GBS Transformation & Execution Lead (Associate Director)

Job description

About Finance Reinvention Partner Accenture’s Finance Reinvention Partner helps CFOs and finance leaders reinvent how finance creates and protects enterprise value—bringing together strategy, operating model, data, AI and technology to improve performance, insight, control and execution. In the UK and Ireland, the practice combines finance strategy and transformation capabilities with the enterprise platforms that enable them, including SAP, Oracle, Workday and enterprise performance management solutions. Our GBS and Operating Model team helps clients design and implement how finance and other enterprise services should be organised and delivered across retained functions, Global Business Services, Global Capability Centres, Centres of Excellence and external service providers. We support the full transformation journey—from strategy, value case and target operating model through detailed design, mobilisation, implementation, service management and continuous improvement—embedding data, automation and AI to create scalable, resilient and value-led operations. Why this role This is a senior transformation and execution role for an experienced GBS leader who can shape GBS strategy—or take an agreed strategy—translate it into a target operating model and value case, and lead its implementation into adopted, stable and value-generating operations. You will lead the integrated execution of the transformation across process standardisation, organisation and retained-team changes, GBS/GCC delivery, service management, technology, data, automation and AI, controls, workforce change and service migration. Your role is to sequence and connect these elements, resolve cross-workstream dependencies and ensure that detailed implementation remains aligned with the agreed operating model. The expertise you'll bring End-to-end GBS transformation leadership. At least 10 years’ relevant experience across GBS, shared services, GCC transformation, enterprise-service transformation, business transition or management consulting. GBS transformation architecture and roadmap. Experience converting strategy and target operating model into a prioritised portfolio, releases or waves, workstream scope, critical path, dependency map, investment profile and implementation roadmap. GBS operating and service-delivery depth. Strong understanding of service scope, activity placement, retained functions, Global Process Owners, Centres of Excellence, GBS/GCC delivery, service management, external providers and the governance required to connect them. Functional and multi-tower fluency. Deep Finance transformation experience —with sufficient cross-functional understanding to coordinate and challenge process and service-delivery workstreams across a multi-tower GBS environment. Transformation programme and portfolio leadership. Demonstrated experience building and governing integrated transformation roadmaps, workstreams, waves, stage gates, resource models, dependencies, risks, decisions and assurance. Work migration and operational-readiness experience. Strong practical experience of service transition, knowledge transfer, recruitment or workforce mobilisation, operational-readiness assessment, service acceptance, cutover, business continuity, hypercare and early-life stabilisation across multiple teams, locations or countries. Organisation, workforce and change capability. Experience translating operating-model decisions into role, capability, workforce and behavioural changes. Value-realisation and financial-management capability. Experience baselining benefits, linking workstreams to value drivers, establishing accountable benefit owners, tracking investment and run-cost impacts and maintaining focus on outcomes through implementation and early-life operation. Technology and data transformation fluency. Understand how ERP, workflow, service-management platforms, data, analytics, process mining, automation and AI affect transformation sequencing, readiness, roles, controls and value. AI-enabled transformation judgement. Understand that AI implementation requires more than adding use cases to a roadmap. Assess the implications for workflow design, data readiness, roles, skills, human oversight, decision rights, controls, exception handling, adoption and benefits realisation. Current GBS thinking similarly positions AI transformation as a redesign of work and governance combined with controlled execution and scaling—not a stand-alone technology deployment. Risk, control and resilience awareness. Experience incorporating control, compliance, data, third-party, operational-resilience and service-continuity requirements into transformation and transition plans, while drawing on specialist risk, legal, tax and security teams where required. Executive and commercial leadership. The credibility to work independently with senior sponsors, manage difficult programme decisions, communicate clearly across executive and delivery audiences and maintain momentum through ambiguity. Relevant industry context. Strong experience in Consumer Goods & Services, Utilities, Energy, with evidence that industry constraints materially influenced transformation sequencing, controls, service continuity or adoption. What you'll be accountable for Validate the transformation starting point by confirming the approved GBS strategy, target operating model, business case, scope, baseline, assumptions, delivery capacity, dependencies and implementation risks. Identify any gaps that must be resolved before execution begins. Translate the approved model into an integrated transformation blueprint and roadmap, covering workstreams, delivery waves, milestones, outcomes, resources, funding, critical dependencies, decision points and benefit-release profiles. Establish the transformation-governance and delivery model, including executive governance, workstream accountabilities, design assurance, stage gates, decision rights, change control, RAID and dependency management, quality assurance, financial control and executive reporting. Establish the Transformation Management Office as an enabling mechanism rather than the role’s sole purpose. Orchestrate delivery across the full GBS transformation, bringing together process harmonisation, retained-organisation and Global Process Owner changes, GBS/GCC delivery, service-management implementation, locations and sourcing, technology and data, automation and AI, controls, provider integration, workforce transition and change adoption. Maintain alignment with the agreed operating-model guardrails throughout detailed design and implementation. Challenge inconsistent workstream decisions, manage cross-workstream trade-offs and escalate material changes through the appropriate design authority and executive governance. Lead the work-migration and service-transition strategy, including wave planning, transition scope, knowledge transfer, operational readiness, service-acceptance criteria, control readiness, business continuity, cutover, hypercare, stabilisation and handover into business-as-usual governance. Direct the people, capability and adoption agenda in partnership with organisation, HR and change specialists. Ensure role impacts, capability needs, leadership alignment, workforce transition, communications, training, new ways of working and adoption measures are integrated into delivery rather than treated as downstream activities. Integrate technology, data, automation and AI delivery into the transformation roadmap. Ensure releases and use cases align with process and operating-model changes, data and control prerequisites are addressed, and the implications for roles, skills, decision rights, exception handling and human oversight are understood. Own transformation economics and value realisation, including benefit baselines, investment and implementation costs, run-cost impacts, value drivers, benefit owners, outcome measures, service-performance effects and interventio