Delivery Director

Join us as Delivery Director, accountable for the delivery operating environment, quality and project execution health of manifesto. Location: Hybrid - 2 days a week in London or Bristol office.

About the role:

• Job level: 13
• Working style: Hybrid, the successful candidate will be expected to attend an office on average twice a week based on client demand in London or Bristol.

The Delivery Director is accountable for the delivery operating environment, quality and project execution health of manifesto. This is a senior leadership role created as manifesto grows in scale and complexity, requiring a senior leader responsible for delivery performance, operational consistency and client outcomes across the entire agency portfolio.

The role sits at the centre of the agency delivery system, connecting Commercial, Growth, Strategy, Technology, Design and Delivery into a coherent execution model. The Delivery Director is accountable for the environment through which work moves from sale into execution and into outcomes, ensuring programmes, projects, CI and support are properly governed, commercially controlled and delivered in a way that sustains client confidence and long-term relationships.

The role spans significant portfolio breadth, delivery governance and mobilisation, capacity and project workforce alignment, commercial performance against forecast/budget, revenue recognition, risk containment and escalation management. It requires real-time visibility across the health of the agency's entire delivery portfolio and the authority, judgement and presence to act decisively when performance is under pressure.

This role carries accountability for outcomes, not oversight of activity. The Delivery Director is not a layer of governance above delivery. They are the operational leader who removes friction, resolves ambiguity, holds standards and ensures the agency can deliver with consistency and pace at the scale the business demands now and the greater scale it is moving towards.

Responsibilities:

• The Delivery Director owns delivery as a business capability.
• Accountable for orchestrating the flow of work through the business from point of sale, with full ownership of:
• Delivery execution, governance and operational health across portfolios
• Sales-to-delivery mobilisation and delivery lifecycle management
• Delivery execution against agreed commercial budgets and operational plans
• Effective deployment of delivery capability against client requirement including management of near shore agreements
• Project and programme profitability/performance against agreed commercial parameters
• Supporting accurate forecasting and revenue reporting through on time and on budget delivery performance
• Client satisfaction and long-term retention through delivery excellence
• Risk containment, escalation management and delivery recovery
• Leadership, coaching and support for the project and programme management leaders and team
• Delivery standards, maturity and continuous improvement ensuring AI, automations and process improvements are implemented effectively

Commercial accountability:

The Delivery Director carries direct commercial accountability for project and programme delivery performance. The role owns revenue performance and recognition against budget and forecast, ensuring projects and programmes can be delivered in a commercially sustainable way.

Delivery performance and client confidence:

The Delivery Director is accountable for client confidence across delivery, ensuring:

• Delivery quality is consistent and reliable across all programmes
• Communication is proactive and transparent at every stage
• Risks are surfaced early and managed with rigour
• The delivery experience reflects the strategic ambition of the work
• Teams operate with clear accountability and ownership
• Projects convert into long-term relationships, retained revenue and reputation growth

Workforce, capacity and delivery leadership:

The Delivery Director owns the operational alignment between demand and delivery capability, ensuring:

• The right people aligned to the right work at the right time
• Gaps in skills and capabilities needed for project and programme delivery are identified
• Sufficient operational capacity to deliver the portfolio sustainably
• Strong delivery leadership within programmes and projects
• Healthy escalation and decision-making structures

Delivery maturity and operational evolution:

The Delivery Director is responsible for continuously improving delivery practices, governance, embedding operational standards, sharpening escalation clarity, developing project and programme leadership capability and progression.

About you:

The successful candidate will bring significant senior leadership experience from a digital agency or equivalent, with a proven track record of leading multidisciplinary delivery organisations and creating the conditions for sustainable growth, strong client outcomes and commercial performance.

Essential skills:

• Senior delivery, programme, project or client services leadership within a digital agency or equivalent environment.
• A track record of leading delivery, programme management or operational functions within complex client-facing organisations.
• Experience managing project and delivery teams at scale across multiple concurrent client engagements.
• Demonstrable success building and improving delivery operating models, governance structures and organisational processes.
• Direct commercial accountability for project and portfolio profitability, forecasting, delivery margin and operational financial management.
• Experience leading operational change and delivery transformation.
• Confidence and experience managing executive-level clients and senior stakeholders.

Technical skills:

• Digital programme, portfolio and delivery management
• Delivery governance and operational performance management
• Commercial management, including forecasting, revenue recognition, margin and profitability management
• Resource planning, capacity management and workforce utilisation
• Risk, issue and escalation management
• Sales-to-delivery mobilisation and programme planning
• Project and portfolio financial controls and reporting

PACT values:

• Purpose: The beating heart of our organisation—the impact we make on people, places, and the planet.
• Accountability: We are accountable to all of our stakeholders.
• Craft: Our dedication to bringing precision, problem-solving, and creativity to our work.
• Togetherness: The collaborative spirit we bring to our work, creating a sense of belonging to our teams.

About us:

Manifesto is the digital experience agency for changemakers, committed to delivering purposeful and positive impact for people, planet and society. We take pride in creating award-winning digital experiences, products and services that are ethical, inclusive, accessible, sustainable and joyful.

Part of the TPXimpact group - a Certified B Corporation, we are a team of 130 digital product leaders, creative designers, user experience designers, engagement specialists, software engineers and experience strategists.

TPXimpact is a digital transformation company, on a mission to build a future where people, places and the planet thrive. We help the public, private and third sectors with their digital transformation journey, delivering high quality solutions that improve services, experiences and outcomes.

We actively encourage applications from all genders, ethnicities, disabled people, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds.