Job Description
Job Type: FTE
Location: Flexible (US-based, works closely with offshore leadership)
Reports to: Chief Operating Officer
Salary Range: $80,000-$130,000
Role Summary
The Resource Planning & Allocation Manager is responsible for company-wide capacity planning, resource allocation, and utilization management across a multi-practice consulting organization of ~300 employees.
This role owns the end-to-end resource operations system — ensuring the right people are deployed to the right work at the right time, while balancing utilization targets (75%), delivery quality, margin, and employee sustainability.
This position sits within the Operations team, operates above individual practices, and acts as the single point of orchestration between:
- Onshore practice-aligned teams
- Offshore shared services and joint delivery model
- Sales, Pre-Sales, and Delivery leadership
The Resource Planning & Allocation Manager is not an administrative staffing role. It is a strategic operations function with direct revenue, margin, and scale impact.
Core Objectives
- Achieve and sustain 75% company-wide utilization (blended onshore/offshore)
- Establish a single, disciplined staffing and allocation system
- Optimize onshore vs offshore mix to support scale and margin
- Provide leadership with real-time visibility into capacity, demand, and risk
- Reduce delivery friction, bench inefficiency, and last-minute staffing escalations
Key Responsibilities
1. Company-Wide Resource Planning & Allocation
- Own the single intake process for all resource requests across practices:
- Billable delivery
- Revenue-linked pre-sales
- Strategic internal initiatives
- Validate all requests for:
- Role clarity
- Skill alignment
- Start date and duration
- Onshore vs offshore suitability
- Balance competing priorities across practices based on:
- Revenue impact
- Client commitments
- Utilization targets
- Strategic initiatives
Outcome: No ad-hoc staffing. No bypassing the system. Predictable delivery.
2. Utilization Management & Optimization (75% Target)
- Track and manage utilization across:
- Company
- Practice
- Role
- Onshore vs offshore
- Actively identify:
- Underutilized resources
- Bench aging risks
- Over-allocation and burnout signals
- Drive proactive redeployment of resources to improve utilization
- Partner with Practice Leads to rebalance staffing when utilization drops or spikes
Outcome: Utilization is actively managed, not reviewed after the fact.
3. Offshore Shared Services Coordination
- Serve as the primary onshore interface to the Offshore Resource Manager
- Coordinate demand planning for offshore shared services across practices
- Enforce staffing guardrails:
- Clear role definitions
- Ramp expectations
- Allocation discipline
- Ensure offshore resources are:
- Appropriately leveraged
- Properly utilized
- Allocated based on company-wide priorities
Important:
The Offshore Resource Manager handles day-to-day offshore staffing logistics.
The Resource Planning & Allocation Manager owns global orchestration and prioritization.
4. Pre-Sales & Pipeline Alignment
- Partner with Sales and Pre-Sales leadership to:
- Validate staffing feasibility for opportunities
- Assess start-date realism
- Identify capacity constraints early
- Ensure pre-sales resourcing is:
- Intentional
- Time-bound
- Aligned to revenue outcomes
- Prevent over-allocation of top performers into excessive pre-sales cycles
Outcome: Fewer fire drills. Higher conversion with realistic delivery commitments.
5. Margin & Cost Discipline
- Optimize team composition:
- Senior vs junior mix
- Onshore vs offshore balance
- Identify margin risk due to:
- Overstaffing
- Skill mismatches
- Prolonged non-billable allocations
- Partner with Finance and Ops to:
- Track revenue leakage
- Flag staffing inefficiencies early
Outcome: Staffing decisions support growth and profitability.
6. Workforce Forecasting & Hiring Signals
- Maintain rolling forecasts:
- 30 / 60 / 90-day demand outlook
- Practice-level capacity gaps
- Provide hiring recommendations based on:
- Sustained demand trends
- Skill shortages
- Offshore leverage opportunities
- Inform decisions on:
- Full-time vs contract
- Onshore vs offshore hiring
- Role seniority mix
Outcome: Hiring becomes proactive, not reactive.
7. Governance, SOPs & Cadence
- Define and enforce SOPs for:
- Resource requests
- Allocation approvals
- Escalations
- Swaps and backfills
- Run structured cadences:
- Weekly utilization & bench review
- Monthly capacity and forecast review
- Ensure consistency across practices while allowing for practical flexibility
Outcome: Resource operations run as a system, not tribal knowledge.
8. Reporting, Analytics & Leadership Visibility
- Own dashboards and reporting for:
- Utilization trends
- Bench aging
- Allocation by practice
- Offshore leverage
- Provide leadership with:
- Clear insights
- Risks
- Options (not just problems)
- Partner with Ops and Finance to align metrics across systems (PSA, CRM, etc.).
Required Experience & Skills
Experience
- 8–12+ years in consulting, professional services, or IT services organizations
- Direct experience with:
- Resource management
- Capacity planning
- Utilization tracking
- Experience operating in:
- Multi-practice environments
- Offshore / nearshore delivery models
- Comfortable supporting organizations in the 250–500 employee range
Core Skills
- Strong understanding of consulting delivery models
- Utilization, margin, and revenue math
- Workforce planning and forecasting
- Process design and operational discipline
- Advanced Excel / PSA / reporting tools
Critical Soft Skills
- Confident, neutral decision-making
- Ability to push back constructively
- Trusted partner to senior leadership
- Calm under pressure
- Systems thinker with strong judgment
Success Metrics (How This Role Is Measured)
- Company-wide utilization sustained at ~75%
- Reduced bench aging
- Improved offshore utilization and leverage
- Fewer last-minute staffing escalations
- Improved delivery predictability
- Positive feedback from Practice Leads and Delivery leaders
Cyclotron is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Cyclotron values diversity, equity and inclusion, and aims to practice DE&I in all that we do.
