Cloud Delivery Lead

The Cloud Delivery Lead is accountable for the successful delivery of large, complex, and high-visibility cloud transformation engagements, often involving multiple stakeholders, tight timelines, demanding governance requirements, and significant commercial accountability. This role is expected to lead from the front, operate with limited oversight, and take ownership for delivery outcomes across the full project lifecycle.

The role requires a highly experienced delivery leader who can independently manage ambiguity, challenge assumptions, maintain control across complex workstreams, and drive execution in demanding enterprise environments. It is not a coordination role. The successful candidate must be able to combine strong delivery discipline, sound technical judgment, and commercial awareness while operating under pressure.

Key Responsibilities

Own full accountability for the end-to-end delivery of enterprise cloud transformation programs from discovery through implementation, transition, and closure.

Lead large and complex engagements involving cloud migration, modernization, platform implementation, and hybrid or multi-cloud operating models.

Define and enforce delivery governance, operating cadence, reporting structures, escalation paths, and control mechanisms across all workstreams.

Drive detailed delivery planning, including scope management, milestones, budget tracking, dependency management, resource planning, and recovery actions where required.

Act as the senior delivery lead and primary escalation point for clients, partners, and internal leadership on all critical delivery matters.

Lead difficult client conversations, challenge unrealistic expectations, and make firm delivery decisions where trade-offs are required.

Work closely with architects, engineering leads, project managers, service teams, vendors, and third parties to ensure disciplined execution and accountability.

Govern solution delivery across Azure, AWS, and GCP environments, ensuring compliance with architecture, security, operational, and quality standards.

Maintain strong control over scope, commercials, risks, assumptions, issues, and change requests, including early intervention when delivery performance deviates from plan.

Ensure robust service transition outcomes, including operational readiness, complete documentation, knowledge transfer, support alignment, and acceptance criteria closure.

Drive continual improvement in delivery standards, reusable assets, governance frameworks, and automation practices across the delivery function.

Be prepared to manage multiple concurrent engagements, including programs with challenging stakeholders, constrained resources, and aggressive timelines.

Experience & Skills

Minimum 10-15 years of experience in IT services, with significant experience leading complex enterprise cloud delivery programs in customer-facing environments.

Demonstrated track record of owning and recovering large-scale cloud or infrastructure transformation engagements with material delivery risk, commercial exposure, and executive visibility.

Strong practical experience in cloud migration, application modernization, landing zone deployment, platform engineering, security and governance implementation, and service transition.

Strong understanding of enterprise delivery models across Azure, AWS, and GCP, including the ability to govern technical delivery without relying entirely on architects or engineers.

Proven ability to manage senior client stakeholders, including CIO, CTO, IT Directors, and program sponsors, in high-pressure delivery situations.

Strong commercial acumen, including experience managing project financials, margin considerations, scope control, change requests, and contractual obligations.

Experience leading geographically distributed teams, third-party partners, and matrix organizations with competing priorities.

Strong command of governance, RAID management, milestone control, dependency mapping, and executive-level reporting.

Comfortable working in ambiguous, fast-changing environments where structure, resilience, and sound judgment are required.

Professional Attributes

Strong ownership mindset with a low tolerance for weak execution or lack of accountability.

Able to operate independently with minimal direction and step in when delivery is off-track.

Confident in handling conflict, making difficult decisions, and holding teams and stakeholders to commitments.

Highly structured, detail-oriented, and disciplined in governance and follow-through.

Strong resilience and composure under pressure.

Able to balance delivery, technical, operational, and commercial priorities without losing control of execution.

Willing to challenge the status quo and push for higher standards across delivery quality and team performance.

Certifications (Strongly Preferred)

TOGAF

Azure Solutions Architect Expert, AWS Solutions Architect Professional, or equivalent GCP certification

Additional certifications in cloud security, DevOps, or platform engineering would be advantageous