IT Delivery Manager at AECI Limited

Main Purpose of the Job

• The IT Delivery Manager is responsible for end-to-end delivery of projects and initiatives using Agile, Waterfall or Hybrid delivery methodologies. The role ensures predictable, high-quality delivery aligned to business objectives, while adapting the delivery approach to suit project complexity, regulatory requirements and organisational context. The Delivery Manager provides leadership across multi-disciplinary teams, manages dependencies, risks, budgets and timelines, and acts as the primary owner of delivery outcomes across the project lifecycle. The role bridges traditional project governance with modern Agile execution, ensuring value realisation, transparency and continuous improvement. The role also drives delivery excellence across the organisation, shapes delivery operating models and influences strategic decision-making at senior leadership level.

Role and Responsibilities:

Delivery Governance and Planning

• Select and tailor the appropriate delivery approach (Waterfall, Agile, Hybrid) per initiative.
• Define delivery plans, milestones, dependencies and success criteria.
• Establish governance structures, stage gates and reporting cadence aligned to PMO standards.
• Ensure compliance with internal IT, security, architecture and regulatory policies.
• Maintain clear ownership, decision rights and escalation paths.

End to End Delivery Execution

• Execute delivery plans and coordinate cross-functional delivery teams.
• Manage scope, schedule, costs, quality and value delivery across the project lifecycle.
• Track progress against milestones, sprint goals and stage-gate criteria.
• Actively manage inter-project and system dependencies.
• Ensure readiness for deployment, go-live and operational handover.
• Enable Agile teams through effective ceremonies, cadence and flow (where Agile applies).
• Ensure Waterfall projects follow structured phase controls and approvals.
• Ensure integrated planning across build, release, deployment and change activities.
• Oversee production releases, hypercare and stabilisation phases.

Delivery Leadership

• Provide delivery leadership to multiple project teams on frameworks and standards.
• Build and mature delivery capability across the organisation.
• Support with the definition and evolution of the enterprise delivery framework and PMO operating model.

IT Change Management

• Ensure delivery integrates with IT change and release management processes.
• Plan and coordinate change impact across systems, teams and business units.
• Support business readiness, including communications, training and support models.
• Partner with Change Management and Business stakeholders to ensure effective adoption.
• Minimise operational disruption during releases and transitions to production.
• Ensure clear transition to BAU, including support, documentation and SLAs.
• Monitor post-implementation adoption and address resistance or gaps.
• Align delivery schedules with enterprise change calendars and release windows.

Financial Management and Value Realisation

• Manage approved budgets and spend (CAPEX/OPEX).
• Track cost performance and forecast variances early.
• Support funding decisions with accurate delivery and cost insights.
• Ensure initiatives deliver intended business value and strategic outcomes.

Risk, Issue and Dependency Management

• Identify, assess and manage delivery risks and issues.
• Implement mitigation and contingency plans.
• Actively manage cross-team, vendor and technology dependencies.
• Escalate blocking issues with clear recommendations.
• Ensure risks and issues are visible, owned and addressed.
• Provide oversight of delivery risk across programmes.
• Escalate and manage enterprise-level risks impacting strategic outcomes.

Stakeholder Collaboration and Communication

• Foster strong communication between the delivery team and stakeholders.
• Ensure transparency of progress, risks and delivery outcomes.
• Act as the single point of accountability for delivery status.
• Provide clear, concise and transparent reporting to senior stakeholders.
• Manage expectations and facilitate trade-off decisions.
• Maintain productive relationships across business, IT and vendors.
• Manage vendor delivery commitments, dependencies and performance.
• Ensure vendor activities align to delivery plans and governance.
• Track contractual milestones and deliverables.
• Address performance issues early and decisively.
• Provide strategic advisory to executive and senior stakeholders on delivery feasibility, risk and prioritisation.
• Coordinate business and IT stakeholders to ensure alignment on change impacts and readiness.
• Act as a key interface between delivery teams and business change functions.

Continuous Improvement

• Lead retrospectives, lessons learned and post-implementation reviews.
• Drive initiatives that enhance team dynamics, quality and productivity.
• Drive improvements in delivery practices, tooling and governance.
• Contribute to PMO processes, standards and delivery capability uplift.

Tool and Process Optimisation

• Ensure efficient use of Agile tools (e.g., Jira, Azure DevOps).
• Streamline workflows and eliminate waste in processes.

Qualification and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or related field. (Required)
• Project Management certification (e.g., PMP, PRINCE2, Agile, SAFe) (Required)
• Certified Scrum Master, SAFe Scrum Master or similar (Desirable)
• Portfolio or Programme Management certification (Desirable)
• ITIL Change and Release Management (Desirable)
• 10+ years experience delivering complex IT or business projects and programmes and/or delivery portfolios across multiple business units.
• Experience in leading teams within Agile, Waterfall and Hybrid delivery models.
• Proven ability to work with cross-functional and distributed teams.
• Experience with Agile tools such as Jira, Azure DevOps etc.
• Strong governance, financial management and stakeholder engagement experience.
• Experience in large-scale transformation initiatives (digital, ERP, data, etc.).
• Experience engaging at an executive level.