Delivery Excellence leader

Job description

About Position: Persistent is entering its next phase of growth, where AI-native delivery, outcome-based commercial models, and rigorous measurement discipline will define competitive advantage. This role will reposition Delivery Excellence from a traditional quality and governance function into a strategic enabler of growth by driving AI adoption, strengthening delivery assurance, supporting AI-led client engagements, enabling outcome-based commercial models, and building a metrics-led culture across the organization. The ideal candidate will combine deep expertise in quality frameworks, risk management, automation, AI-driven transformation, and executive stakeholder management with the ability to connect delivery outcomes to business value. • Role: Delivery Excellence leader • Location: Pune • Experience: 20+ years • Job Type: Full Time Employment • Mandatory Mention 3 skills: IT service delivery, quality management, operational excellence, and process transformation. What You'll Do: 1. Delivery Excellence & Quality Governance • Ensure Delivery Assurance across the organization through structured intervention, planning, tracking, governance, and reporting. • Establish and maintain quality frameworks aligned to CMMI, ISO 9001, ITIL, Agile, Lean, and industry best practices. • Own and govern the Software Engineering Process Group (SEPG), ensuring process definition, rollout, adoption, and measurability • across the organization. • Lead and manage the Agile Center of Excellence (Agile COE) to drive agile maturity and execution excellence. • Strengthen quality governance through data-driven decision making and continuous improvement initiatives. 2.Risk Management & Executive Governance • Establish multi-tier governance mechanisms to proactively identify, monitor, and mitigate delivery and operational risks. • Create strong linkages between delivery performance, quality indicators, business outcomes, and customer satisfaction. • Lead executive-level escalation management for critical delivery, quality, customer, operational, and transformation-related issues. • Drive root cause analysis and implementation of preventive and corrective actions across the delivery organization. 3. AI Adoption, Measurement & Governance • Define and own an enterprise-wide AI adoption framework that measures productivity improvement, quality impact, business value • realization, and operational efficiency. • Establish leading and lagging indicators to differentiate meaningful AI adoption from simple usage metrics. • Build executive dashboards that connect AI adoption to delivery performance, customer outcomes, productivity, margins, and • quality. • Drive governance mechanisms to ensure responsible, measurable, and scalable adoption of AI and GenAI capabilities across • delivery functions. • Promote innovation through AI-led transformation programs with clearly defined business outcomes. 4. Elevating the Organization for AI-Led Engagements & Outcome-Based Delivery • Partner with Sales, Delivery, Finance, and Technology leadership to evolve the organization's delivery model for AI-native services. • Enable the transition from effort-based delivery models toward outcome-based, value-based, and AI-driven engagement models. • Establish governance, quality controls, delivery assurance frameworks, and risk management practices for AI and GenAI-led client • engagements. • Define delivery metrics, SLAs, and measurement frameworks that support outcome-based commercial constructs and make • business value transparent and auditable. • Lead initiatives to elevate organizational capability, operating models, talent readiness, governance frameworks, and delivery • practices to support increased AI engagement opportunities and accelerate the adoption of outcome-based engagements across • the enterprise. 5. Operational Excellence, Automation & AI-Powered Delivery Excellence • Lead the development and implementation of automated delivery and governance processes to enhance efficiency, scalability, and • quality. • Drive automation initiatives using AI-driven analytics, predictive modeling, and GenAI-based interventions. • Automate quality audits, risk identification, compliance monitoring, reporting, and governance activities wherever feasible. • Leverage AI to improve insight generation, decision-making, and operational effectiveness within the Delivery Excellence function. • Position Delivery Excellence as a model organization for AI-led transformation and operational innovation. 6. Stakeholder Leadership & Capability Building • Collaborate closely with Delivery, Sales, Technology, Finance, and Business leadership teams to identify and eliminate systemic • inefficiencies. • Influence strategic decisions through data-driven insights and delivery excellence expertise. • Build organizational capability by mentoring teams on delivery excellence, process optimization, quality management, risk • governance, AI adoption, and operational transformation. • Develop a strong leadership bench and foster a culture of continuous improvement and accountability. Expertise You'll Bring: • 20+ years of experience in IT service delivery, quality management, operational excellence, and process transformation. • Deep expertise in CMMI, ISO 9001, ITIL, Agile, Lean, Six Sigma, and enterprise quality governance. • Six Sigma Black Belt or equivalent certification. • Strong experience with delivery assurance, risk management, executive governance, and escalation management. • Demonstrated experience driving enterprise-wide AI adoption, automation, digital transformation, and value realization initiatives. • Working knowledge of commercial models including Time & Material, Fixed Price, Outcome-Based, and Value-Based engagements. • Experience with AI-driven analytics, predictive modeling, GenAI-based process automation, and performance measurement frameworks. Benefits: • Compet