Senior Project Manager – VDI Modernisation Project (day rate contract)

About Us
This role is a day rate contract, estimated to last 5-6 months
Why This Role Exists
The organisation is undertaking a high-risk platform replacement, driven by:
End-of-life infrastructure and tooling
Operational instability risks
This Role Exists To:
Provide delivery control and structure
Ensure alignment across technology and business teams
Enable successful, timely execution of a critical programme
This is a finite, high-impact role with direct visibility at Director and Board level.
Contract Success Measures
The Contract Will Be Considered Successful When:
Migration to AVD is delivered in line with planned milestones
Executive stakeholders have clear, consistent confidence in delivery
Risks and dependencies are actively managed and visible
Programme delivery is:
Controlled
Transparent
Well-governed
The organisation exits the legacy platform safely and predictably
The role
Role Purpose
To lead the end-to-end delivery of a wide scale and high visibility VDI replacement programme, coordinating internal teams, external partners, and senior stakeholders to deliver a controlled migration from a legacy virtual desktop platform onto a newly deployed Azure landing zone and Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD).
This Role Exists To:
Ensure structured, predictable delivery of a high-risk, high-visibility programme
Provide clear coordination across multiple workstreams (infrastructure, applications, security, business)
Enable executive and board-level confidence through effective communication and governance
Drive timely decision-making and escalation to avoid delivery drift
This is not a purely administrative PM role: it is a delivery leadership role requiring strong coordination, ownership, and communication at all levels of the organisation.
Key Outcomes (What Success Looks Like)
By the end of the contract, the organisation will have:
Successfully migrated ~3,500 users to Azure Virtual Desktop within the defined programme timeline
Delivered a controlled transition off the legacy platform, including AWS exit planning
Delivered an Azure landing zone accepted by security and architecture governance as the foundation for AVD
Achieved clear governance and visibility across all programme workstreams
Established trusted reporting to executive and board stakeholders
Ensured risks, dependencies, and decisions are actively managed and visible
Delivered a programme that is:
Predictable
Measured
Clearly communicated
Key accountabilities
Key Responsibilities
Programme coordination & delivery
Own the end-to-end coordination of the VDI Replacement programme
Align delivery across:
Infrastructure (Azure landing zone, AVD build, networking, identity)
Application packaging and delivery
Security and compliance
Business engagement and UAT
Drive delivery against defined milestones, including:
Partner mobilisation
Design sign-off
Core infrastructure build
Phased user migration
Hypercare and legacy environment decommission
Ensure all workstreams are:
Prioritised
Sequenced correctly
Actively progressing
Stakeholder engagement & communication
Act as the primary coordination point between technical teams and senior stakeholders
Provide clear, structured updates to:
C-Suite level
Group stakeholders
Executive/board audiences
Translate technical delivery into clear business language
Ensure stakeholders:
Understand progress
Are aware of risks
Are engaged at the right time
Governance, reporting & control
Establish and maintain:
Programme governance structure
RAID logs
Delivery tracking and reporting cadence
Produce high-quality, concise reporting suitable for senior leadership
Ensure all programme activity is:
Documented
Traceable
Defensible
Skills & Experience
Experience & Skills Required
Essential
Proven experience delivering large-scale infrastructure or platform transformation programmes
Direct experience delivering a virtual desktop (VDI or AVD) migration of comparable scale and sensitivity
Demonstrated success in:
Multi-workstream coordination
Complex stakeholder management
Executive-level reporting
Strong understanding of:
Azure at enterprise scale, including landing zone design and governance, networking, and identity (Microsoft Entra ID)
Azure Virtual Desktop delivery concepts (host pools, image management, FSLogix profiles, licensing and capacity) and phased migration at scale
Exceptional communication skills:
Clear, structured writing
Confident verbal communication at senior levels
Comfortable operating in:
High-visibility, high-pressure environments
Ambiguous or fast-moving delivery contexts
Desirable
Experience delivering:
Migrations off legacy VDI estates (Citrix, VMware Horizon) or AWS-hosted desktop platforms
Delivery aligned to the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework, or in security-assured / regulated Azure environments
Exposure to:
Large-scale user migrations
M&A-driven technology environments
Familiarity with:
Infrastructure delivery (networking, identity, security)

Work arrangement
Yes