Client Partner

CDS Tech is the newly formed technology services arm of Bailie Group, a family-owned group of human centred communications and technology services businesses. With a strong heritage in delivering critical transformation projects, CDS Tech is poised to become the 'go to' professional services partner for Cloud, Security, Data and Digital transformation services - both in the UK and beyond. Underpinned by a People First and Client Obsessed mindset, our ambition is to drive meaningful impact for our clients, their audiences, their users, and society. Societal impact is not just an outcome - it's our north star, guiding everything we do and ensuring we make a lasting, positive difference.

The role Client Partners own CDS's most strategic and complex client partnerships and set the standard for how client relationships are built and grown across the business. You'll hold overall accountability for the commercial performance, delivery success, and satisfaction of the clients you own - whether that's a single account today or a portfolio of accounts as clients grow with us. You'll be a go to person for others: the one less senior employees in this space look to when something difficult comes up. Beyond your own clients, you'll shape how CDS builds and grows its wider client portfolio, influence major commercial decisions, and develop the next generation of client facing leaders. This is a Principal level role - you'll set the example, champion best practice, and help shape the direction of CDS's client function.

Responsibilities Client Partners are accountable for the commercial and delivery success of CDS's most strategic client partnerships, for setting the standard across the client facing function, and for shaping how CDS grows its portfolio of client relationships over time.

Owning the client partnership end to end You'll take overall accountability for each client relationship you own - commercial performance, delivery success, client satisfaction, and strategic direction. On single account clients you'll hold these accountabilities directly; on clients where we run multiple accounts, you'll lead through the account leadership team working alongside you, making sure the client experiences one CDS rather than several. Either way, you'll make the calls others lean on, and you'll own the outcomes.

Setting the standard for senior client relationships You'll build and maintain the kind of executive level client relationships that earn CDS a seat at the table. You'll act as a trusted adviser - not a supplier - to senior sponsors bringing the insight, challenge, and commercial judgement that helps clients make better decisions. You'll model what exceptional client leadership looks like and help others develop the same depth.

Leading client growth and commercial strategy You'll lead the strategy for how we grow each client partnership - spotting the right opportunities, positioning CDS against them, and driving pursuit with a sharp commercial eye. You'll own the commercial outcomes - MSAs, enterprise scale SOWs, pricing models, forecasting, and profitability - and lead the toughest negotiations personally. Beyond your own clients, you'll contribute to CDS's broader commercial thinking: how we price, how we structure deals, where we protect margins, and how we balance short term revenue with long term partnership value.

Staying close to delivery and bringing that fluency to the client You'll stay close enough to delivery, service and technology to hold credible conversations with clients, delivery colleagues, and technical colleagues - not as an engineer, but as a senior client facing leader who genuinely understands what's being built, how, and why. You'll use that fluency to spot risks early, challenge delivery plans constructively, and keep commercial conversations grounded in delivery reality rather than sitting above it. You'll also coach less senior employees to develop the same fluency - the best client relationships come from people who can hold a commercial and a delivery conversation in the same meeting.

Leading the CDS team serving the client You'll lead the wider CDS team serving each client - delivery leads, technical leads, account owners, and other specialists - making sure they operate as a team of equals rather than a hierarchy, and that CDS shows up to the client as one team rather than a collection of roles. You'll coach other client facing leaders in how to do this well, challenge unhelpful dynamics where they emerge, and model collaborative leadership across disciplines.

Ensuring exceptional client satisfaction You'll hold yourself to a higher bar than CDS's baseline targets, because the clients you own are the ones where a loss of trust is most costly. You'll run reviews that clients genuinely value, listen hard to what's said and what isn't, and act quickly and openly when something isn't right. You'll also help shape how CDS measures, acts on, and learns from client feedback across the wider portfolio.

Developing client facing leaders and shaping the function You'll be a go to mentor for less senior employees, sharing your experience generously and developing the next generation of client facing leaders. You'll contribute to how CDS recruits, develops, and rewards people in the client facing function, and help shape tools, templates, and ways of working that raise the bar across the team. The strength of the function is part of your job, not somebody else's.

Skills Client Partners need deep expertise across client partnership ownership, senior relationship building, commercial strategy, and people development - applied to CDS's most demanding clients. You'll bring the experience to handle situations that would stretch others, the credibility to be trusted with strategic client relationships, and the support to lift the rest of the team.

Required Skills These are the skills needed to perform this role successfully.

Client partnership ownership at scale - Extensive experience owning large, complex, strategically important client relationships end to end - commercial performance, delivery success, strategic direction, and a sustained track record of exceptional client satisfaction. You've done this more than once, at enterprise scale.

Executive level client relationships - Exceptional track record of building and maintaining trusted relationships with senior executive clients, including C suite sponsors. You're credible in any room and seen as a genuine adviser rather than a supplier.

Commercial strategy and negotiation - Deep expertise across enterprise scale commercial management - MSAs, large SOWs, pricing, margin, forecasting, and P&L - combined with the negotiation skill to hold firm on principle, find creative ways through, and protect both the relationship and the commercial outcome.

Client team leadership - Exceptional ability to lead and influence the wider team serving a client - delivery leads, technical leads, account owners, and specialists across CDS - as a team of equals, coordinating across disciplines to get the right outcomes for clients and CDS.

Delivery and technology fluency - Strong working knowledge of how digital, technology, and change programmes get delivered, and a solid grasp of the technology landscape CDS operates in. You're not an engineer, but you understand what's being built and why - enough to challenge plans, spot risks, and stay credible with delivery, technical, and client audiences alike.

Exceptional communication - Setting the standard for written and verbal communication with senior audiences - proposals, board level updates, executive presentations, and the difficult conversations in between.

Escalation leadership - Extensive experience leading on the hardest escalations with calm, honesty, and accountability. The one CDS sends in when something's gone seriously wrong.

Risk and governance - Deep knowledge of client level and portfolio level risk management, and of how to report commercially on complex clients to CDS leadership and to clients alike.

Strategic thinking - Ability to think at an organisational and market level - understanding where clients, sectors, and CDS are heading, and how to position partnerships and the wider business for that future.

Developing client facing leaders - Extensive experience mentoring and developing less senior employees - setting the example, coaching through difficult situations, and helping others step up.

Shaping the client function - Ability to contribute meaningfully to the direction of the client facing function at CDS - raising standards, improving ways of working, and championing change where it's needed, with the credibility and conviction to make it stick.

Adaptability across sectors and complexity - Extensive experience operating across different sectors, client types, and commercial structures, adjusting approach thoughtfully to each context.

Desired Skills If you have these skills, they will help you excel.

UK public sector experience at scale - Experience working with central government, large local authorities, defence, or other complex public sector clients at a senior commercial level.

Public sector procurement frameworks - Working knowledge of frameworks such as G Cloud, DOS, or similar, and experience shaping pursuits through them.

Sector specialism - Depth in one or more sectors relevant to CDS (central government, local government, defence, regulated industries, or similar), with the network and insight that comes with it.

People management experience . click apply for full job details