Service Delivery Manager

Hours: Part-time — Monday to Friday, four hours per day (CET timezone) We’re a small, focused team augmented by long-standing remote contributors and would like help on service delivery management. Our engineering department spans two arms; 1. Pre-sales Engineering - scoping, demos, and technical validation 2. Project delivery and professional services The role The Service Delivery Manager (SDM) owns the operational backbone of Engineering. While engineers focus on the technical work itself — pre-sales validation on one side, delivery on the other — the SDM is responsible for the rhythm and discipline that wraps around it: how resources are coordinated across projects and opportunities, how time is captured and verified, how invoicing lands cleanly with finance, how paperwork moves through to signature, and how engagements progress smoothly from one stage to the next. The role exists at the intersection of engineering, sales, finance and customers. Much of the operational heavy lifting is automated — the SDM’s job is to operate the machinery, close the gaps automation can’t, and apply judgement at the moments that matter. What you’ll do Project coordination You’ll be the central point of operational coordination. Rather than running the projects themselves — which sits with engineers and PMs — you’ll work at the level above: making sure each engagement is properly resourced, that handovers between stages happen cleanly, that paperwork follows through, and that requests from customers are routed to the right place. You’ll keep a clear view of every engagement’s status and make sure follow-on opportunities are picked up by sales rather than being committed to informally. Resources You’ll work alongside the Engineering Director on resourcing. That means keeping team allocations accurate across both pre-sales and delivery work, forecasting capacity against the pipeline as new engagements come in, flagging crunch points early. Paperwork You’ll own the paperwork lifecycle that surrounds a delivery engagement. That includes coordinating the Statement of Work cycle from engineering draft through sales review to signature, filing executed paperwork where it needs to live, and maintaining a clear view of what’s signed, what’s in negotiation, and what’s about to expire. You’ll keep the operational documentation up to date as processes evolve so the next person in the role inherits something current. Timesheet collection Timesheet discipline is the foundation our reporting and invoicing sit on, and you’ll own it. You’ll run the weekly verification rhythm, close the gaps with light-touch nudges to the team, and own the month-end QA before invoicing — making sure timesheet data is clean and accurate before it feeds the billing cycle. You’ll handle the edge cases the automation can’t, and you’ll know when to fall back to a manual procedure if the tooling is unavailable. Reporting You’ll be the person closest to the operational reporting that keeps engagements healthy. You’ll run the monthly invoicing cycle and the cross-check that lands draft invoices cleanly with finance, monitor budget health across active engagements, and pick up the conversations at project closeout, and whenever a project’s trajectory needs attention. What we’re looking for You’re someone who: • Has a background in service delivery, project coordination, programme management, or a comparable operational role — preferably from a technology services or consultancy environment. • Is comfortable running a tight operational rhythm across multiple in-flight engagements without losing the thread on any of them. • Communicates clearly and calmly across customers, partners, engineers and finance. • Is comfortable in tooling. We rely heavily on automation and we’d rather extend the automation than build manual workarounds. • Holds the line on process when it counts. Contracts don’t get signed without sales involvement; out-of-scope work doesn’t get accepted informally; work doesn’t enter active delivery without proper acceptance criteria.