Mr Cameron will drive to Buckingham Palace at around 5pm to tender his resignation to the Queen.
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May will later visit the palace, where the queen will ask her to form a new government.
The 59-year-old, who will become Britain’s second female prime minister after Margaret Thatcher, also has to attempt to bridge Conservative Party divisions and deal with a potential economic downturn.
Mr Cameron announced he was stepping down last month after he unsuccessfully campaigned in the referendum for the United Kingdom to remain in the European Union.
But with Mr Cameron on his last day in the job and Labour mired in a profound crisis, the atmosphere at today is likely to be very unusual.
“I came into Downing Street to confront our problems as a country and lead people through hard decisions so that together we could reach better times”, Cameron told The Telegraph.
He sought to deflect that criticism in an interview with the Daily Telegraph on Wednesday, saying: “As I leave, I hope people will see a stronger country, a thriving economy and more chances to get on in life”.
The contest had been due to last until September but ended unexpectedly on Monday when junior energy minister Andrea Leadsom, May’s last rival candidate after others were eliminated, abruptly pulled out. “It has been a privilege to serve the country I love”, he added.
After presenting herself as the unity candidate, the incoming leader is expected to offer plum posts to leading figures from both camps in the European Union referendum.
“Brext means Brexit, and we’re going to make a success of it”, she said last month.
He spoke of his “pride at the record of achievements for the Government”, and wished Mrs May “the support and friendship he had received” said he believed she was the right leader for the “difficult times ahead”.
Although a Remain supporter, Mrs May has repeatedly stressed that “Brexit means Brexit” and the hunt for a building to house the department that will steer Britain out of the European Union is already under way.
She is expected to promote women ministers to several senior roles, and Cameron’s long-serving finance minister George Osborne could lose his job, according to media reports.
The issue of Brexit though will loom large throughout her premiership.
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“Theresa May’s virtual “coronation” as prime minister has delivered a boost to the pound as the clouds of uncertainty following the Brexit vote start to disperse”, said market analyst Neil Wilson at ETX Capital, a financial trading company in London. She is expected to appoint her successor as Home Secretary, a position she has held since 2010.
