Workday PMO Delivery Director

When you join Kainos, you get to think beyond limitations to make an immediate and positive impact – like transforming digital services for millions of citizens or helping Fortune 500 companies get live and thrive on Workday.

You’ll be part of a people-first culture that is growing around the world. We’re a creative, committed, and diverse group of individuals who succeed as a team.

At Kainos your ideas are heard and valued and you’ll leave a legacy that you can feel proud of. Join us and discover how our people write our story.

Our people love the exciting and meaningful work they do, the cutting-edge resources and technology they have access to, the benefits we offer and the great community we’ve built. Want to join them?

MAIN PURPOSE OF THE ROLE & RESPONSIBILITIES IN THE BUSINESS:

As the Workday PMO Delivery Director for the Americas Region at Kainos you’ll be fully accountable for the quality of how we deliver Workday deployments as well as the team wellbeing.

You will be responsible for developing and growing the Workday Engagement Management, PMO and Change Management practice in the Americas region. You will support attracting, recruiting, developing, and mentoring talent. As an expert in your capabilities, you’ll share knowledge and direct thought leadership both internally and externally.

You will have a breath of enterprise deployment experience within Project or Engagement Management within the Workday ecosystem and understand best in class delivery mechanisms for key stakeholders, consultants and customers.

You’ll take part in business development activities, working with the sales team on opportunities in your area and will be jointly accountable for achieving sales targets, providing commercially competitive estimates and content to support the sales process.

You Will Be Responsible For

• Leading & championing a team – you will lead, motivate and empower teams within your capability to create a positive and creative culture for our people to perform well, learn and grow.
• Put people first & develop others – You’ll manage, coach and develop a team, with a focus on managing employee performance. You will ensure all team members have clear goals, receive regular feedback and have timely and constructive appraisals.
• Providing delivery leadership - Understand critical success factors and anticipate industry trends for the clients and projects (beyond the traditional measures: on time, on budget and to agreed scope) and ensure each work stream has a plan in place to achieve the success factors.
• Manage delivery portfolio – You will have shared accountability for achieving and exceeding profitability targets within a defined portfolio (Workday P1 and PX deployments) and partner with key stakeholders for ensuring overarching commercial success.
• Manage delivery methodology - Pragmatically offer domain experience to provide functional insight and thought-leadership to our consultancy organization regarding best delivery practices within the Kainos deployment methodology; including methodology and approaches across all Workday offerings (LX, Launch, YW) for both ME and LE clients. Creating well structured & accurate tools, deliverables and processes that can be used by project team members. Educate the Workday practice on best-practices on methodology and framework. Partner closely with Workday and attend Workday-related methodology/partner update calls.
• Delivering commercially viable services – You will be responsible for achieving or exceeding profitability targets plus accurate and timely forecasting and reporting of project variables (revenue, staffing, work in progress, etc.). You will understand the contracts and commercial terms applying to our projects and ensure that Kainos is not compromised by non-compliance.
• Unify and partner with operational departments – You will closely partner with operations and finance in order to ensure a seamless experience, accurate reporting and shared accountability for all stakeholders.
• Proactively assist with recruitment activities – You will manage headcount plans to enable stable organizational growth. You will have accountability for staffing and on-boarding new team members.
• Being a point of escalation – Your expertise will be leveraged to help respond to customer and project team needs with precision and efficiency. You will act as an escalation point for issues relating to an individual, team or project within the EM and Change capabilities.
• Innovation and continuous improvement – You will be responsible for leading and implementing process efficiencies, encouraging innovation in technology and process. You will also sponsor initiatives within your capability or wider business unit.
• Developing Kainos as a business - Support future growth by working closely with Regional Sales Directors, Account Executives, Customer Success Managers, assisting where required with the sales/procurement cycle to best position Kainos to win profitable new business. You will promote successes Kainos-wide, to our customers and to the market, through case studies, award submissions, blogs, tweets etc.
• Being a role model - You’ll support your colleagues and reconcile the needs of the individual with the needs of the team or Workday whilst embodying the Kainos values. You’ll be the person people look up to – people trust your decisions because they are transparent and justified.
  
  

Minimum (essential) Requirements

• Significant experience operating at a senior or director level within the EM or PM capability and sub-capabilities on multiple large ERP, Corporate Services and/or Workday implementations
• Exceptional understanding of Workday HCM or FINs and related functional areas
• Demonstrated ability of running a responsible and profitable business or practice within the professional services industry
• Exceptional understanding of and experience in the delivery methodologies and models specifically designed for software as a service
• Broad business and technology experience and a good awareness of industry trends
• Excellent leadership skills, including the ability to delegate, motivate, lead, attract and develop staff
• Excellent customer management experience, working with senior executives in customer organizations with the ability to formally present to senior client and conference audiences
• Excellent skills in managing conflicting demands and performing effectively in complex and difficult situations, including negotiation, conflict resolution and relationship management
• Sound business acumen and commercial understanding within a services organization, deep understanding of the importance of targets such as utilization and project margins
• Strong resource planning skills to balance current demands with future pipeline while maintaining utilization and profitability targets
• Ability to work with different functional & technical consultants to understand cross functional dimensions of Workday configuration
• Excellent written and oral communication skills
• We are passionate about developing people – a demonstrated ability in managing, coaching, and developing people in your team and the wider community
• Sound understanding of the various roles and responsibilities on a project team across the different deployment methodologies
• Able to, if required, to travel to customer sites & Kainos offices in the same region (minimal out of region travel may also be required)
  
  

Desirable

• Awareness of the Workday ecosystem and a sound understanding of how Project Management, HCM, Payroll and Financials business practices are evolving
• Evidence of innovating or leading initiatives to improve delivery within a team or organization
• Proven ability to manage, motivate and empower teams and lead by example
• Workday Professional Services Certification in Project/Engagement Management
• Experience delivering Workday Full Platform deployments, including both ME and LE across diverse industries in varying project roles
• PMP (or similar, such as PRINCE 2) certification
  
  

People Management

Your role will involve managing people, as such, responsibilities will include:

• Agreeing, setting, and reviewing your and your team’s goals aligned to Kainos, the Workday Business Unit and your Capability
• Providing support so that you and your team’s goals can be achieved
• Reviewing and refining goals for relevance and to keep performance on track
• Reviewing performance against goals and provide feedback
• Conducting 1:1 monthly and/or project completion feedback meetings
• Requesting and providing regular feedback in Workday
• Completing End of Year reviews and agreeing the outcomes from the year
• Identifying training to support you and your team’s development
• Pursuing and supporting you and your team members’ career paths and progression
• Reviewing weekly workload forecasting (staff allocations and timesheet checks) and utilization
• Actively being involved in recruitment/interviews
• Reviewing attrition and retention metrics
  
  

So what are you waiting for? Let’s write the next incredible chapter of our story together.

Embracing our differences  

At Kainos, we believe in the power of diversity, equity and inclusion. We are committed to building a team that is as diverse as the world we live in, where everyone is valued, respected, and given an equal chance to thrive.   We actively seek out talented people from all backgrounds, regardless of age, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, disability, or any other characteristic that makes them who they are.   We also believe every candidate deserves a level playing field. Our friendly talent acquisition team is here to support you every step of the way, so if you require any accommodations or adjustments, we encourage you to reach out. We understand that everyone's journey is different, and by having a private conversation we can ensure that our recruitment process is tailored to your needs.