Director, Professional Services

The Director, Professional Services is accountable for the day-to-day execution of Mission’s Professional Services delivery organization. This leader runs the weekly operating rhythm, owns delivery escalations, drives utilization and gross margin performance, and ensures predictable conversion of backlog into successful customer outcomes.

This role directly manages the Professional Services leadership team and ensures tight coordination across Cloud delivery, AI delivery, the PMO, Professional Services Customer Success/Onboarding, and Professional Services operations and tooling. The Director is the primary Professional Services leadership presence for customers when delivery issues arise and leadership engagement is required.

This position is 100% remote with up to 10% travel.

Core Accountabilities (Lead | Manage | Accountability)

• Professional Services Delivery Operations & Execution
• Professional Services Backlog Conversion
• Professional Services Utilization
• Professional Services Gross Margin Performance
• Professional Services Customer Satisfaction & Escalation Management
• Capacity Planning Ownership and 3-Month Outlook Discipline
• Cross-Team Coordination (Cloud, AI, PMO, ProServe Ops)
  
  

Delivery Operations & Execution

• Own the day-to-day execution of Professional Services delivery across multiple teams and active customer engagements.
• Ensure predictable delivery performance through consistent visibility into project health, milestones, staffing, risks, and outcomes.
• Drive operating discipline across delivery: clear ownership, fast issue resolution, and consistent follow-through.
  
  

Escalations, Triage & Customer Leadership

• Serve as the primary escalation point for Professional Services delivery issues and customer concerns requiring leadership engagement.
• Lead triage and resolution for complex and edge-case delivery problems (scope ambiguity, priority conflicts, resourcing constraints, delivery risk).
• Act as the Professional Services leadership representative in customer conversations when customers request escalation to a PS leader.
• Ensure escalations are documented, tracked to closure, and used to drive systemic improvement—not just one-off fixes.
  
  

Utilization & Gross Margin Performance

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• Own monthly utilization targets and gross margin performance for Professional Services; proactively identify gaps and drive corrective actions.
• Improve delivery economics through effective staffing decisions, resource optimization, scope/change control, and write-off prevention.
• Partner with Finance and PS Operations to ensure accurate measurement, reporting, and accountability for delivery performance.
  
  

Capacity Planning & Forecasting

• Own and maintain the existing monthly capacity planning process with a rolling 3-month outlook covering capacity, demand, target utilization, and target revenue.
• Ensure inputs are collected on time, forecasts are accurate, and decisions translate into staffing actions (re-assignments, hiring signals, subcontractor use, schedule adjustments).
• Partner with Sales and Pre-Sales counterparts to align near-term demand with delivery readiness and improve forecast reliability.
  
  

Leadership, Cadence, and Cross-Team Collaboration

• Directly manage Professional Services leaders; coach, develop, and hold them accountable for results and execution.
• Maintain and continuously improve the department’s meeting cadence and communication systems to keep work organized and teams coordinated.
• Foster coordination and collaboration between Cloud and AI delivery teams, the PMO, and ProServe operations to ensure consistent execution and customer experience.
  
  

Process Improvement & Operational Maturity

• Identify operational gaps and implement repeatable delivery processes that increase predictability, quality, and scalability.
• Define and improve metrics that measure delivery performance, utilization, margin, backlog conversion, and customer satisfaction.
• Drive adoption and improvement of Professional Services tooling and reporting to support transparency and execution.
  
  

The Director, Professional Services owns execution of Professional Services delivery and is accountable for delivery performance, escalations, utilization, and margin outcomes.

• The Practice VP, Professional Services retains ownership of Professional Services strategy and overall leadership, and separately leads Pre-Sales Engineering and the Services & Solutions Innovation (AI R&D) team. The Director partners closely with those groups to ensure delivery readiness and strong handoffs, but does not manage those organizations.
  
  

Success Metrics (Examples)

• Utilization vs target (monthly)
• Gross margin vs target (monthly/quarterly)
• Backlog conversion (aging, start rate, completion rate)
• Delivery predictability (on-time milestones, schedule adherence)
• Escalation volume and time-to-resolution
• Customer satisfaction trend (CSAT/NPS or internal proxy)
• Forecast accuracy (capacity plan vs actuals)
  
  

Requirements

• 10+ years in professional services delivery (cloud/software/technical consulting), including 5+ years leading managers and multi-team delivery.
• Proven ability to run operational cadence and drive predictable delivery outcomes across multiple concurrent engagements.
• Demonstrated ownership of delivery escalations and executive-level customer conversations.
• Strong experience managing utilization, margin, and delivery performance metrics.
• Experience owning and operating a capacity planning cadence and short-range forecasting in a services organization.
• Strong cross-functional leadership and communication skills (written, verbal, executive presence).
• Cloud experience strongly preferred; AWS experience a plus.
• AWS Cloud Practitioner certification (required within 1 year of employment).
• Ability to travel up to 10%.
  
  

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Our company leverages Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a tool to enhance and streamline various aspects of the hiring process. By submitting your application, you acknowledge and consent to the use of AI technologies in activities such as resume screening, interview scheduling, note taking and other administrative functions. Please note that all hiring decisions are made by human reviewers in compliance with applicable laws and best practices.

About Mission Cloud

Mission Cloud is an Amazon Web Services (AWS) Premier Consulting Partner and MSP. Clients depend on us to expertly and securely architect, migrate, manage, and optimize their cloud environments.

Mission Cloud’s team of AWS Certified Solutions Architects and DevOps Engineers are ready to help you harness the full power of the AWS cloud to transform your business and operations.