Services Engagement Manager

Company Overview

Finastra stands as a global frontrunner in financial services software, committed to broadening financial inclusion and innovating the future of the industry. Their technology underpins essential solutions in Lending, Payments, and Universal Banking, serving over 7,000 clients including 80% of the world's top 50 banks across 110+ countries.

Role Summary

The Services Engagement Manager specializes in professional services pre-sales, collaborating closely with account executives and delivery teams to develop commercially viable and operationally robust Statements of Work (SOWs), delivery frameworks, and pricing strategies. This role is responsible for the SOW and the commercial setup of services in deals, verifying that scope, effort, risk, and pricing are accurate to ensure profitability and feasibility.

This position focuses specifically on professional services engagement rather than general sales or account management; it does not involve quota generation or ongoing client ownership.

Key Responsibilities

• Create, revise, and finalize SOWs, implementation plans, appendices, and professional services schedules consistent with agreed commercial terms.
• Define deliverables, project milestones, acceptance criteria, dependencies, assumptions, required resources, and delivery timelines.
• Develop pricing models and cost estimates targeting company margin objectives and customer expectations.
• Select appropriate pricing approaches such as fixed-price, time & materials, milestone-based, or outcome-based engagements.
• Serve as the professional services authority in deal meetings; translate client requirements into comprehensive SOWs.
• Manage version control and audit trails for all SOW documents ensuring adherence to company contractual standards.
• Coordinate approval workflows involving finance, legal, delivery management, and sales operations.
• Identify delivery risks, prerequisites, and change control points during proposal development.
• Facilitate structured handover to delivery teams post-contract signing including resource alignment and knowledge transfer.
• Design and maintain templates, pricing tools, checklists, and playbooks to standardize and optimize professional services quoting.
• Provide training and guidance to sales and delivery teams on best practices for professional services scoping and SOW procedures.
• Monitor metrics such as estimate accuracy, margin performance, SOW cycle time, conversion rates, on-time handovers, compliance level, and customer satisfaction to drive continuous improvement.
• Coordinate and identify key stakeholders within the broader professional services organization to support sales opportunities.
• Manage matrixed pre-sales teams effectively.

Performance Metrics

• Achieve or surpass professional services booking targets.
• Maintain favorable average margins on professional services bookings.
• Reduce average cycle time from initial scoping to signed SOW.
• Increase conversion percentage of SOW-equipped opportunities to signed agreements.
• Minimize discrepancies between estimated and actual delivery effort or cost.
• Ensure projects are handed over to delivery teams on schedule with comprehensive documentation.
• Limit rework of SOWs due to compliance or contractual issues.
• Achieve positive customer and delivery satisfaction indicators regarding scoping accuracy.

Required Experience and Skills

• Proven background in professional services pre-sales, engagement management, solution engineering, or delivery leadership in software industry contexts.
• Demonstrable experience drafting, negotiating SOWs, and managing fixed-price or time & materials contracts involving resource and pricing management for software implementation.
• Collaboration experience with sales and delivery teams including navigating legal, contractual, and financial reviews.
• Strong commercial insight encompassing pricing models, margin control, ROI, and TCO fundamentals.
• Excellent communication skills to effectively translate business needs into clear SOW documentation and pricing explanations.
• Proficiency in CRM and PSA tools such as Salesforce and time entry software, along with advanced Excel skills for pricing models and document management.

Desired Behavioral Traits

• Exceptional organizational skills and acute attention to detail to manage complex deal documentation coherently across parties.
• Collaborative and persuasive demeanor with ability to balance sales goals against delivery feasibility maintaining neutrality.
• Pragmatic problem-solver who advocates constructively to safeguard delivery success and company risk mitigation.

Education and Certifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Engineering, Computer Science, or a related discipline preferred.
• Project Management certifications such as PMP or Prince2, or expertise in commercial negotiation, are advantageous.

Employee Benefits

• Flexible work options including unlimited vacation based on location and business needs, hybrid working arrangements, and inclusive leave policies for voting, bereavement, and sickness.
• Comprehensive well-being support featuring confidential therapy access through Employee Assistance Programs, wellbeing champions, group initiatives, and wellness events.
• Medical, life, and disability insurance, retirement plans, lifestyle benefits tailored per region.
• Commitment to sustainability through paid volunteer leave and donation matching schemes.
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs with various internal groups for open participation.
• Career growth opportunities supported by access to online educational platforms and accredited courses.
• Global recognition programs and regular employee feedback surveys to foster an engaged and empowered workforce.

Diversity and Inclusion

Finastra celebrates individuality, diversity of thought, cultural backgrounds, and experience. The company fosters an environment where everyone feels valued and able to be authentic, encouraging collaboration and innovation.