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.