Service Delivery Manager - Santa Clara, CA - HQ

Position Overview

The Service Delivery Manager (SDM) is responsible for managing the successful delivery, deployment, and activation of Nile's networking solutions across an assigned portfolio of enterprise customers.

This role serves as the primary technical project manager, coordinating internal engineering teams, deployment resources, third-party partners, logistics, and customer stakeholders to ensure projects are delivered on time, within scope, and in accordance with Nile's delivery standards.

The SDM owns the customer deployment experience from project initiation through implementation, activation, stabilization, and formal handoff to the Customer Success organization.

The ideal candidate combines strong project and program management capabilities with technical networking knowledge, customer-facing leadership, and the ability to drive execution in a fast-paced, high-growth environment.

Key Responsibilities

1. End-to-End Service Delivery Management

• Own end-to-end delivery execution for assigned customer deployments, ensuring projects are delivered on schedule, within scope, and according to established quality standards.
• Lead customer onboarding and deployment activities from project kickoff through implementation, activation, and operational handoff.
• Develop and maintain detailed project plans, milestones, resource requirements, dependencies, and delivery schedules.
• Establish clear ownership, accountability, and communication across all delivery workstreams.
• Proactively identify delivery risks, dependencies, and potential blockers, implementing mitigation plans before they impact customer outcomes.
• Manage multiple concurrent customer deployments across different geographies and levels of complexity.

2. Customer Engagement and Stakeholder Management

• Serve as the primary point of contact for customers throughout the deployment and implementation lifecycle.
• Lead project kickoff meetings, status reviews, technical workshops, and executive-level project updates.
• Set clear customer expectations around timelines, responsibilities, prerequisites, and deployment scope.
• Build strong relationships with customer IT leadership, project managers, technical teams, and business stakeholders.
• Proactively manage customer escalations and drive timely resolution in collaboration with internal teams.
• Ensure a positive, transparent, and consistent customer experience throughout the deployment journey.

3. Cross-Functional Team Coordination

• Coordinate closely with Sales, Solutions Engineering, Solutions Architecture, Service Engineering, Network Engineering, Product, Support, and Customer Success.
• Ensure appropriate technical discovery, design validation, and Bill of Materials (BoM) signoff before deployment execution.
• Work with Service Delivery Engineers (SDEs), deployment engineers, and external partners to coordinate implementation activities.
• Ensure alignment between pre-sales commitments and delivery execution.
• Drive effective collaboration between Day 0/Day 1 delivery teams and Day 2 Customer Success and Support teams.
• Identify organizational gaps and improve cross-functional processes to minimize handoff issues and operational friction.

4. Deployment and Partner Management

• Coordinate deployment resources, including field technicians, installation partners, cabling vendors, and logistics providers.
• Ensure deployment partners meet Nile's technical, operational, and customer experience standards.
• Validate site readiness, equipment availability, shipping schedules, installation requirements, and deployment prerequisites.
• Monitor partner performance, quality of work, productivity, and adherence to deployment schedules.
• Drive corrective actions when partner performance or deployment quality falls below expectations.
• Maintain consistent deployment processes and execution standards across regions.

5. Operational Excellence and Process Improvement

• Establish and maintain standardized deployment methodologies, project templates, delivery playbooks, and operational procedures.
• Drive continuous improvement across project execution, customer communications, resource utilization, and deployment efficiency.
• Identify opportunities to automate repetitive processes and improve delivery visibility through tools such as Jira and Nile's internal platforms.
• Develop scalable delivery practices that support Nile's growing customer base and global NaaS business.
• Maintain accurate project documentation, deployment records, risk registers, and customer acceptance documentation.
• Drive lessons-learned reviews and incorporate feedback into future delivery improvements.

6. Customer Handoff and Day 2 Readiness

• Ensure all deployment activities are completed and validated before customer handoff.
• Coordinate operational transition from Service Delivery to Customer Success, Customer Support, and Technical Account Management teams.
• Ensure customer environments are properly documented, configured, tested, and ready for ongoing operations.
• Conduct handoff meetings covering network architecture, deployment status, known issues, open actions, and operational considerations.
• Ensure outstanding deployment issues are tracked with clear ownership and resolution timelines.
• Support early-life stabilization and hypercare activities to ensure a smooth transition into steady-state operations.

7. Reporting, Governance, and Performance Management

• Provide regular project and portfolio updates to Service Delivery leadership.
• Maintain visibility into project health, milestones, resource requirements, risks, and customer satisfaction.
• Establish and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) for delivery execution and customer experience.
• Drive accountability across internal teams and external partners.
• Escalate critical delivery risks and customer-impacting issues through established governance channels.
• Support leadership with capacity planning, forecasting, and delivery performance reporting.

Required Qualifications and Experience

• 8+ years of experience in IT service delivery, network deployment, technical project management, or professional services.
• 3+ years of experience managing enterprise customer deployments or complex technical implementation projects.
• Strong understanding of enterprise networking technologies, including wireless LAN, switching, routing, firewalls, and network infrastructure.
• Experience managing multiple concurrent projects and geographically distributed resources.
• Proven ability to manage customer relationships, executive stakeholders, and complex delivery escalations.
• Experience working with third-party deployment partners, field service organizations, and technology vendors.
• Strong understanding of project management methodologies, delivery governance, and risk management.
• Experience with project management tools such as Jira, Smartsheet, Microsoft Project, or similar platforms.
• Excellent written, verbal, presentation, and stakeholder management skills.
• Ability to operate independently while collaborating effectively across cross-functional teams.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working in a Network-as-a-Service (NaaS), Managed Services, or cloud networking environment.
• Familiarity with enterprise networking vendors and platforms such as Cisco, Aruba, Juniper, Fortinet, and similar technologies.
• PMP, ITIL, or other relevant project/service management certifications.
• Experience supporting enterprise customers across multiple regions.
• Experience building or improving scalable service delivery processes within a high-growth technology organization.

Leadership Expectations

The Service Delivery Manager is expected to demonstrate:

• Ownership: Take accountability for delivery outcomes rather than simply coordinating activities.
• Customer First: Make customer experience and trust central to every delivery decision.
• Execution Excellence: Drive disciplined project execution, attention to detail, and consistent follow-through.
• Collaboration: Build strong working relationships across all Nile organizations.
• Continuous Improvement: Challenge existing processes and proactively identify opportunities to improve.
• Scalability: Think beyond individual projects and contribute to building a repeatable, scalable global delivery organization.

What Success Looks Like

A successful Service Delivery Manager at Nile Secure will:

• Consistently deliver customer deployments on time and with high quality.
• Establish strong customer confidence throughout the implementation journey.
• Drive accountability across internal teams and deployment partners.
• Minimize deployment delays, avoidable escalations, and operational rework.
• Ensure seamless transition from implementation into Day 2 operations.
• Contribute to standardized processes that enable Nile to scale its NaaS business globally.

At Nile Secure, Service Delivery is more than deploying network infrastructure. It is about delivering a predictable, reliable, and exceptional customer experience that builds long-term trust in the Nile platform.