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Project & Change Lead - Data & AI Services

Unlock employer Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates Direct to Company 1 hour ago · 23 Oct 2026

Financial

  • Estimate: $80k - $120k/yr*
  • Zero income tax location

Accessibility

  • Office Only
  • Visa Provided

Requirements

  • Experience: Senior
  • English: Professional

Position

ABOUT THE ROLE

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As a Project & Change Lead - Data & AI Services, you play a key role in scaling and maturing the company's Data Shared Service Center (Data SSC). Your primary responsibility is to lead onboarding projects for new data services and capabilities, ensuring successful implementation, stakeholder adoption, and operational integration. You act as the link between business stakeholders, operational teams, and technology teams, coordinating activities across People, Process, and Technology. Success is measured not only by delivering projects on time, but by ensuring new services are understood, adopted, and embedded into daily operations.

Working closely with Product Owners, business stakeholders, IT teams, and shared service teams, you help transform new opportunities into structured, sustainable, and value-adding services. Knowledge of Data Governance and Master Data Management is beneficial but not essential for success in this role.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Project Delivery & Service Onboarding

  • Lead onboarding projects for new services, capabilities, and data domains within the Data Shared Service Centre.
  • Develop project plans, manage timelines, risks, dependencies, and stakeholder expectations.
  • Coordinate activities across business, operational, and technology teams to deliver successful outcomes.
  • Monitor project progress and ensure smooth transition into operational service delivery.

Change Management & Adoption

  • Drive stakeholder engagement, communication, and readiness activities to support adoption of new services.
  • Facilitate workshops, alignment sessions, and change discussions across business functions.
  • Support training and adoption activities that enable sustainable ways of working.
  • Ensure new services are understood, accepted, and embedded into daily operations.

Stakeholder & Cross-Functional Coordination

  • Collaborate with business stakeholders, product teams, and technical teams across the company.
  • Coordinate decisions, dependencies, priorities, and risks across multiple workstreams.
  • Build alignment between business objectives and project outcomes.
  • Provide clear visibility on project status, risks, issues, and achievements.

Continuous Improvement

  • Support the development of operating procedures, service documentation, KPIs, and onboarding standards.
  • Identify opportunities to improve onboarding efficiency and service quality.
  • Capture lessons learned and incorporate improvements into future projects.
  • Contribute to the growth and maturity of the Data Shared Service Centre.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

  • Successful onboarding of new data objects and services into the Data SSC.
  • High levels of stakeholder adoption and engagement.
  • Delivery of transformation initiatives within agreed scope, timeline, quality, and budget objectives.
  • Effective implementation of change management and communication strategies.
  • Improved consistency, transparency, and governance of Data SSC services.
  • Increased operational efficiency through standardized service delivery models.
  • Strong alignment between business objectives, governance requirements, and operational capabilities.
  • Contribution to the company's broader Data & AI transformation strategy.

QUALIFICATIONS

Education:

  • Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration, Organizational Change, Information Management, Data Management, Information Systems, Project Management, or a related discipline.
  • Project Management and/or Change Management certifications are preferred.

Experience:

  • We are looking for a hands-on professional with 4-7 years of experience who can bring structure and momentum to a growing and evolving environment.

You bring:

  • Experience in Project Management, Project Coordination, Change Management, or Transformation initiatives.
  • Proven track record of delivering projects involving multiple stakeholders and workstreams.
  • Experience working within IT, Shared Services, Digital Transformation, Data, or Business Operations environments.
  • Experience driving adoption of new processes, systems, or services.
  • Exposure to enterprise platforms such as SAP, Workday, Salesforce, ServiceNow, or similar solutions.

Business Knowledge:

  • Understanding of Project Management methodologies such as PMP, Agile, Prince2, Scrum, or similar frameworks.
  • Understanding of Change Management approaches such as ADKAR, Prosci, or similar methodologies.
  • Knowledge of stakeholder engagement, service onboarding, and organizational adoption.
  • Familiarity with Shared Services operating models.
  • Basic understanding of Data Governance and Master Data Management concepts is considered an advantage.

Technical Skills:

  • Project Management
  • Change Management
  • Stakeholder Management
  • Risk & Dependency Management
  • Service Onboarding & Service Transition
  • Process Design & Improvement
  • SAP, Workday, Salesforce, ServiceNow, IFS or similar enterprise platforms
  • Microsoft 365
  • Reporting and Dashboarding Tools

Soft Skills:

  • Exceptional stakeholder management and influencing skills.
  • Strong facilitation and workshop leadership capabilities.
  • Excellent communication and presentation skills.
  • Structured and analytical mindset.
  • Strong problem-solving abilities.
  • Ability to create clarity in complex environments.
  • Collaborative and relationship-oriented approach.
  • Strong organizational and planning capabilities.
  • Professional proficiency in English, both written and spoken.

WHO YOU ARE

You are a structured and pragmatic professional who knows how to deliver projects and drive change in complex environments. You are comfortable coordinating stakeholders, managing priorities, facilitating discussions, and helping teams adopt new ways of working. You bring a hands-on approach to project delivery and are able to balance business needs, operational requirements, and technology considerations.

You are proactive, collaborative, and results-oriented, with strong project management, stakeholder engagement, and change management skills. You enjoy creating clarity, building alignment, and turning plans into practical outcomes that deliver measurable value and support the successful onboarding of new services and capabilities across the organization.

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