Job Overview

The Associate Programme Director role is responsible for leading the successful delivery and oversight of highly complex, enterprise-scale transformation portfolios and strategic client programmes. This is a senior delivery and leadership position with accountability for shaping portfolio-level delivery strategy, directing governance and assurance frameworks, and ensuring the consistent achievement of business outcomes across scope, schedule, budget, quality, risk, and benefits.

The role operates at executive level across client and internal leadership teams, providing strategic direction across multiple programmes, workstreams, and delivery leaders. Responsibilities include ensuring that delivery remains aligned to client objectives, contractual commitments, organisational priorities, and long-term value realisation. The position requires strong leadership across programme governance, commercial oversight, dependency management, executive escalation, and delivery performance.

As a core member of KPMG customer delivery leadership, the Associate Programme Director oversees the enhancement of delivery methodology, including the incorporation of AI into engagement delivery. The role provides senior leadership across blended onshore and offshore teams, senior programme managers, programme managers, and cross-functional delivery leads to ensure the adoption of leading practice delivery methodologies. The position also acts as a trusted advisor to senior internal stakeholders, providing strategic recommendations, shaping investment and delivery decisions, and ensuring that governance and reporting support effective executive decision-making.

This role forms a key part of KPMG Microsoft Business Solutions’ leadership capability and is responsible for setting the standard for enterprise delivery excellence, operational maturity, and strategic client partnership. Responsibilities include leading the evolution of portfolio delivery methods, governance, commercial discipline, and delivery assurance across the practice. The role supports the continued growth and development of a strategic business area within an established and market-leading global Big 4 firm.

Main Responsibilities

Project Responsibilities

• Defines and leads the delivery strategy for enterprise-scale transformation portfolios and strategically significant programmes.
• Shapes long-term delivery vision and ensures alignment with organisational strategy, client objectives, and investment priorities.
• Acts as the senior point of accountability for portfolio health, delivery performance, governance outcomes, and executive stakeholder confidence.
• Provides strategic leadership across multiple programmes, workstreams, and delivery leads to ensure integrated planning and coordinated execution.
• Establishes and directs governance, assurance, and control frameworks that enable transparency, predictability, and executive decision-making.
• Oversees portfolio-level roadmap planning, dependency management, and milestone governance across complex, multi-programme environments.
• Anticipates strategic, commercial, delivery, and operational risks and ensures appropriate mitigation and escalation at executive level.
• Leads executive stakeholder engagement, shaping strategic dialogue, influencing decisions, and maintaining strong client relationships.
• Oversees financial performance across programmes and portfolios, including forecasting, budget control, margin oversight, and commercial risk management.
• Ensures change control is effectively governed and aligned with contractual, financial, and delivery impacts.
• Directs the interpretation of delivery and performance data to identify trends, systemic issues, and opportunities for intervention.
• Ensures benefits strategies are clearly defined, measurable, and aligned to investment cases and long-term business outcomes.
• Provides leadership on major escalations, complex delivery challenges, and critical decision points across engagements.
• Sponsors quality assurance across delivery teams, ensuring that methods, standards, and outputs meet organisational and client expectations.
• Works closely with Solution Architects, technical leaders, and business stakeholders to ensure delivery is strategically aligned and value-driven.
• Supports strategic pre-sales activity by shaping delivery models, resourcing assumptions, governance structures, and implementation approaches.
• Contributes to account growth by identifying opportunities to strengthen delivery value, expand relationships, and improve client outcomes.
• Provide on-site support as required by company or client.

Practice Responsibilities

• Promotes the Values of our company.
• Always represent KPMG in a professional and positive manner.
• Ensure timely completion of internal processes and mandatory training.
• Carry out additional duties as may occur from time to time as instructed and agreed by senior members.
• Willing to travel abroad when required.
• Performance manage and/or mentor junior members of the team.
• Leads the development and continuous improvement of portfolio and programme delivery standards across the practice.
• Shapes governance, assurance, and delivery management frameworks to support organisational growth and delivery maturity.
• Drives the adoption of best practices across large, cross-functional, and multi-region delivery environments.
• Identifies systemic capability gaps and recommends strategic improvements to delivery methods, controls, and operational processes.
• Influences practice-wide decision-making through delivery insight, portfolio performance trends, and lessons learned.
• Provides senior leadership across delivery teams, supporting capability development, succession planning, and leadership growth.
• Creates an environment of accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement across programme and project leadership teams.
• Supports the strengthening of commercial awareness, governance discipline, and delivery excellence throughout the practice.
• Represents delivery leadership in strategic internal forums and contributes to broader business planning where required.
• Helps shape strategic pre-sales and mobilisation approaches for complex client opportunities.
• Encourages innovation, operational efficiency, and repeatable delivery excellence across the organisation.
• Within your role, you have the responsibility of protecting all information that is shared with you in the course of your association with KPMG (including information provided by clients) in line with the requirements of the Information Security Policy as stated within your contractual agreement. Reference is being made to the link to policy below: Information security policy (sharepoint.com). Policies are subject to regular review and change and hence the employee is obliged to remain updated accordingly.

Experience and Background

• 12+ years’ experience leading complex, enterprise-scale transformation programmes, portfolios, or strategically significant client engagements.
• Extensive experience overseeing multiple large-scale programmes with significant organisational, commercial, and stakeholder complexity.
• Proven track record of leading senior client stakeholders, executive governance forums, and high-performing cross-functional delivery teams.
• Demonstrated success in shaping and executing portfolio-level delivery strategies in complex environments.
• Strong experience designing, evolving, and assuring governance and control frameworks across large transformation landscapes.
• Extensive experience managing major risks, escalations, dependencies, and corrective initiatives across multiple programmes.
• Advanced experience in financial oversight, including portfolio forecasting, budget control, margin awareness, and commercial decision support.
• Strong capability in shaping benefits realisation strategies and ensuring alignment to investment outcomes and business value.
• Experience supporting strategic sales, mobilisation, and delivery planning for complex transformation opportunities.
• Deep understanding of organisational delivery models, programme assurance, and executive stakeholder management.
• Ideally experienced in ERP and / or CRM implementation projects, preferably utilising the Microsoft stack.
• Highly experienced in Waterfall and Agile project management, ideally with direct experience and knowledge of tools including Azure DevOps, Jira, VSTS, TFS, and of methodologies including Scrum and Kanban.

Skills and Qualifications

• A higher degree in business administration or a related field will be considered an asset.
• Able to produce high quality and professional presentations.
• Excellent attention to detail and ability to ensure documents are consistent in language, terminology and style.
• Flexible approach to work with a focus on delivery to deadlines and high standards.
• Ability to handle highly confidential information with tact and discretion.
• Excellent communication skills in English, both verbally and in writing.
• Strong executive presence with the ability to influence senior stakeholders and shape strategic decisions.
• Excellent leadership capability across large, matrixed, and multi-disciplinary delivery environments.
• Strong commercial awareness and ability to balance delivery excellence with financial discipline.
• Advanced problem-solving and decision-making capability in high-pressure, high-complexity situations.
• Ability to translate strategic objectives into practical governance, delivery, and operational actions.
• Strong coaching and mentoring capability, with a commitment to developing future delivery leaders.
• Able to operate effectively in fast-paced, complex, and evolving business environments.