about the technical domain without wanting to do the technical work.

Success Measures - First 12 Months

• Milestone acceptance sign-offs obtained on or ahead of contractual dates.
• Collections achieved against invoiced milestones.
• Zero unpriced scope delivered.
• Client escalations resolved at project level rather than escalated to executive level.
• Steering committee cadence maintained without slippage.