Core Cloud Delivery Manager
12 months, scope to extend
Hybrid, London
Inside IR35
Active SC would be advantageous
Public sector experience required
The Delivery Manager is accountable for the end-to-end delivery of the clients Core Cloud services, ensuring platforms, products, and supplier outcomes are delivered on time, within tolerance, and to production-grade standards.
This is not a ceremonial Agile role. It is a hands-on delivery leadership position operating in a high-assurance, multi-supplier, politically visible environment. You will be expected to control risk, expose reality early, and keep delivery moving despite ambiguity, dependency churn, and security constraints.
Key Responsibilities
Delivery & Execution
* Own delivery across one or more Core Cloud workstreams (platform, migration, security uplift, tooling, or service onboarding).
* Translate strategy, roadmaps, and funding intent into executable delivery plans with clear milestones, dependencies, and tolerances.
* Drive delivery through discovery, alpha, beta, and live phases without losing momentum.
* Actively manage delivery risk, technical debt, and operational constraints
Stakeholder & Governance Management
* Operate confidently across senior stakeholders, leadership, architects, security teams, and commercial functions.
* Run delivery governance forums with clarity and pace, focusing on decisions, not theatre.
* Provide clear, honest delivery reporting (RAG, risks, mitigations, forecast confidence).
* Challenge optimism bias and escalate early when delivery is at risk.
Multi-Supplier & Team Leadership
* Coordinate delivery across multiple suppliers and internal teams, ensuring clear ownership and zero gaps.
* Enable engineering teams by removing blockers rather than adding process drag.
* Foster a delivery culture that values predictability, quality, and operational readiness.
Agile, Lean & Assurance Alignment
* Apply Agile pragmatically using Scrum, Kanban, or hybrid approaches as appropriate.
* Ensure delivery aligns with GDS Service Manual, assurance gates, and NCSC expectations.
* Balance speed with assurance
Financial & Commercial Awareness
* Track delivery against funding envelopes and call out burn-rate risks early.
* Support commercial governance, change control, and scope management.
* Ensure value is demonstrable, not implied.
Essential Skills & Experience
* Proven experience delivering large-scale cloud or platform programmes in complex environments.
* Strong background in public sector digital delivery, ideally within central government.
* Demonstrable experience managing multi-supplier delivery under tight assurance constraints.
* Comfortable working with cloud platforms (AWS) and understanding modern DevOps delivery models.
* Strong grasp of delivery metrics, forecasting, dependency management, and risk control.
* Confident communicator who can challenge senior stakeholders constructively.
* Experience working under security, compliance, and regulatory constraints.
Desirable Experience
* Experience delivering or operating core cloud, shared platforms, or landing zones.
* Familiarity with public sector governance, GDS assessments, or cross-government platforms.
* Exposure to FinOps, platform reliability, or live service operations.
* Experience supporting migration programmes or large-scale onboarding.
Behaviours & Ways of Working
* Outcome-focused: you care about what lands, not what was attempted.
* Comfortable with ambiguity and capable of bringing order without bureaucracy.
* Calm under pressure; credible when things go wrong.
* Willing to say "this won't land" early and back it up with evidence.
What Success Looks Like
* Delivery plans are credible, visible, and trusted.
* Risks are surfaced early and actively mitigated.
* Suppliers deliver outcomes, not excuses.
* Core Cloud services land predictably and are operable from day one.
* Senior stakeholders trust your reporting even when the news isn't good.