Engagement Manager

Data Drone runs a Zoho implementation practice that ships outcomes in 45 days. Not a license shop. Not a generalist consultancy. Every engagement starts with one Hero use case and ends with that use case running in production — owned by the client, with the runbook to grow it.

This role is the rhythm-keeper. The orchestrator across every lane and every phase. The seat that keeps a 45-day machine landing on Day 45 — without heroics, without surprises, without loose ends.

You run the engagement. You don't build it. You don't write Deluge. You orchestrate the pod — the SME, the Integration Specialist, the Data Specialist, the Reporting & BI Specialist, and QA — and you walk the client from kickoff to handover with daily clarity and weekly written discipline.

You install the rhythm — daily standups that finish in 15 minutes, weekly checkpoints with written follow-up inside 24 hours, a Day-22 mid-point review that catches risk before it lands on Day 30, two Day-30 client-facing check-ins that earn the "Confirmed" reply, a Day-40 readiness gate, and a Day-45 closure document that signs cleanly.

You protect the SME's build block. You hold the line on scope through change control. You surface yellow before it becomes red. You teach the client's exec sponsor enough about the build that they can talk about it in their own board meeting.

You are the calm centre of gravity when delivery gets messy.

• Morning standup (15 min, capped), mid-day async pulse, EOD client update.
• Board reflects reality at end-of-day, every day.
• Weekly written client update inside 24 hours of the checkpoint.
• Cultural maxim: "If it's not on the board, it doesn't exist. If it's not documented, it didn't happen."
• Timezone Flexibility — clients pick NA / EMEA / APAC; we mirror.

• Own the 45-day plan and the cadence — board, calendar, channel, rituals.
• Run daily standups, weekly client checkpoints, mid-point reviews, pre-handover dry runs.
• Triage every scope ask through change control. No verbal yeses.
• Dispatch the Day-30 Configuration and Data Quality Check-ins and the Day-40 Readiness Check-in.
• Walk the Day-45 Final Delivery Closure & Handoff with the client; close cleanly.
• Maintain the live risk and decision logs. Surface yellow early.
• Coordinate training delivery and the Day-45 + 7 adoption pulse.

• Hands-on running technical implementation engagements — services firm, SI, or product-adjacent consultancy.
• Familiar with the Zoho ecosystem (CRM, Books, Desk, Creator, Analytics) — you don't need to be the architect, but you read a blueprint and can hold a conversation with a Zoho admin.
• Have shipped at least five end-to-end implementations with real SLAs, scope discipline, and clean handovers.
• Calm under client pressure; sharp on cadence; honest in writing.
• Can hold the line on scope through change control without making the client feel walled in.
• Documentation-as-you-go is your normal, not your aspiration.

• Experience running multi-product Zoho implementations (CRM + Books, CRM + Desk + Creator).
• Migration-engagement experience (Salesforce / Hub Spot / Dynamics → Zoho).
• Vertical depth in Services, SaaS, Distribution, Manufacturing.

• Run the rhythm. Cadence is sacred; standups end on time; checkpoints don't reschedule.
• Surface yellow early. Yellow is the most important colour. Red is too late. Green is reassurance.
• Protect the build block. Your SME's calendar is the practice's productivity. Defend it.
• No verbal yeses on scope. Change control is the wall. Walk every ask through it.
• Write the update before they ask. The unsent update is the loudest signal of trouble.
• Hand over what you'd want to inherit. The runbook is the receipt.