French Speaking Programme Manager

Are you a bilingual Programme Manager with a passion for driving large-scale data engagements? Location: Remote first in UK but will involve travel to client locations in France Start date: January 2027 Contract length: 12 month contract Day rate: Competitive At Colibri Digital, we are seeking an Engagement Lead to take programmatic ownership of a mission-critical programme within a complex, francophone environment. This is a role for a strategic operator who thrives in the details of delivery—from RAID management and forecasting to high-level governance. As the first tier of our escalation path, you will work side-by-side with the client Project Manager, facilitate monthly Steering Committee sessions chaired by the Programme Sponsor, and act as a senior voice for the programme alongside the Chief Data Officer. Because our domain—covering public procurement, land, planning, construction, corporate registry, and press data—is entirely in French, this role requires more than just oversight; it requires fluency. To be successful, you must be capable of chairing governance forums, navigating complex commercial and contractual discussions, and authoring client-facing documentation to a professional standard in French. You will be the bridge between our distributed team across the UK and France and the heart of the client’s data initiative. Key Responsibilities Programmatic Delivery Leadership: Own the end-to-end delivery plan, acting as the single source of truth while sequencing 40+ concurrent data product workstreams. Strategic Governance: Run the full cadence of project governance, from daily stand-ups and sprint ceremonies to monthly Steering Committees and phase-gate reviews. Cross-Functional Assurance: Maintain the joint RAID log, manage change control, and ensure all project artefacts (architecture, non-functional requirements, test strategy) are current. Capacity & Resource Management: Oversee the full resourcing lifecycle—from mobilisation to ramp-down—while tracking effort, forecasting completion, and managing parallel embedded squads. Risk & Dependency Oversight: Own the end-to-end risk register and manage critical cross-programme dependencies, particularly across cross-border, multi-country initiatives. Bilingual Stakeholder Management: Serve as the primary point of contact for client leadership, facilitating communication, governance forums, and documentation in both French and English. Translation of Business Domains: Bridge the gap between the francophone business domain and UK-based delivery capability, ensuring technical and business requirements are aligned. Cross-Border Team Culture: Foster a cohesive, remote-embedded team culture across France and the UK, proactively managing time-zone friction and coordination. Knowledge Transfer & Quality Ownership: Execute the knowledge transfer plan, ensure adherence to quality gates at every phase, and oversee final project closure and acceptance. Regulatory & AI Compliance: Apply sustainability and Responsible AI assessments where applicable, ensuring all regulatory obligations are met through diligent governance. Skills, Knowledge and Expertise Full professional fluency in English and French (spoken and written). Recognised programme management certification — MSP, PRINCE2 Practitioner, PMP or equivalent. Agile certification — Scrum Master, SAFe or equivalent. The engagement runs two-week sprints with full agile ceremonies. Eight or more years managing complex, multi-workstream technology programmes, with at least three at genuine programme rather than project level. Proven delivery of data platform or large-scale data migration programmes — Databricks, Spark or comparable lakehouse estates. Track record running supplier-led governance from within a consultancy or systems integrator, accountable end-to-end to a client executive rather than reporting into a client PMO. Demonstrable ownership of Time and Materials commercials: capped T&M, drawdown arrangements, burn tracking, day-rate resource models and timesheet-evidenced billing. Formal change control end-to-end — raising Change Requests, producing impact assessments to a five-day service level, and taking changes through Board and Steering to signature. Leading remote, cross-border delivery squads across at least two countries, with the cultural and time-zone judgement that requires. Establishing governance from a standing start — building the cadence, artefacts and reporting rhythm on a new engagement rather than inheriting a running one.