Senior Project & Delivery Manager - Cloud, AI & Managed Services

Role Overview:

We are seeking an experienced Senior Project & Delivery Manager to lead complex technology projects, cloud transformation initiatives, AI-enabled operational improvement, and ongoing managed services engagements for enterprise customers across multiple industry verticals.

The role combines end-to-end project and program execution with service delivery governance, customer relationship management, financial performance, operational excellence, and team leadership.

The successful candidate will have a proven track record of managing multiple projects, workstreams, or customer engagements with varying technology stacks, delivery models, team sizes, and commercial requirements.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Project and Program Delivery:

- Own end-to-end delivery of complex IT projects, cloud migration and modernization initiatives, infrastructure transformation, cybersecurity implementations, and service onboarding.

- Manage multiple concurrent projects or workstreams, ensuring delivery against contractual scope, schedule, budget, quality, and acceptance criteria.

- Develop integrated delivery plans, resource forecasts, financial baselines, risk mitigation strategies, and governance mechanisms.

- Lead project reviews, steering committee meetings, dependency management, change control, and escalation resolution.

- Establish recovery plans for at-risk projects and drive corrective actions to successful completion.

2. Cloud Transformation and Modernization:

- Lead delivery governance for AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, hybrid cloud, multicloud, data centre migration, and infrastructure modernization engagements.

- Coordinate cloud architects, engineering teams, security specialists, operations, and third-party providers.

- Govern migration waves, workload dependencies, cutover readiness, testing, disaster recovery, security requirements, and transition into production.

- Monitor delivery risks, resource requirements, cloud implementation costs, and transformation milestones.

- Drive cloud cost optimization and FinOps initiatives in partnership with technical and finance teams.

3. AI, GenAI, AIOps and Automation:

- Identify and govern AI-enabled transformation and operational improvement initiatives across projects and managed services.

- Lead delivery of initiatives such as intelligent incident management, alert correlation, automated root-cause analysis support, GenAI knowledge assistants, service desk copilots, and workflow automation.

- Work with AI/ML, cloud, data, security, and operations teams to define delivery scope, dependencies, milestones, and acceptance criteria.

- Establish measurable benefits such as reduced manual effort, improved MTTR, lower recurring incident volumes, improved productivity, and better customer experience.

- Govern pilot-to-production readiness, testing, integration, user adoption, operational support, and benefits realization.

- Ensure appropriate oversight of data security, privacy, model accuracy, reliability, cost, and responsible AI requirements.

4. Managed Services and Service Delivery:

- Own service performance for assigned customers, accounts, or technology towers, including SLAs, KPIs, service quality, and contractual commitments.

- Monitor incidents, major problems, change execution, availability, service backlogs, capacity, and operational risks.

- Lead service reviews, customer escalations, major incident governance, root-cause analysis, and service improvement plans.

- Ensure effective transition from project delivery into steady-state managed services, including operational readiness and support ownership.

- Drive automation, standardization, proactive problem management, service analytics, and continual service improvement.

5. Customer and Executive Stakeholder Management:

- Build strong relationships with customer IT leadership, project sponsors, service owners, procurement, and business stakeholders.

- Lead customer governance, executive reviews, project steering committees, and service performance discussions.

- Manage escalations, delivery recovery, expectation setting, and stakeholder alignment.

- Communicate project health, financial exposure, delivery risks, decisions required, and improvement opportunities.

- Identify opportunities for legitimate service expansion, transformation programs, and improved customer outcomes.

6. Financial and Commercial Ownership:

- Own or govern project budgets, delivery cost forecasts, effort estimates, resource utilization, and milestone-based billing.

- Monitor service delivery economics, including cost efficiency, gross margins, forecast accuracy, and profitability within the assigned accountability.

- Review SOWs, change requests, scope variations, contractual obligations, and commercial risks.

- Partner with Sales, Presales, Finance, Procurement, and Legal teams on estimation, solution validation, delivery mobilization, renewals, and scope expansion.

- Drive productivity, automation, cloud cost optimization, and resource-efficiency improvements.

7. People Leadership and Delivery Excellence:

- Lead cross-functional project teams, service leads, technical managers, vendors, and geographically distributed delivery teams.

- Manage resource planning, capacity, utilization, skill development, and performance accountability.

- Mentor Project Managers and delivery leads, standardize governance, and improve delivery maturity.

- Drive lessons learned, automation adoption, risk management discipline, and continuous improvement across engagements.

Required Skills and Experience:

- 8 - 14 years of experience in IT services, project management, cloud delivery, infrastructure, or managed services.

- Demonstrated ownership of complex projects, multiple workstreams, or customer-facing service engagements.

- Strong experience with customer governance, escalations, risk management, project financials, and cross-functional team leadership.

- Practical understanding of cloud migration, hybrid/multi-cloud environments, infrastructure operations, and service transition.

- Experience with SLAs, KPIs, incident/problem/change management, ITSM, and service improvement.

- Exposure to AI, GenAI, AIOps, automation, or analytics initiatives, preferably including measurable business outcomes.

- Strong commercial understanding of budgets, cost control, forecasting, resource utilization, and margins.

- Excellent executive communication, negotiation, analytical, and decision-making skills.

Preferred Qualifications:

- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, IT, Computer Science, or a related field.

- PMP or PRINCE2 Practitioner certification.

- ITIL certification.

- Relevant AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud certification.

- FinOps, Agile, Scrum, or automation-related credentials where applicable.

Key Performance Indicators:

- Delivery of projects within agreed scope, schedule, budget, and quality.

- SLA/KPI achievement, operational stability, and customer satisfaction.

- Successful cloud transformation and project-to-service transition.

- Measurable benefits from AI, AIOps, automation, and service improvement.

- Financial performance, margin protection, utilization, and forecast accuracy.

- Reduction in recurring incidents, manual effort, delivery risk, and avoidable cost.

- Team capability development and sustained customer confidence.

Skills

IT Project Management, IT Program Management, Delivery Management, IT Transformation, Digital Transformation, IT Infrastructure Services, PMP, ITIL