Client Manager
Location: Pontefract, West Yorkshire
Reports to: Managing Director
Works closely with: Pod Leads across Software Development, Process Development and IT& Microsoft/DevOps
Salary: £35,000-£45,000
About Mantle Development
Mantle Development is a software, process and Microsoft development agency. We help growth-focused organisations identify business problems and deliver practical solutions across our three service lines: Software, Development & Microsoft Development, and IT/DevOps.
Our teams are organised into autonomous pods of up to five people, each delivering a mix of client work and internal projects. Work typically comes from new clients, existing clients, retainer clients and trusted referral partners.
Our values shape how we work: cooperative, holistic, pragmatic, proactive and committed to having fun while doing serious work.
The Role
The Client Manager will connect our clients with our delivery pods, creating clarity around current work, next steps and responsibilities.
You will manage relationships with assigned retainer clients, regular clients and support with clients introduced through referral partners such as Ryft and Nucleus. As their first point of contact, you will understand their needs, translate requests into well-defined work and route them to the right service line and pod.
You will also support the Software Engineer Director to give Pod Leads and the Managing Director a forward-looking view of demand, helping the business plan capacity across retainer commitments, confirmed projects, potential work and internal projects.
Initially, the role will focus particularly on retainer utilisation and projects introduced through referral partners.
Key Responsibilities
Client Relationships
- Act as the first point of contact for assigned retainer clients, regular clients and referral partner introductions.
- Build trusted relationships through clear, proactive and consistent communication.
- Lead client updates, review meetings and planning conversations.
- Explain progress, required decisions, risks and recommended next steps.
- Proactively identify new client needs and suitable opportunities.
- Discuss new projects with clients where Mantle Development already has an established relationship.
- Manage referral partner relationships and coordinate referred projects.
- Take over as the primary contact once an assigned new-client opportunity has been won and is ready for kick-off.
- Provide a coordinated client experience across multiple service lines and pods.
The role will not focus on selling to entirely new prospects, but it will support growth within existing and referred relationships.
Project and Retainer Management
- Manage new projects from existing clients from initial discussion through to delivery.
- Coordinate projects introduced through referral partners.
- Clarify objectives, requirements, scope, priorities and expected outcomes.
- Agree realistic milestones, responsibilities and delivery plans with Pod Leads.
- Track progress against milestones, budgets, retained hours and client expectations.
- Communicate changes, risks, dependencies and decisions to clients and internal teams.
- Maintain clear project records and actions.
- Resolve blockers or escalate them to the relevant Pod Lead or Managing Director.
- Monitor retainer hours used, remaining and committed.
- Work with clients and Pod Leads to prioritise work and use retained time effectively.
- Build a visible pipeline of upcoming projects, improvements, fixes and feature requests.
- Identify under-utilisation, over-utilisation or changes in demand early.
- Support discussions about changes to retainer arrangements where appropriate.
Triage, Reporting and Capacity Planning
- Receive and assess incoming projects, support requests, bugs and feature requests.
- Gather sufficient context before assigning work.
- Triage work into the appropriate service line and pod.
- Provide delivery teams with clear requirements, priorities and client expectations.
- Coordinate work involving multiple pods or service lines.
- Create and present regular reports covering hours used, work completed, work in progress, upcoming priorities, risks and next steps.
- Support Pod Leads with visibility of retainer commitments, booked projects, potential work and internal activity.
- Highlight capacity conflicts, delivery risks and gaps in workload.
- Support scheduling, prioritisation and allocation decisions across pods.
Skills and Experience
You will ideally have:
- Experience in client management, account management, project management or service delivery.
- Strong client-facing and stakeholder-management skills.
- Experience managing multiple clients, projects or workstreams.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
- The ability to translate client needs into clear actions for technical teams.
- Strong organisation, attention to detail and confidence managing competing priorities.
- Experience managing scope, milestones, risks, budgets and delivery timelines.
- Commercial awareness and the ability to identify opportunities naturally.
- A practical understanding of resource and capacity planning.
- A calm, collaborative and proactive working style.
Experience in a software, technology, digital or consultancy agency, retainer-based delivery, Microsoft technologies or process improvement would be beneficial. Deep technical expertise is not required.
What Success Looks Like
Clients receive clear, proactive communication and understand what is happening next. Retainer time is planned and used effectively, incoming work reaches the right pod with sufficient context, and projects remain aligned with agreed expectations.
Pod Leads have better visibility of confirmed and potential work, allowing capacity issues and delivery risks to be identified early. Clients and referral partners experience a professional, coordinated service, while further opportunities develop through trusted relationships and a genuine understanding of client needs.
Pay: £35,000.00-£45,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Canteen
- Casual dress
- Company events
- Company pension
- Discounted or free food
- Employee discount
- Free parking
- On-site parking
- Referral programme
- Sick pay
- Work from home
Experience:
- Relationship management: 1 year (preferred)
Licence/Certification:
- Driving Licence (required)
Willingness to travel:
Work Location: Hybrid remote in Darrington WF8 3HR
