Separation Management Office Manager

Role: Separation Management Office Manager

Location: London

Mobility: Up to 100%

Career Level:  Manager (ML7)

Role Overview

We are seeking an experienced Separation Management Office (SMO) Manager to join our newly established Transformation Office within the Strategy & Consulting division. This individual sits at the intersection of M&A and Enterprise Transformation, playing a central role in delivering separations on large global transactions.

 

The SMO Manager will bring a strong understanding of the M&A lifecycle and will work closely with functional leaders and senior client stakeholders, with exposure to C-suite, on buy-side and sell-side mandates. They will bring hands-on experience across diligence, separation planning, TSA drafting and negotiation, Day 1 and Day 100 readiness, and SMO and workstream delivery. Platform experience in SAP, Oracle and/or Workday is desirable.

 

Key Responsibilities

1. Separation Management Office Delivery

• Manage day-to-day SMO operations on large-scale transactions, working with the SMO Lead to provide programme governance across separation workstreams

• Maintain the integrated plan, critical path and interdependency tracking across Technology, Data, Finance, HR, Legal, and Commercial workstreams

• Set up and run programme tooling and reporting, preparing materials for steering committees and senior stakeholders

• Manage the RAID log and escalation process, raising key risks to the SMO Lead and client leadership

• Support value definition and benefits realisation tracking, identifying risks of value leakage

 

2. Workstream Lead

• Lead one or more separation workstreams (e.g. Technology, Data) end to end, accountable to the SMO Lead for delivery against plan

• Act as day-to-day client contact for workstream leads across RemainCo and NewCo, building trusted relationships

• On smaller transactions, may act as deputy deal lead

 

3. Day 1 & Day 100 Readiness

• Coordinate cutover planning and Day 1 readiness tracking across all workstreams, preparing go/no-go materials for decision-makers

• Help define and execute the post-close stabilisation plan through to steady-state operations

• Manage hypercare period governance and issue resolution to ensure continuity of business operations

 

4. Separation Strategy & Budget

• Develop and cost separation approach options, including technical architecture alternatives, for review by senior client and Accenture leaders

• Analyse and quantify stranded costs for RemainCo and track the stranded cost elimination plan

• Support the development of auditable carve-out P&Ls and standalone cost models for diligence and separation budgeting purposes

5. Separation Planning

• Build and maintain detailed separation plans for assigned workstreams, contributing to the integrated separation plan, with particular specialism in:

• Technology: application landscape separation, infrastructure decommission, network and identity management

• Data: data boundary definition, data migration planning and execution, data cleansing and quality

• Business Readiness: operational cutover, change management, and employee communications

6. TSA Drafting & Negotiation

• Draft Technology and Data Transition Service Agreement (TSA) schedules, including service descriptions, service levels and pricing inputs

• Support TSA negotiations with cost modelling and exit planning analysis

• Manage TSA governance post-close, tracking delivery obligations and exit milestones

7. Practice Development & Business Development

• Contribute to the development of the M&A practice through creation of offerings, playbooks, tools, and accelerators

• Contribute to proposals and RFP responses, including solution content, plans and estimates

• Build strong client relationships and identify follow-on opportunities to raise with leadership

• Manage, coach and develop a team of consultants and analysts day to day, contributing to a high-performance separation delivery community

8. Diligence (Preferred)

•     Support commercial and/or technical diligence, leading specific areas of analysis (e.g. technology and data separation complexity)

•     Contribute rapid assessments of separation complexity, TSA requirements, and standalone cost estimates to inform deal valuation

 

Stakeholder Landscape

The SMO Manager will engage with a complex stakeholder ecosystem, including:

 

• Functional Workstream Leads: Technology, Finance, HR, Legal, Procurement, Commercial – the primary day-to-day relationship

• Third-Party Vendors & System Integrators: managing delivery obligations during separation

• PE Sponsors: supporting sponsor reporting and deal team requests

• C-suite: CDIO and CFO on both RemainCo and NewCo sides – preparing and presenting materials alongside the SMO Lead

Experience & Skills

Essential

• Solid experience delivering separation or integration programmes within an SMO or IMO, including leading at least one workstream

• Experience across several stages of the deal lifecycle (e.g. separation planning, TSA management, Day 1 readiness, post-close stabilisation)

• Strong expertise in technology and/or data separation, including network, application, and identity workstreams

• Experience with stranded cost analysis, carve-out financials, or standalone cost modelling

• Confident communicator, able to build credibility with senior client stakeholders

• Experience on buy-side and/or sell-side mandates across corporate and PE-backed transactions

• Experience managing small teams and day-to-day delivery

 

Highly Desirable

• Platform experience in one or more of: SAP S/4HANA, SAP ECC, Oracle ERP, Workday

• Experience across deal types including spin-offs, JV dissolutions, partial divestments, and IPO carve-out readiness

• Exposure to cyber and network separation

• Experience working with leading PE sponsors or investment banks in a deal advisory capacity

• Exposure to NewCo establishment activities, including legal entity design and contract novation

 

Deal Types & Contexts

Candidates should ideally bring experience across one or more of the following transaction structures:

 

• Corporate divestitures and carve-outs

• Private equity-backed separations and portfolio company transformation

• Spin-offs and demergers

• Joint venture dissolutions

• Partial divestments and asset sales

• Dual-track processes (IPO / trade sale)

• IPO carve-out readiness

 

About the Practice

Accenture's M&A & Transformation practice advises the world's leading organisations on their most complex and high-stakes transactions. Our Transformation Office brings together deep M&A expertise with enterprise transformation capabilities - combining technology, data, finance, people, and operating model knowledge to deliver separations and integrations that create lasting value.

 

We work with global corporates, sovereign wealth funds, and leading private equity sponsors across every major industry sector. Our team operates at the forefront of AI-enabled transformation, bringing next-generation tools and accelerators to bear on the most complex separation challenges.

What’s in it for you

At Accenture in addition to a competitive basic salary, you will also have an extensive benefits package which includes 30 days’ vacation per year, private medical insurance and 3 extra days leave per year for charitable work of your choice!

Flexibility and mobility are required to deliver this role as there will be requirements to spend time onsite with our clients and partners to enable delivery of the first-class services we are known for.

About Accenture

Accenture is a leading global professional services company that helps the world’s leading businesses, governments and other organizations build their digital core, optimize their operations, accelerate revenue growth and enhance citizen services—creating tangible value at speed and scale. We are a talent- and innovation-led company with approximately 791,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Technology is at the core of change today, and we are one of the world’s leaders in helping drive that change, with strong ecosystem relationships. We combine our strength in technology and leadership in cloud, data and AI with unmatched industry experience, functional expertise and global delivery capability. Our broad range of services, solutions and assets across Strategy & Consulting, Technology, Operations, Industry X and Song, together with our culture of shared success and commitment to creating 360° value, enable us to help our clients reinvent and build trusted, lasting relationships. We measure our success by the 360° value we create for our clients, each other, our shareholders, partners and communities.

Visit us at www.accenture.com 

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement     

We believe that no one should be discriminated against because of their differences. All employment decisions shall be made without regard to age, race, creed, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, disability status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, citizenship status or any other basis as protected by applicable law. Our rich diversity makes us more innovative, more competitive, and more creative, which helps us better serve our clients and our communities.