Senior Program Delivery Lead – Margin & Quality Excellence

ExlService Holdings, Inc.; Philippines; Hybrid; PHP 700,000 - 1,100,000; Full time

Job summary

ExlService Holdings, Inc. is seeking an experienced Delivery Lead to own end-to-end POD delivery, manage scope, burn, utilization, and forecast accuracy within a SAFe framework.

The role drives alignment across PODs, ensures 90%+ PI objectives are met, maintains release readiness, and leads risk, change control, and governance processes to sustain high-quality, on-time outcomes for clients.

Qualifications

• Experience delivering projects in SAFe or Agile environments.
• Proven track record in managing program scope, burn, and utilization.
• Strong stakeholder communication and governance skills.
• Ability to drive risk-based decisions and maintain schedule integrity.
• Leadership of cross-functional teams including PMs and Scrum Masters.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end POD delivery and plan execution in SAFe cadence.
• Maintain budgetary and capacity plans with ≥90% utilization for billable teams.
• Ensure RAID/Change Control are updated with approvals within 5 business days.
• Drive 90%+ PI objectives met across owned PODs and manage release readiness.
• Provide weekly executive summaries and maintain governance minutes.

Skills

SAFe

Scrum

Project management

Stakeholder management

Risk management

Forecasting

Team leadership

Job description

• Financial Management & Margin Health:
  • • Own financial performance for POD delivery by managing scope, burn, utilization, and forecast accuracy while maintaining delivery velocity.
    • Maintain program gross margin at/above approved plan; keep EAC variance within ±2% monthly.
    • Develop weekly cost-to-complete and capacity plans; maintain utilization ≥90% for billable team members.
    • Ensure 100% scope changes are captured via RAID/Change Control with agreed approvals and updated forecasts within 5 business days.
    • Track change requests/assumptions with financial impact and secure approvals within agreed timelines.
• Delivery Excellence & Milestone Achievement:
  • • Drive end-to-end plan execution for PODs with SAFe cadence, dependency management, and disciplined delivery governance to achieve committed PI objectives.
    • Achieve ≥90% PI objectives met for owned PODs; maintain iteration carryover <15% after first PI.
    • Maintain schedule variance within ±10% for committed releases; complete release readiness checklist for every release.
    • Update RAID and dependency logs weekly with owners; ensure zero critical dependencies without an owner.
    • Coordinate across PODs to ensure integrated plans, dependencies, and release readiness are aligned end-to-end.
• Quality Assurance & Defect Management:
  • • Improve quality of deliverables through rigorous testing readiness, acceptance criteria discipline, and defect prevention practices.
    • Achieve UAT pass rate ≥95% for each release; maintain defect rejection rate <5%.
    • Reduce defect leakage to production to ≤2 defects per release; ensure zero repeat Sev-1 incidents.
    • Enforce Definition of Ready/Done and evidence-based sign-offs for 100% of stories.
    • Implement data quality checks with ≥99% accuracy for key reporting measures.
• Stakeholder Management & Client Satisfaction:
  • • Strengthen client confidence through proactive communication, transparent reporting, and rapid action closure.
    • Achieve average stakeholder satisfaction/NPS score ≥8.5/10 (quarterly feedback).
    • Deliver weekly executive summaries on time (100%) covering progress, risks, and decisions needed.
    • Close agreed action items within 5 business days ≥90% of the time.
    • Facilitate decisioning forums; unblock critical decisions within 10 business days ≥90% of the time.
    • Maintain executive governance cadence with clear minutes and action tracking.
• People Leadership & Team Development:
  • • Lead and develop POD PMs/Scrum Masters by coaching delivery hygiene, planning discipline, and problem-solving; build high-performing teams.
    • Conduct monthly coaching 1:1s with each POD PM; maintain documented development goals and progress.
    • Standardize templates (status, RAID, plan, release) and achieve ≥95% compliance across PODs.
    • Manage attrition within agreed thresholds; execute onboarding plans within 2 weeks for any replacement.
    • Implement team engagement actions; achieve stakeholder feedback on PM effectiveness ≥8/10.
• Governance, Risk & Compliance:
  • • Ensure PODs operate with strong controls: risk management, auditability, and adherence to compliance and security requirements.
    • Conduct risk reviews bi-weekly; ensure all High/Critical risks have mitigation plans and due dates.
    • Achieve 100% compliance with required documentation (SoW/Change controls, approvals, test evidence) and meet audit requests within SLA.
    • Prevent compliance-related production incidents attributable to missed process or documentation.
    • Maintain critical path reviews weekly with stakeholders; achieve ≥90% release readiness criteria met ahead of cutover.
• Production Support & Hypercare:
  • • Own Hypercare outcomes by ensuring release readiness, operational runbooks, and rapid incident resolution.
    • Implement Hypercare runbook, on-call rota, and incident triage model before each go-live (100%).
    • Meet incident SLAs: Sev-1 response <15 min, Sev-2 <30 min; reduce MTTR by ≥20% vs baseline.
    • Complete post-incident RCA within 5 business days for 100% of Sev-1/2 incidents with prevention actions tracked to closure.