Headwaters Group

Job Description We are seeking an experienced Service Delivery Manager for a Hybrid contracting role (temp to perm). The candidate must live in the US. Job Title: Client Director Location: Hybrid Job Type: Contract About the Role: Role Summary The Service Delivery Manager (SDM) is responsible for the successful delivery of managed services across assigned customer accounts, ensuring operational excellence, customer satisfaction, service quality, and commercial performance. Acting as the primary customer contact for service delivery, the SDM works closely with global customers, internal technical teams, external suppliers, and partner organizations to ensure services are delivered in line with contractual commitments, SLAs, and business objectives. The SDM will lead geographically distributed teams, manage operational and financial performance, drive continual service improvement, and build trusted customer relationships while maintaining a strong understanding of enterprise infrastructure technologies. Key Responsibilities Service Delivery & Customer Management Own the end-to-end delivery of managed services for assigned customers. Lead service reviews, governance meetings, and operational reporting. Act as the primary escalation point for major incidents and service issues. Ensure contractual obligations, KPIs, and SLAs are consistently achieved. Develop strong relationships with customer stakeholders and executive sponsors. Drive customer satisfaction and continuous service improvement initiatives. Team Leadership Coordinate and manage global delivery teams across multiple locations and time zones. Work collaboratively with internal engineering, support, project management, sales, and customer success teams. Manage relationships with external vendors, suppliers, and strategic partners. Provide leadership, mentoring, and development support to team members. Promote accountability, collaboration, and customer-focused delivery. Financial & Commercial Management Manage service delivery within approved budgets and P&L objectives. Support forecasting, resource planning, capacity management, and utilization tracking. Identify opportunities for cost optimization and operational efficiencies. Manage Statements of Work, Requests for Service, change requests, and service transitions. Support account growth through identification of additional service opportunities. Operational Excellence Lead major incident, problem, and escalation management activities. Ensure operational risks are identified, managed, and mitigated. Drive continual service improvement and operational maturity initiatives. Support audit, compliance, governance, and security requirements. Required Experience 10+ years' experience in Service Delivery Management, Managed Services, IT Operations, or Infrastructure Management. Experience supporting enterprise and global customers. Proven ability to manage both internal teams and external suppliers/partners. Strong customer relationship and stakeholder management skills. Experience managing service delivery against SLAs, KPIs, and contractual obligations. Demonstrated financial awareness, including budgeting, forecasting, cost management, and service profitability. Experience managing major incidents and operational escalations in complex environments. Technical Knowledge Required The successful candidate does not need to be a hands-on technical engineer but must possess sufficient technical knowledge to confidently engage with customers, architects, and engineering teams. Experience should include a broad understanding of: Enterprise Storage (Block, File and Object Storage) SAN and NAS environments Storage performance, capacity, replication, and resilience concepts Backup, recovery, and disaster recovery solutions Compute, virtualization and data center infrastructure Networking and cloud technologies Hybrid infrastructure environments Previous experience managing or supporting on-premises storage environments is highly desirable. Experience with enterprise block and file storage platforms and the ability to participate effectively in technical discussions, reviews, and customer conversations is strongly preferred. Preferred Qualifications Bachelor's Degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, or related discipline. ITIL Foundation (minimum). Infrastructure, storage, or cloud certifications advantageous. Hitachi, NetApp, Pure, Dell Key Competencies Customer Focus Commercial Acumen Service Management Leadership & Coaching Financial Management Stakeholder Management Communication & Influencing Risk & Issue Management Continuous Improvement Strategic Thinking