Principal Delivery Manager

We are Two Circles. We are a Sports & Entertainment Marketing business. We grow audiences and revenues. We do that by knowing fans best. We work with clients to help them understand & influence what their fans are doing – the way fans spend their money, the events that fans attend, the channels fans respond to, the content fans watch and more. And we use the understanding this gives us to help our clients grow. Grow their audiences and grow their revenues - both direct to consumer and business to business revenues. Our platforms and services are trusted by over 1000 clients globally, including the English Premier League, Red Bull, UEFA, VISA, the NFL, Nike and Amazon. We are over 1000 people, based out of 15 offices, and we deliver work for sports and entertainment businesses of all shapes and sizes all over the world.

About the role 

We are looking for a Principal Delivery Lead to act as the senior operational partner to the Director of Technology and lead the delivery function day to day. You will own;  

• Delivery performance across the team. 

• Set a high bar for accountability, coach and manage delivery practitioners, and provide a clear view of programme health, resourcing, budgets, margins, risks and client confidence.  

• You will bring clarity, momentum and accountability to integrated plans and delivery outcomes across Australia and globally, working closely with Client Leads, Product, Engineering, QA, commercial teams, vendors and client stakeholders. 

• You will own and run Delivery projects working with clients in Australia and Globally. 

This is a senior leadership role with direct responsibility for the delivery function within the Director of Technology’s remit. You will be close enough to the detail to understand what is moving, what is blocked and what decisions are needed, while maintaining the perspective to manage dependencies, people, commercial performance and client outcomes. You will act as the Director’s key delivery partner, absorbing operational complexity, surfacing decisions early and representing delivery leadership when required. You will collaborate with colleagues across Melbourne, Europe, North America and South Asia, contributing to global standards without owning regional capability strategy or office mobilisation. 

Programme Management Key responsibilities 

• Lead the delivery function day to day, setting clear expectations for delivery quality, accountability, governance, escalation and client service across the team. 

• Set and maintain practical delivery standards, operating rhythms and governance across the function, ensuring teams use consistent reporting, escalation and decision-making practices. 

• Lead, coach and hold the delivery team to account through goal setting, performance management, development, onboarding, succession planning and team-shape decisions. 

• Directly line-manage members of the Delivery team, including goal setting, regular performance reviews, development planning, feedback, succession planning and formal performance management where required. 

• Act as the Director of Technology’s key delivery partner and trusted deputy: provide a concise view of portfolio health, make recommendations, coordinate decisions and represent the function in operational forums when required. 

• Own integrated programme plans, milestones, dependency maps, RAID logs, RAG reporting, governance forums, release plans and concise status updates, ensuring assigned work remains aligned to wider programme and client outcomes. 

• Run regular programme health reviews with clear actions and owners, bringing together delivery status, resourcing, utilisation, budget, margin, risks, dependencies and client decisions. 

• Own resource management for assigned programmes: shape teams, maintain capacity and utilisation views in Parallax, forecast demand against milestones and sales pipeline, identify gaps and conflicts, and make proactive staffing recommendations. 

• Own programme-level budget and commercial control: monitor time spent, burn, scope, delivery cost, vendor performance, revenue and margin position; maintain forecasts, support Statements of Work and change control, and drive corrective action when performance moves off plan. 

• Lead practical programme governance and reporting rhythms for assigned work, while contributing useful improvements to Two Circles delivery templates, standards and ways of working across regions. 

• Coach delivery colleagues and contribute to a culture of transparency, ownership, continuous improvement and high-quality client service. 

Delivery & Client Management Key responsibilities 

• Own delivery from discovery and planning through build, QA, UAT, launch, release and ongoing iteration across assigned products, projects and workstreams. 

• Coordinate Product, Engineering, QA, design/content, Client Leads, commercial teams, vendors and client stakeholders so ownership and decisions are clear. 

• Coordinate release readiness, testing, go/no-go decisions, deployment communications and post-release follow-up. 

• Identify risks, issues, blockers and constraints early, agree mitigation and escalate with a clear recommendation when decisions are needed. 

• Run practical delivery rhythms and agile ceremonies where they help teams make progress; adapt the approach to client and programme context. 

• At least 10 years’ experience in digital delivery, programme or project management, technology consulting, product operations or a similar role, including experience leading delivery teams or a delivery function. 

• Experience delivering digital products, platforms or technology-enabled client work in an agency, consultancy, product or technology environment. 

• Strong organisation, prioritisation, dependency management and problem-solving skills, with the judgement to operate as a senior leader and trusted deputy. 

• Ability to communicate effectively with technical and non-technical stakeholders, including clients and senior leaders. 

• Practical understanding of Agile, Kanban and hybrid delivery approaches; experience with tools such as Jira, Confluence, Smartsheet, MS Project or equivalent. 

• Strong programme and commercial discipline, including integrated planning, resource and utilisation management, time tracking, budget and margin reporting, forecasting, change control and escalation. 

• Comfort working across distributed teams and multiple time zones. 

• Ability to make sound decisions without perfect information and to create clarity in ambiguous situations. 

Desirable 

• Agency or consultancy experience, especially across multiple clients or concurrent workstreams. 

• Experience with data, analytics, MarTech, CRM, cloud or platform delivery. 

• Exposure to production support, incident triage, integrations or release management. 

• Experience in sports, media, entertainment, ticketing, sponsorship or other fan/customer-focused environments. 

• Experience managing, coaching and developing a delivery team, including performance conversations, team planning, capability development and accountability for team outcomes. 

What success looks like 

• Within 30 days: the Director has a clear view of the delivery function, team capability, active programmes, key risks, resource constraints, commercial position and immediate decisions required. 

• Within 60 days: the delivery team has clear accountability and operating rhythms; programme, resource, utilisation, budget, margin and forecast signals are being reviewed consistently and escalated with recommendations. 

• Within 90 days: the Director has greater operating leverage, client delivery is more predictable, the team is being held to a consistent standard, commercial performance is visible early enough to act, and at least one meaningful improvement to ways of working is adopted. 

Why join Two Circles 

You will work on high-impact sports and entertainment projects where data, technology and delivery quality directly influence how fans engage and how organisations grow. You will have the opportunity to lead meaningful client delivery in Melbourne while collaborating with an international team. The role owns the delivery function within the Director of Technology’s remit while remaining distinct from broader regional or global delivery leadership.