Program Director

Cyient is a global engineering and technology solutions company. As a Design, Build, and Maintain partner for leading organizations worldwide, we take solution ownership across the value chain to help clients focus on their core, innovate, and stay ahead of the curve. We leverage digital technologies, advanced analytics capabilities, and our domain knowledge and technical expertise, to solve complex business problems.

With over 15,000 employees globally, we partner with clients to operate as part of their extended team in ways that best suit their organization’s culture and requirements. Our industry focus includes aerospace and defence, healthcare, telecommunications, rail transportation, semiconductor, geospatial, industrial, and energy.

Job Description:

The Program Director will be responsible for the overall leadership, governance, operational performance, transformation, and financial success of a large-scale managed services program for a leading UK Mobile Network Operator.

The role has end-to-end accountability for service delivery across Mobile Access Network Optimization, Network Performance Management, Value Added Services, PMO Services, and Portfolio Delivery. The Program Director will lead a distributed organization of approximately 100 professionals and manage a complex ecosystem of customer stakeholders, strategic partners, contractors, and third-party service providers.

A key aspect of the role is the successful transition of people, processes, tools, and services from multiple incumbent providers into an integrated operating model. The Program Director will also be accountable for driving a major business transformation program leveraging automation, AI, advanced analytics, and process re-engineering to deliver significant operational efficiencies, cost savings, service improvements, and customer experience enhancements.

The successful candidate will be an accomplished executive with extensive telecommunications experience, strong commercial acumen, exceptional stakeholder management skills, and a proven track record in leading large-scale transformation and managed services engagements.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategic Program Leadership

• Provide executive leadership and strategic direction for the overall program.
• Develop and execute the multi-year delivery and transformation roadmap aligned with customer business objectives.
• Ensure contractual commitments, service levels, financial targets, and transformation objectives are achieved.
• Create and maintain a high-performance culture focused on customer success, operational excellence, innovation, and continuous improvement.
• Serve as the senior escalation point for all program-related matters.

Customer Executive Relationship Management

• Act as the primary executive interface between the customer and the delivery organization.
• Establish trusted relationships with senior customer stakeholders, including:
• CTO/CIO
• Network Directors
• Operations Directors
• Transformation Leads
• Procurement and Commercial Teams
• Lead Executive Steering Committees, Quarterly Business Reviews, and strategic governance forums.
• Anticipate emerging customer needs and proactively propose value-enhancing initiatives.
• Drive customer satisfaction, retention, and long-term partnership growth.

Transition and Transformation Leadership

• Lead the transition of services from incumbent internal teams, contractors, and third-party providers into the managed services model.
• Ensure seamless knowledge transfer, risk mitigation, continuity of service, and employee engagement throughout the transition period.
• Establish and govern the transformation program across people, processes, technology, and operating model dimensions.
• Define and execute transformation initiatives.
• Deliver measurable efficiency gains, productivity improvements, and operational cost reductions.

Mobile Network Operations & Performance Management

• Maintain accountability for mobile access network performance and optimization services.
• Ensure delivery of network KPIs.
• Oversee optimization activities.
• Drive continuous performance improvements through analytics and data-driven decision making.

Portfolio and PMO Governance

• Govern a portfolio of customer projects and transformation initiatives.
• Ensure effective planning, prioritization, execution, and benefits realization.
• Drive consistency in project management methodologies, reporting, risk management, and governance.
• Ensure program dependencies are actively managed across customer teams, suppliers, and partners.

Financial Management

• Own full program P&L responsibility.
• Deliver committed margins while maintaining service quality and customer satisfaction.
• Drive productivity improvements and operational efficiencies.
• Ensure accurate forecasting, budgeting, financial reporting, and revenue assurance.
• Identify opportunities for service expansion and additional value creation.

Supplier and Partner Management

• Manage a complex ecosystem of subcontractors, technology partners, and service providers.
• Establish performance management frameworks and governance structures.
• Drive accountability across suppliers to ensure contractual and operational obligations are achieved.
• Resolve conflicts and competing priorities across multiple organizations.
• Ensure supplier performance aligns with customer expectations and transformation goals.

Service Delivery Excellence

• Ensure all service levels, operational KPIs, and contractual obligations are consistently achieved.
• Drive operational rigor through structured governance and quality management practices.
• Implement best practices across delivery, operations, optimization, and PMO functions.
• Manage critical incidents, escalations, and recovery activities when required.

Risk and Compliance Management

• Establish comprehensive risk management frameworks.
• Identify and mitigate operational, commercial, financial, legal, security, and transformation risks.
• Ensure compliance with:
• Customer requirements
• Industry standards
• Regulatory obligations
• Information security policies
• Data privacy requirements
• Maintain robust business continuity and disaster recovery readiness.

People Leadership

• Lead and inspire a geographically distributed workforce.
• Develop succession plans and leadership pipelines.
• Drive employee engagement and retention.
• Foster collaboration across onsite, nearshore, and offshore teams.
• Build a culture of accountability, innovation, inclusion, and continuous learning.
• Lead organizational change management activities related to transition and transformation initiatives.

Required Experience:

• 15+ years of experience in telecommunications, managed services, network operations, or technology services.
• 10+ years of leadership experience managing large, complex programs.
• Proven experience managing programs exceeding GBP 15M annual contract value.
• Demonstrated success leading teams of 75-200+ resources across multiple geographies.
• Strong experience working with Tier-1 Mobile Network Operators.
• Proven track record delivering large-scale transformation initiatives involving automation and AI.
• Strong commercial and contractual management expertise.
• Experience managing executive-level customer relationships.

Leadership Competencies

• Executive Presence
• Strategic Thinking
• Commercial Acumen
• Transformation Leadership
• Customer Centricity
• Influencing and Negotiation
• Organizational Change Management
• Financial Management
• Stakeholder Management
• Risk Management
• Operational Excellence
• Innovation Mindset
• Decision Making under Ambiguity
• Cross-Cultural Leadership

Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Engineering, Telecommunications, Computer Science, or related discipline.
• MBA or equivalent business qualification preferred.
• PMP, PRINCE2, MSP, or equivalent program management certification desirable.
• ITIL certification desirable.
• Lean Six Sigma certification desirable.
• Experience in AI-driven operations, AIOps, and telecommunications automation platforms highly desirable.

Ideal Candidate Profile:

An exceptional senior leader who combines the operational discipline of a Managed Services Executive, the strategic vision of a Transformation Leader, the commercial accountability of a General Manager, and the relationship skills of a Trusted Advisor. They must be equally comfortable discussing board-level strategy, network performance KPIs, AI-enabled operating models, supplier negotiations, and organizational transformation while maintaining full accountability for a large-scale business-critical program.