Deputy Programme Manager

Introduction

A career in IBM Consulting is rooted by long-term relationships and close collaboration with clients across the globe. You'll work with visionaries across multiple industries to improve the hybrid cloud and AI journey for the most innovative and valuable companies in the world. Your ability to accelerate impact and make meaningful change for your clients is enabled by our strategic partner ecosystem and our robust technology platforms across the IBM portfolio; including Software and Red Hat. Curiosity and a constant quest for knowledge serve as the foundation to success in IBM Consulting. In your role, you'll be encouraged to challenge the norm, investigate ideas outside of your role, and come up with creative solutions resulting in ground breaking impact for a wide network of clients. Our culture of evolution and empathy centers on long-term career growth and development opportunities in an environment that embraces your unique skills and experience.

Your role and responsibilities

The Deputy Programme Manager plays a key supporting leadership role in the successful delivery of large-scale transformation programmes. Working closely with the Programme Manager or Programme Director, this role helps coordinate delivery across multiple workstreams, manages day-to-day programme operations, and ensures governance, reporting, and quality standards are upheld.

This position is ideal for an experienced project or workstream manager looking to step into broader programme ownership, or for a senior delivery leader who excels at structure, communication, and multi-team coordination within complex client environments.

Programme Operations & Governance

• Support the Programme Manager in establishing and managing programme governance structures, reporting cycles, and decision-making forums.
• Maintain integrated programme plans, dependency maps, and status dashboards.
• Coordinate with workstream leads to ensure alignment on milestones, deliverables, and risks.

• Oversee daily operational activities to ensure smooth programme execution.
• Facilitate stand-ups, planning sessions, progress reviews, and cross-team collaboration.
• Identify delivery challenges early, escalating when required and supporting resolution.

• Act as a key point of contact for operational-level client stakeholders.
• Prepare materials for steering committees, executive updates, and programme reviews.
• Build strong relationships across client and IBM teams to ensure alignment and trust.

• Support budgeting, forecasting, and financial tracking for the programme.
• Assist in managing resource allocations, onboarding, project staffing, and utilisation.
• Monitor scope, support change control processes, and ensure commercial compliance.

• Drive adherence to IBM delivery frameworks, quality standards, and regulatory requirements.
• Track programme risks, issues, and dependencies, ensuring mitigation plans are implemented.
• Support continuous improvement across delivery practices and client interactions.

• Provide day-to-day guidance to project managers, PMO analysts, and workstream leads.
• Foster a collaborative, inclusive culture across multi-disciplinary teams.
• Support mentoring and development of junior team members.

• At least 10+ years of experience delivering IT or business transformation projects within Consulting environment
• Strong understanding of programme/project management methodologies
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple workstreams, tasks, or project elements simultaneously.
• Excellent communication, stakeholder engagement, and problem-solving skills.
• Competence with programme management tools (e.g., Jira, MS Project, ADO, Smartsheet, Confluence).
• Certifications such as PRINCE2, PMP, MSP, Scrum Master, or SAFe.
• Experience supporting large-scale cloud, application modernization, data, or infrastructure programmes.
• Knowledge of Red Hat OpenShift, or major cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP).