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Account leadership

How CDS leads its client engagements — and who's accountable for what.

Every CDS client account has a small leadership team accountable for making it go well. Both the delivery and the relationship, together.

This section explains how that works: the three hats that make up the Client Leadership Team, what each one is responsible for, and how they operate together.

The three hats

Client accounts at CDS are led by a trio:

  • Account Owner — accountable for the commercial and client relationship. The client's primary point of escalation, and the person responsible for keeping the account healthy over time.
  • Account Delivery Lead — responsible for making the delivery work. Day-to-day team structure, delivery approach, stakeholder relationships on the ground.
  • Account Technical Lead — responsible for technical quality. The solution is fit for purpose, the standards are right, and the team isn't heading somewhere it shouldn't be.

The three hats operate as a team, not a hierarchy. No single hat outranks the others — each owns a distinct piece of the picture, and the team works when all three are talking.

How hat combinations work

The right structure for an account depends on its size and complexity.

On large or complex accounts, three people wear three hats. Each role has enough scope to justify dedicated focus.

On medium accounts, two hats are typically combined — usually the Account Owner and Account Delivery Lead, worn by the same person alongside a separate Account Technical Lead.

On small accounts, one person may wear all three. That's a real ask, and worth being honest about — but it's the right structure for accounts where the scope and risk make it proportionate.

The combination can change as an account grows. What matters is that someone is clearly accountable for each piece, whatever the structure.

Not the same as Client Lead

It's worth being explicit about this, because the naming creates confusion.

The Client Leadership Team hats (Account Owner, Account Delivery Lead, Account Technical Lead) are about delivery and commercial accountability for the client engagement.

The Client Lead hat is different — it's a people support role, sitting with the Account Delivery Lead or Account Technical Lead on someone's primary account. It's about supporting the people on the team, not leading the account.

The same person often wears both — an Account Delivery Lead is typically also the Client Lead for the people on their account — but they're separate responsibilities. See our people support network for how the Client Lead role works.

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