Financial Services Industry Delivery Lead

Company description

About Us: Publicis Sapient is a digital transformation partner helping established organizations get to their future, digitally-enabled state, both in the way they work and the way they serve their customers. We help unlock value through a start-up mindset and modern methods, fusing strategy, consulting and customer experience with agile engineering and problem-solving creativity. United by our core values and our purpose of helping people thrive in the brave pursuit of next, our 20,000+ people in 53 offices around the world combine experience across technology, data sciences, consulting and customer obsession to accelerate our clients’ businesses through designing the products and services their customers truly value. 

Executive Role Summary:  The FS Industry Delivery Owner (IDO) is the executive accountable for delivery excellence, client outcomes, profitability, and scalable growth across the Financial Services portfolio (banking, capital markets, payments, insurance, and wealth/asset management).

Partnering with the Industry and account leadership, the IDO sets delivery strategy, establishes non-negotiable governance and quality standards, proactively manages portfolio risk, and builds a high-performing delivery organization that executes consistently across geographies, delivery models, and regulated environments.

• Own end-to-end delivery excellence and delivered margin across the Financial Services portfolio (anchor accounts + long tail).
• Shape how we deliver at scale by setting standards, building leadership bench strength, and creating repeatable assets.
• Grow your impact across accounts, geographies, and delivery models with room to innovate and modernize delivery using AI-enabled practices.

• Set non-negotiable governance, operating rhythms, and quality standards; drive “no surprises” execution.
• Lead portfolio risk, audit readiness, and resiliency expectations for regulated Financial Services environments (security, privacy, controls).
• Coach and scale delivery leadership (ADOs and broader team): succession, capacity planning, and a high-performance delivery culture.
• Drive profitable growth through reuse/accelerators and AI-enabled practices; reduce escalations while improving client outcomes and satisfaction.

Core Responsibilities

1) Portfolio Delivery Strategy and Governance

• Set portfolio delivery strategy aligned to Financial Services growth priorities and client outcomes.
• Define and enforce governance and operating rhythm (WBR/QBR cadences, dashboards, risk reviews, decision forums) across accounts.
• Establish accountability and performance management across ADOs and delivery leaders; intervene early to course-correct programs.
• Own escalations and crisis response; protect outcomes and reputation, drive root-cause fixes, and prevent recurrence.

2) Profitability, P&L Leadership, and Commercial Discipline

• Own portfolio profitability and delivered margin through forecasting rigor and active cost-to-serve management.
• Set and enforce commercial guardrails (scope/change control, productivity, partner strategy, and rate integrity).
• Shape deals with the Industry Lead and sales leadership to enable profitable, repeatable delivery (model, milestones/acceptance, risk pricing).
• Drive early-warning indicators and corrective action plans; increase cross-account synergies and asset reuse.

3) Financial Services Domain Leadership, Risk, and Compliance

• Translate Financial Services operating constraints (risk, compliance, regulatory oversight, controls) into practical delivery requirements and plans.
• Embed security, privacy, data residency, resiliency, and audit readiness into delivery governance and execution.
• Own portfolio risk identification and mitigation (delivery, financial, operational, third-party, reputational) with transparent client communication.
• Partner with Risk/Compliance, Security, and Legal to ensure controls and evidence meet client and regulatory scrutiny.

4) Talent, Leadership Bench, and Delivery Culture

• Build a high-performance delivery culture balancing client outcomes, quality, profitability, and people health.
• Mentor and evaluate ADOs and delivery leaders; build succession plans and bench strength for scale.
• Lead workforce planning across the portfolio (capacity, demand forecasting, critical role coverage, leadership allocation).
• Partner with People Strategy/HR on performance and retention; model inclusive, accountable leadership in a matrixed organization.

5) Innovation, AI Enablement, and Reusable Industry Assets

• Drive adoption of AI-enabled delivery practices and modern engineering methods to improve quality, speed, and scalability.
• Build and scale reusable assets across accounts (playbooks, patterns, reference architectures, automation, industry accelerators).
• Uplift delivery maturity through enablement partnerships and communities of practice that share learnings and reduce reinvention.

6) Executive Stakeholder Engagement

• Serve as an executive counterpart to senior client stakeholders; lead or support portfolio-level steering committees and executive business reviews.
• Align with Industry Lead on account prioritization, investment decisions, and growth strategy; provide concise, data-driven visibility into delivery health.
• Influence cross-functional executives (Finance, Capacity, People Strategy, Product/Engineering enablement) to remove blockers and drive portfolio outcomes.

Your Skills and Experience:

• Executive delivery leader with multi-account portfolio ownership and a track record of predictable, “no surprises” execution.
• Financial Services domain credibility (banking, capital markets, payments, insurance, and/or wealth/asset management).
• P&L / margin leadership: forecasting discipline, cost-to-serve management, and commercial rigor (scope/change control).
• Delivery governance and risk management across delivery models (onshore/offshore, managed services, product-enabled delivery).
• Leadership builder who scales teams through coaching, succession planning, and strong cross-functional influence.
• Bonus: Led large-scale Financial Services transformations (modernization, digital channels, data/AI, risk/compliance) and built reusable assets/accelerators.
• Bonus: Experience with managed services (SLAs/SLOs, continuous improvement) and/or AI governance in regulated environments.

Benefits of Working Here:

• Unlimited learning opportunities, with the chance to shape and lead work for innovative Financial Services clients
• Flexible vacation policy: time is not limited, allocated, or accrued (Unlimited PTO)
• Generous parental leave and new parent transition program
• Tuition reimbursement
• Corporate gift matching program

This is an Executive level opportunity within PS.  

Overall pay and total compensation package will vary by level of experience.  The range for the role will be a base salary between $280,000 - 310,000 base, 30% bonus and RSU eligibility.

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• An inclusive workplace that promotes diversity and collaboration.
• Access to ongoing learning and development opportunities.
• Competitive compensation and benefits package.
• Flexibility to support work-life balance.
• Comprehensive health benefits for you and your family.
• Generous paid leave and holidays.
• Wellness program and employee assistance.

As part of our dedication to an inclusive and diverse workforce, Publicis Sapient is committed to Equal Employment Opportunity without regard for race, color, national origin, ethnicity, gender, protected veteran status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, or religion. We are also committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans in our job application procedures. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, you may contact us at hiring@publicis.sapient.com