Programme Manager

Strategic Programme Manager - D365 F&O Finance Transformation
£600 - £625 per day
ASAP Start, 6 months initial contract, minimum 12 months scope
Hybrid: Once a week travel into LondonThe programme

A major finance transformation replacing legacy systems with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations in a public sector body. Delivery is underway and the programme is now approaching UAT, with go-live and a phased rollout scheduled for next year. The client-side team sets direction, owns assurance and holds the supplier to account.

This is a programme-level appointment rather than multi-project coordination. You will act as the strategic delivery partner to the SRO, providing oversight, finance transformation expertise, D365 insight and independent challenge to supplier recommendations. The Delivery PM owns day-to-day project management; your remit sits alongside theirs, retaining full visibility of delivery detail without being accountable for running it.

In practice, that means keeping delivery anchored to the organisation's priorities and intended business outcomes, and giving the SRO the analysis, options and recommendations they need to make decisions with confidence. You will provide independent oversight of progress, risks, dependencies and readiness, and act as a trusted adviser on strategy, trade-offs and organisational impact (including supporting senior stakeholder and sponsor engagement), and stepping in where complex cross-functional issues need executive resolution.

You will bring subject matter expertise on finance operating models and processes, making sure transition activity and business readiness remain aligned to the outcomes the programme was set up to achieve. Just as importantly, you will provide informed challenge to proposed D365 approaches and assumptions, acting as a knowledgeable counterweight to supplier leadership and supporting alignment across business, data, technology and operating model. At governance level, you will contribute strategic commentary and recommendations to Programme Board, alongside executive reporting covering assessment, key decisions and forward-looking insight.

• Hands-on Dynamics 365 F&O experience is essential, enough to interrogate solution decisions rather than relay them.
• Finance module knowledge is strongly preferred.
• You will have led at programme level on complex transformation, client-side or in an advisory capacity, and can point to occasions where you have challenged a systems integrator on technical grounds and made it stick.
• Experience of finance operating model design and business readiness will be expected.

Beyond the technical bar, this is a demanding and highly visible environment with significant stakeholder complexity. It suits someone who is detail-oriented and strategic at once, and who can own a room, lead a difficult conversation and stay diplomatic when the pressure is on.