Delivery Manager

About us

Mainspring is a UK AI implementation firm helping engineering and manufacturing businesses put AI to work on their own terms. We build governed knowledge layers on each client's records, systems and approvals, and use them to bring scattered information together, automate repetitive technical work, and monitor machines and sites.

Our solutions are model-agnostic, cost-modelled before we build, and deployed where the client's data needs to sit. We are practical and evidence-led, and we are honest with clients when AI is not the answer.

Our team has founded and sold software companies, designed large-scale industrial machinery and managed manufacturing partners. Our projects span carbon removal, agriculture, field engineering and energy consultancy.

Joining Mainspring means working on real problems for real clients. You will work alongside engineers, consultants and compliance specialists, and your work will go live in the businesses we serve and make a measurable difference there.

The role

AI projects do not usually fail because the technology does not work. They fail because the work was aimed at the wrong problem, or because nobody made sure anyone used it, or because the client quietly lost confidence somewhere between the pilot and the rollout. This job exists to stop that happening.

You run our engagements through six stages, from the first conversation to a system people rely on. On time, on budget, and against a measure the client agreed to at the start rather than one we invented afterwards.

Once work begins you are the person the client calls. You keep our architect and engineers moving in step with the client's own people, and you keep the staff who will eventually use the system involved enough that they actually do. Plenty of good software gets switched off because nobody did that.

You are also the person who decides whether an engagement is going well, and says so when it is not.

Our work grows through clients who trust us. You protect those relationships by delivering something worth coming back for, not by selling.

What you'll be doing

• Run the discovery stage: talk to the people doing the work, map how it happens today, find where the time and money go, and work out which problems are worth solving.
• Agree the baseline and the measure of success with the client before anything gets built.
• Price the engagement from the architect's design and cost estimate.
• Hold the budget. Is the project making money, is the client inside what they agreed to spend, and does the commercial conversation need reopening.
• Own scope. You are the only person who can change what we have committed to.
• Make the call at the end of the pilot: go live, revise, or stop. Based on what the evidence says.
• Run the client's approval process, including whoever signs off on security, quality and compliance.
• Be the client's main contact, and keep their confidence when things get difficult.
• Keep the architect, the engineers and the client's stakeholders pointed in the same direction, across engineering, operations, IT, finance and compliance.
• Make sure the system gets used. Find out when it is not, and say so.
• Look after the support relationship once things are live, including whatever service measures we have agreed.
• Notice where we could help a client next, and work with the team to shape it.

This role does not own technical decisions. Not the model, not the design, not the build.

Who we're looking for

Key competencies

• You see a project through to people using it, not just to handover.
• You can hold a room with a finance director, an operations manager and a shop-floor supervisor in it, and talk to all three.
• You can steer a client through ambiguity, technical detail and the occasional unpleasant surprise.
• You know enough technically to challenge a plan and spot an unrealistic promise, without trying to make the technical decision yourself.
• You can run several engagements at once without dropping the details that matter.
• You know when to push and when to ease off, and you will tell a client when something is not working.

Essential

• Five or more years running technical delivery in consultancy, an agency, or another client-facing environment.
• You have delivered software, data or AI projects end to end, including through the messy middle.
• You have owned client relationships directly, including with senior people.
• You can point to projects that were genuinely adopted, not just delivered.
• You are confident handling scope, schedule, budget and risk across more than one engagement at a time.

Desirable

• You were hands-on technically before you moved into delivery.
• Experience in engineering, manufacturing, energy or another industrial setting.
• You have delivered in regulated environments, where approvals and audit trails matter.
• Experience with AI or data projects specifically, and the particular ways they go wrong.
• You have grown accounts by delivering well rather than by selling.

What we offer

• Meaningful work with real impact for established engineering businesses
• A small, experienced team with a supportive and collaborative culture
• Opportunities to learn as cutting-edge problems are solved
• Flexible working that suits the role
• Competitive salary and benefits

Our interview process

1. 1Intro call30 minutes
2. 2Scenario interview60 minutes
3. 3Team discussion45 minutes
4. 4OfferWe aim to move quickly

How to apply

Send us your CV and a short note about a project you delivered that people genuinely used. What changed because of it, and what nearly went wrong on the way.

If you do not meet every requirement but are excited by the role and bring key strengths, we encourage you to apply. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, and every application is reviewed by a member of our team.