Director of Delivery Operations and Workforce Planning, NoAM

The Director of Delivery Operations and Workforce Planning, NoAM builds and leads the operational backbone of the regional Delivery organization across professional services and managed services. The role creates the management system, data discipline, operating cadence, and cross-functional coordination required to make delivery predictable, scalable, and financially healthy. It gives leadership a trusted, reconciled view of demand, capacity, utilization, project health, revenue, margin, and execution risk so that decisions are timely and grounded in evidence rather than anecdote.

Working in close partnership with Delivery, Technical Delivery, Project Management, Engagement, Sales, Finance, and People & Culture, the Director turns regional strategy into repeatable operating practices and holds the organization to them. Success is measured by forecast accuracy, staffing responsiveness, utilization and margin performance, and the speed and confidence with which regional leadership can make decisions.

This is an operations leadership role. Engagement outcomes and client delivery remain owned by the accountable Delivery, Technical Delivery, and Project Management leaders. The Director does not carry direct reports at the outset and is expected to deliver through influence, disciplined process, and clear accountability across functions.

What You'll be Working on

Delivery Operating Model & Governance

• Establish and maintain the NoAM Delivery operating model, including management cadences, decision forums, escalation paths, ownership structures, and recurring performance reviews
• Create and govern a consistent sales-to-delivery-to-finance operating lifecycle covering handoff, project setup, staffing, delivery governance, change control, and closure
• Ensure regional operating practices align with regional strategy, financial objectives, and global delivery policies, and translate those into practical workflows and standards
• Identify systemic operational risks and recurring exceptions, distinguish isolated issues from operating-model problems, and coordinate corrective action with accountable leaders
• Provide regional leadership with clear, consistent visibility into portfolio performance and execution health

Demand, Capacity & Workforce Planning

• Own the regional operating process for demand forecasting, capacity planning, utilization management, bench exposure, and forward-looking workforce visibility
• Integrate backlog, qualified pipeline, active work, resource requests, skills and availability, and hiring plans into a single unified planning view
• Facilitate recurring demand, capacity, and workforce reviews with Delivery, Sales, Engagement, Finance, and People & Culture leaders
• Develop scenario analyses that surface future capacity gaps, over-allocation, bench risk, contractor needs, and cross-team deployment opportunities
• Translate forecast demand into actionable hiring, contractor, mobility, and capability-development recommendations, and improve staffing speed through transparent prioritization and escalation

Financial & Commercial Operations

• Partner with Finance and Delivery leadership to maintain a reconciled operational view of services revenue, utilization, backlog health, project direct margin, and regional gross margin
• Improve forecasting accuracy through disciplined project plans, assignments, estimates at completion, revenue phasing, and variance analysis
• Monitor the operational indicators that reveal margin leakage and forecast risk early, including project health, write-offs, unbilled work, and billing readiness
• Clarify root causes and facilitate corrective action planning with the accountable delivery and commercial leaders
• Support budgeting, workforce investment, and contractor decisions with transparent assumptions and scenario analysis

Performance Management & Decision Intelligence

• Define and maintain the regional delivery KPI framework, including metric definitions, data ownership, thresholds, and review cadence
• Deliver executive-ready reporting and decision narratives that connect portfolio health, demand and capacity, financial performance, and client risk
• Analyze trends, drivers, and forecast variance to explain what is changing and why, not only what the numbers are
• Establish trusted operating metrics by improving data quality at the source through validation, exception reporting, and clear ownership rather than manual reconciliation at reporting deadlines
• Present leadership with concise options, implications, and recommended actions, making confidence levels and data limitations explicit

Cross-Functional Leadership & Execution Discipline

• Serve as the primary operating partner to the NoAM VP Delivery, converting regional priorities into executable plans and durable management routines
• Influence alignment across Delivery, Sales, Engagement, Finance, People & Culture, and global operations without relying on formal authority
• Clarify interfaces, decision rights, and accountability among Delivery, Technical Delivery, Project Management, Resource Management, Finance, and commercial teams
• Promote forecasting accuracy, data discipline, and follow-through as expected operating behaviors across the region
• Act as the regional business owner for Delivery operations requirements in PSA, CRM, and reporting platforms, setting priorities and adoption expectations in partnership with the system owners who implement them
• Lead delivery operations resources where assigned, and build the case for additional capability as the function matures

Experience

• Leadership experience in delivery operations, PMO, resource management, or business operations within a professional services or consulting organization
• Deep understanding of professional services and managed services delivery models, including project economics and the sales-to-delivery-to-finance lifecycle
• Demonstrated experience building demand, capacity, utilization, and workforce planning processes at a regional or business-unit scale
• Strong financial acumen, including services forecasting, budgeting, margin management, and variance analysis
• Track record of defining KPI frameworks, improving data quality, and turning complex operational data into executive-ready decisions
• Hands-on experience with professional services automation, CRM, and business intelligence platforms; Certinia and Salesforce experience is advantageous
• Comfort using analytics and automation tooling to reduce administrative effort and improve forecast quality, with clear human accountability for financial and staffing decisions
• Strong executive communication, facilitation, and stakeholder influence skills, with the ability to align leaders around facts, trade-offs, and ownership
• Ability to operate at both strategic and detailed levels: designing the operating model while ensuring the data, controls, and follow-through work in practice

To Succeed in this Role, you Bring:

• Significant leadership experience in consulting, professional services, delivery, or managed services environments
• Proven experience leading multi-level delivery teams across project-based work and ongoing services
• Significant experience leading delivery within complex, large-scale enterprise transformation programs involving multiple workstreams, stakeholder groups, and delivery teams, with exposure to strategy, roadmap development, governance, execution, and value realization
• Deep domain expertise in at least one of the following: IT Service Management (ITSM), Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), or Project, Program, and Portfolio Management (PPPM), with demonstrated experience applying that expertise to shape solutions and achieve meaningful client outcomes
• Proven experience operating within or alongside enterprise PMO and portfolio-governance structures, including integrated planning, dependency management, RAID governance, executive reporting, and decision forums
• Demonstrated commercial acumen, with experience providing delivery input into opportunity shaping, scoping, estimation, SOW review, margin considerations, account expansion, and commercial-risk decisions
• Track record of leading high-stakes client escalations and recovery plans while balancing client outcomes, contractual and commercial commitments, delivery risk, and organizational capacity
• Strong executive presence and stakeholder-management skills, with experience influencing senior client leaders and aligning stakeholders around difficult transformation and delivery decisions
• Comfortable leading through ambiguity, incomplete information, and competing priorities, using sound judgment to establish direction, make timely decisions, and create clarity for clients and teams
• Experience improving utilization, margin, forecasting, delivery consistency, and scalable operating practices
• Experience delivering transformations enabled by Atlassian or comparable enterprise platforms, with a strong understanding of how technology, operating models, processes, and organizational change combine to achieve measurable business outcomes
• Practical understanding of AI-enabled delivery, automation, and analytics, including responsible adoption and appropriate human oversight
• Demonstrated success developing leaders, coaching teams, building organizational capability, and fostering an inclusive, high-performance culture