About the Role
This role owns the PMO's operating model across the strategic programme portfolio, encompassing governance forums, reporting, action tracking, change control, document control, and regulatory evidence. The Manager is responsible for the portfolio's day-to-day governance rhythm, ensuring it remains accurate and timely, which allows the Senior Project Manager to focus on delivery leadership, the critical path, and strategic initiatives.
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Responsibilities
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PMO Governance and Standards
- Own the PMO governance framework: project lifecycle, stage gates, RACI, templates, and reporting standards.
- Ensure every programme adheres to the framework, addressing any gaps with programme and squad leads.
- Maintain a consolidated view of the portfolio, including UAEPay, Acquiring, Card Issuance, IO Backbone, Onboarding, AaNI, Compliance, Merchant Reconciliation, and new programmes as they start.
- Continuously improve PMO processes and tools and propose changes to the Senior Project Manager.
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Governance Forums and Reporting
- Manage the governance calendar, including programme meetings, workshops, weekly Group CEO updates, and bi-weekly SteerCos (UAEPay, Acquiring, Card Issuance).
- Take ownership of the weekly Group CEO update and SteerCo packs from status data collection to a review-ready pack for the Senior Project Manager.
- Ensure timely issuance of agendas, pre-reads, minutes, and action logs for all forums.
- Maintain PMO dashboards (milestones, actions, risks, and change requests) and prepare ad-hoc analyses and board pack inputs.
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Action, Risk, and Dependency Management
- Oversee the portfolio action tracker and drive the closure of open actions with internal teams and external counterparties, including banks, acquirers, card schemes, and government entities.
- Maintain the RAID log (risks, assumptions, issues, and dependencies) for each programme, proposing RAG ratings and mitigations to the Senior Project Manager.
- Track cross-programme dependencies and flag any slippage on the critical path early, providing impact and options.
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Change Control and Document Control
- Manage the change control process: intake, logging, initial impact assessments, and maintain the change register.
- Prepare change request analyses (contract basis, scope, effort, and timeline impact) for the Senior Project Manager's decision.
- Own document control, including versioning, filing, and access for project documents, specifications, contracts, and sign-offs.
- Track NOC, contract, and counterparty onboarding submissions until approval.
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Regulatory and Audit Readiness
- Own the evidence tracker for the CBUAE outsourcing and partnership findings remediation, maintaining a ready evidence pack for review.
- Coordinate document packs for audit, compliance, and scheme certification requests in collaboration with Compliance, Risk, and programme teams.
- Collect and track counterparty onboarding documents.
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Workstream Delivery and Agile Support
- Lead selected workstreams or smaller projects end to end, as assigned by the Senior Project Manager.
- Support the transition to an Agile/Scrum rhythm for every squad, including sprint ceremonies, backlog hygiene, and a shared definition of done.
- Track sprint metrics, such as velocity, epic delivery, and cross-squad dependencies, and report trends against the quarterly roadmap.
Requirements
- Education
- Bachelor's degree in Business, Information Technology, Engineering, Finance, or a related field.
- PMP, PRINCE2 Practitioner, or Agile certification (e.g., PSM I) is a strong advantage.
- Experience
- 5–7 years in project, programme, or PMO management, including at least 3 years in PMO governance or reporting for a portfolio.
- Experience running governance forums and executive reporting for multiple programmes simultaneously.
- Proven ability to lead projects or workstreams end to end with internal teams and external vendors is essential.
- Prior experience in banking, payments, or fintech is a significant advantage.
- Experience collaborating with UAE regulators or government entities is a strong asset.
- Technical and Domain Knowledge
- Familiarity with programme governance: stage gates, RAID management, change control, RACI, and milestone and dependency tracking.
- Understanding Agile/Scrum delivery processes: ceremonies, backlog management, and delivery metrics.
- Proficiency in project and collaboration tools such as Jira, Confluence, MS Project, SharePoint, as well as advanced Excel and PowerPoint skills.
- Knowledge of payments and fintech delivery, including cards, acquiring, wallets, and integrations with banks and government entities.
- Awareness of the CBUAE regulatory context, including outsourcing and audit requirements, is beneficial.
- Skills
- Structured and rigorous, with the ability to build governance frameworks that teams actively adhere to.
- Ability to lead through influence, achieving results from programme, product, IT, and compliance teams without direct management.
- Strong executive writing and presentation skills, able to translate status data into concise CEO and SteerCo packs.
- Comfortable engaging with senior stakeholders and external counterparties, knowing when to escalate critical issues.
- Discreet in handling confidential, regulatory, and commercial information.
- Fluent in English; proficiency in Arabic is advantageous.
