Client-Delivery Utilisation Recovery Leader

The mandate

Reported utilisation remains acceptable at group level, yet several practices carry persistent hidden bench while a small specialist cohort works excessive hours and delays proposals. Partners reserve favoured staff before engagements sign, record internal contribution inconsistently and use contractors when available employees lack recent client sponsorship. Forecast demand is expressed as revenue rather than named roles, timing and probability. The deployment leader left during annual promotion planning, creating an executive gap where commercial margin, employee development and client commitments meet.

The first thirty days require a person-and-demand view connecting signed work, probability-weighted opportunities, contractual role needs, location, clearance, language, availability, skill evidence, rate, cost, development need and workload. By day sixty, the leader must expose reserved capacity, unrecorded bench, chronic overdeployment, contractor substitution and client dependencies. The ninety-day window must improve staffing decisions on live accounts without converting every employee into an interchangeable utilisation unit.

Decision rights include releasing unsupported reservations, chairing cross-practice staffing, approving deployment exceptions within policy, requiring named demand and escalating partner conflicts. The interim may prioritise scarce specialists using client, safety, wellbeing and economic evidence. Pricing, sales commitments, employee promotion, redundancy, immigration, security clearance, client acceptance and contractor awards above delegated limits remain with authorised leaders.

The assignment must create permanent decision discipline across partnership boundaries. The leader will appoint or prepare the global deployment head, establish practice-level service standards and observe the successor run three monthly portfolio cycles plus one annual talent review. Handover will identify hidden bench, overworked specialists, unstaffed commitments, contingent proposals, contractor dependencies, development placements and partner reservations, with decisions and exceptions traceable.

The remit excludes client contracting, revenue recognition, individual performance ratings, promotion decisions, forced travel, immigration advice and reduction selection. The leader cannot improve utilisation by disguising internal time, assigning unqualified people, overriding wellbeing restrictions or using bench data as automatic evidence of poor performance. Client leaders, people committees, finance, security and employees retain their established decisions and rights.

Why this seat is open

The exit removed the only executive able to challenge partner-held capacity while demand shifted quickly across practices. Finance measures billed time, partners protect accounts and people teams protect careers, but no one owns the combined deployment choice. A temporary leader can make immediate cross-practice decisions and transfer a fair operating rhythm without taking promotion or sales authority.

What you will own

• Build the person-and-demand view across signed work, pipeline, role, timing, probability, location, skills, cost and availability.
• Expose reserved capacity, hidden bench, overdeployment, contractor substitution, unstaffed commitment and forecast-quality gaps.
• Chair cross-practice deployment decisions using client need, verified capability, development, workload, travel and margin evidence.
• Set reservation expiry, demand evidence, exception, escalation and partner-response standards for scarce specialists.
• Create paths for bench diagnosis, supervised deployment, skill refresh and client sponsorship without performance presumption.
• Report client-delivery risk, capacity concentration, workload, contractor reliance and decision latency to executive sponsors.
• Transfer deployment rooms, data definitions, partner accountabilities, exception logs and portfolio cycles to the successor.

Candidate qualifications

• Has led workforce deployment, resource management or staffing economics in a large professional-services partnership.
• Understands signed demand, pipeline probability, role requirements, utilisation, realisation, bench, rates and contractor substitution.
• Can challenge powerful partners while preserving client ownership, employee development and legitimate specialist continuity.
• Has reduced hidden bench and overdeployment without treating staff as fungible or distorting time records.
• Brings credible collaboration with practices, sales, delivery, finance, people, mobility and learning leaders.
• Has transferred enterprise deployment governance globally through live portfolio and annual talent-review cycles.

Non-negotiables

• Can maintain the Brussels hybrid cadence with weekly practice rooms and monthly client-portfolio reviews.
• Brings direct partnership deployment authority; scheduling-tool implementation or generic workforce planning is insufficient.
• Will not falsify time, assign unqualified staff, coerce travel or use bench status as automatic performance evidence.
• Has no undisclosed relationship with staffing vendors, contractors, client procurement teams or competing firms.

1. 49 words maximum. Which evidence would let you release capacity a partner reserved for an unsigned opportunity?
2. 49 words maximum. How would you distinguish hidden bench from deliberate skill investment?
3. 49 words maximum. What must the successor demonstrate during an annual talent review?