About the Role
This role owns the PMO's operating model across a strategic programme portfolio, which includes governance forums, reporting, action tracking, change control, document control, and regulatory evidence. The Manager ensures the portfolio's day-to-day governance rhythm is accurate and on time, allowing the Senior Project Manager to focus on delivery leadership, the critical path, and strategic initiatives.
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Key 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 and close gaps with programme and squad leads.
- Maintain a consolidated view of the portfolio, which includes UAEPay, Acquiring, Card Issuance, IO Backbone, Onboarding, AaNI, Compliance, Merchant Reconciliation, and new programmes as they commence.
- Continuously improve PMO processes and tools, proposing changes to the Senior Project Manager as necessary.
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Governance Forums and Reporting
- Run the governance calendar, including programme meetings, workshops, the weekly Group CEO update, and bi-weekly SteerCo sessions (UAEPay, Acquiring, Card Issuance).
- Own the weekly Group CEO update and SteerCo packs from data collection to producing a review-ready package for the Senior Project Manager.
- Ensure timely issuance of agendas, pre-reads, minutes, and action logs for all forums.
- Maintain PMO dashboards covering milestones, actions, risks, and change requests, and prepare ad-hoc analyses and board pack inputs.
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Action, Risk, and Dependency Management
- Own 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 and propose RAG ratings and mitigations to the Senior Project Manager.
- Track cross-programme dependencies and timely flag slippage on the critical path with potential impacts and options.
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Change Control and Document Control
- Manage the change control process, including intake, logging, first-pass impact assessment, and maintaining the change register.
- Prepare change request analyses (contract basis, scope, effort, and timeline impact) for decisions by the Senior Project Manager.
- Own document control processes: versioning, filing, and access for project documents, specifications, contracts, and sign-offs.
- Track NOC, contract, and counterparty onboarding submissions through to approval.
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Regulatory and Audit Readiness
- Own the evidence tracker for the CBUAE outsourcing and partnership findings remediation, ensuring the evidence pack is ready for review.
- Coordinate document packs for audit, compliance, and scheme certification requests with Compliance, Risk, and the 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 each squad's transition to a unified Agile/Scrum rhythm, including sprint ceremonies, backlog hygiene, and the shared definition of done.
- Track sprint metrics (such as velocity, epic delivery, and cross-squad dependencies) and report trends against the quarterly roadmap.
Education
- Bachelor's degree in Business, Information Technology, Engineering, Finance, or a related field.
- PMP, PRINCE2 Practitioner, or an Agile certification (e.g., PSM I) is a strong advantage.
Experience
- 5–7 years in project, programme, or PMO management, including a minimum of 3 years managing PMO governance or reporting for a portfolio.
- Experienced with governance forums and executive reporting for multiple programmes concurrently.
- Proven track record of leading projects or workstreams end to end involving both internal teams and external vendors.
- Experience in banking, payments, or fintech is a strong advantage.
- Familiarity with UAE regulators or government entities is also a strong advantage.
Technical and Domain Knowledge
- Programme governance: stage gates, RAID management, change control, RACI, milestone, and dependency tracking.
- Agile/Scrum delivery practices: ceremonies, backlog management, and delivery metrics.
- Proficiency in project and collaboration tools such as Jira, Confluence, MS Project, and SharePoint; advanced skills in Excel and PowerPoint.
- Knowledge in payments and fintech delivery: including cards, acquiring, wallets, bank, and government integrations.
- Understanding of the CBUAE regulatory context, including outsourcing and audit requirements, is advantageous.
Skills
- Structured and rigorous approach to building governance processes that are adhered to by teams.
- Ability to lead through influence, achieving results from programme, product, IT, and compliance teams without direct management.
- Strong executive writing and presentation skills; capable of transforming status data into concise updates for CEO and SteerCo.
- Confidently engage with senior stakeholders and external counterparts and discern the appropriate moments to escalate issues.
- Maintain discretion with confidential, regulatory, and commercial information.
- Fluent in English; proficiency in Arabic is an advantage.
