| Detail | For this role |
|---|---|
| Department | Information Technology |
| Level | Senior management |
| Reports to | Chief Operating Officer |
| Direct reports | Delivery Manager, IT Program Manager, Application Support Manager |
| Experience | 18+ years in IT services delivery, with 6 or more years running a multi-account portfolio |
Head of Delivery job description template
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Job title: Head of Delivery
Department: Information Technology
Reports to: Chief Operating Officer
Location: [City], [office, branch or site]
About the role
The Head of Delivery runs every client project and account that an IT services company has in execution. They own delivery margins, resource utilization, SLAs and client satisfaction across the portfolio, and they are the last escalation point before a client complaint reaches the CEO. The role sits in the leadership team and manages delivery and program managers. A good Head of Delivery keeps projects profitable and on schedule, spots troubled accounts early and keeps a bench that can staff the next deal quickly.
Key responsibilities
- Review the health of every active account each week: schedule, budget, margin, staffing gaps, open risks and client sentiment.
- Approve staffing plans for new deals and decide which people move from the bench or other projects to fill them.
- Track utilization and bench size by skill, and give talent acquisition early notice of hiring needs from the sales pipeline.
- Own the delivery margin for each account and act on revenue leakage such as unbilled effort, fixed-price overruns and unapproved scope.
- Take personal charge of red accounts: meet the client, agree a recovery plan and review it weekly until the account turns green.
- Set delivery governance, including status report formats, steering committee cadence, quality gates, estimation standards and project closure reviews.
- Review estimates and commercial terms of large proposals with presales and sales before they go to the client.
- Run quarterly business reviews with key clients and bring back feedback on quality, staffing and new opportunities.
- Manage delivery managers, approve their account decisions within delegated limits and develop successors for key accounts.
- Report delivery revenue, margin, utilization and client satisfaction to the leadership team every month.
Requirements
- B.E. or B.Tech, MCA or an equivalent degree
- MBA is an advantage
- PMP or PgMP certification is an advantage
- 18+ years in IT services delivery, with 6 or more years running a multi-account portfolio
KRAs and KPIs for a Head of Delivery
Key result areas for the appraisal form, each with a KPI you can measure every month or quarter.
| Key result area | How to measure it |
|---|---|
| Delivery margin | Gross margin of each account at or above the margin approved when the deal was signed |
| Utilization | Billable utilization within the company's target band each month, with anyone on the bench over 60 days reviewed weekly |
| Client satisfaction | Score of 4 or more out of 5 in every quarterly survey from key accounts |
| On-time delivery | At least 90 percent of milestones delivered on or before the contracted date |
| Account recovery | Red accounts back to green within one quarter of the recovery plan |
| Revenue leakage | Unbilled effort and unapproved scope below 2 percent of monthly delivery revenue |
Skills and tools
Tools used day to day: Jira or Azure DevOps, Resource management tool or Excel, Timesheet system, Power BI or Excel dashboards, Salesforce or another CRM, Microsoft Teams or Zoom.
Reporting line and career path
Next roles: Chief Operating Officer, Business Head, Senior Vice President
Interview questions for a Head of Delivery
- A fixed-price project is 40 percent over effort with two months left. Walk me through your recovery plan.
- How do you decide between releasing bench staff and holding them for a deal in the pipeline?
- What does your weekly delivery review cover, and which numbers do you look at first?
- A key client's CIO calls you directly to complain about a delivery manager. How do you respond?
- How do you reduce revenue leakage in time-and-material accounts?
- Tell me about an account you turned around. What did you change?
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What does a head of delivery do in an IT company?
A head of delivery is responsible for all client projects and accounts in execution. They watch margins, utilization, schedules and client satisfaction, approve staffing, handle escalations, set delivery governance and manage delivery and program managers. When an account is in trouble, the head of delivery owns the recovery plan and the conversation with the client.
What is the difference between a head of delivery and a delivery manager?
A delivery manager runs one account or a small group of projects. A head of delivery oversees the whole delivery portfolio, decides how people move between accounts, sets governance and answers to the COO or CEO for overall delivery margin and client satisfaction. Delivery managers usually report to the head of delivery.
What skills do you need to become a head of delivery?
You need many years of hands-on project and account delivery, a firm grip on margins and utilization, experience with fixed-price and time-and-material contracts, and the patience to handle unhappy clients. Most heads of delivery in India come up through project, program and delivery manager roles, and many hold a PMP or an MBA.