Manager PMO

The Manager PMO will lead the Bank’s enterprise project governance and portfolio delivery oversight, ensuring consistent governance and clear accountability across strategic initiatives, business programs, technology changes, releases, and external partnerships. This role provides senior management with a comprehensive view of portfolio health, delivery risks, dependencies, resource constraints, and required decisions. The Manager PMO actively strengthens execution discipline by challenging delivery plans, facilitating cross-functional decisions, and escalating critical issues to maintain alignment with business outcomes.

Key Responsibilities

- Own and continuously enhance the PMO governance framework, including policies, standards, templates, stage gates, escalation paths, and delivery methodologies across Agile, Waterfall, and Hybrid projects. Translate enterprise priorities into a governed portfolio aligned with business vertical plans and measurable outcomes. Establish and manage project intake, business-case review, prioritization, approval, change control, closure, and post-implementation review processes with appropriate governance based on project value, complexity, risk, regulatory impact, and delivery capacity.

- Maintain an integrated enterprise portfolio view encompassing strategic alignment, scope, milestones, financials, resource demand, risks, issues, dependencies, decisions, and expected benefits. Facilitate portfolio prioritization with executive sponsors, challenge delivery assumptions, identify slippages early, and directly oversee high-priority or at-risk programs when necessary.

- Oversee governance for digital banking products, core banking changes, system enhancements, APIs, channels, integrations, and operational platforms. Coordinate with business, IT, operations, information security, risk, compliance, finance, vendors, and implementation partners to monitor requirements readiness, development, testing, UAT, defect resolution, business sign-off, release readiness, deployment, operational handover, and post-implementation review. Track technology-provider and third-party dependencies while maintaining accountability with technical owners.

- Ensure project plans address regulatory, compliance, information security, data privacy, operational risk, business continuity, audit, and control dependencies. Collaborate with specialist control functions responsible for risk assessment and approvals. Track control actions, audit findings, risk acceptances, policy dependencies, and approvals through to closure, escalating material risks and control gaps to executive sponsors and governance forums.

- Provide governance for external partnerships, third-party platforms, service providers, and technology integrations. Monitor partner deliverables, API/specification reviews, service readiness, implementation milestones, commercial approvals, and dependencies. Coordinate with business owners, Procurement, Legal, Finance, Risk, Compliance, and Information Security, maintaining action logs and escalation routes for partner queries, vendor delays, scope changes, and implementation risks.

- Own the quality and timeliness of executive portfolio dashboards, management reports, and presentations covering delivery health, milestones, budget, risks, dependencies, decisions, benefits, and recovery actions. Convert detailed project data into concise management insights, prepare and facilitate portfolio reviews, steering committees, and governance forums. Record decisions, assign owners and due dates, monitor closure, and escalate significant slippages with evidence and recommendations.

- Coordinate with Finance, sponsors, and delivery owners on project budgets, estimates, forecasts, expenditure tracking, and change-impact assessments. Monitor resource capacity, utilization, and competing priorities, facilitating resolution with accountable leaders. Ensure initiatives have defined success measures, adoption indicators, and benefits realization plans owned by business sponsors. Support business-case development and post-implementation reviews.

- Lead, coach, and develop PMO staff, project managers, and coordinators by setting clear responsibilities, performance expectations, and escalation practices. Foster a culture of delivery accountability, constructive challenge, transparent reporting, and collaboration. Drive adoption of consistent tools, documentation, and reporting standards across functions. Influence senior stakeholders to resolve competing priorities and encourage timely decisions.

- Manage or coordinate effective use of project and portfolio tools such as Jira, Microsoft Project, Excel, and Power BI. Improve the quality, consistency, and timeliness of portfolio data, dashboards, action logs, risk registers, dependency maps, and executive reports. Use portfolio trends and delivery data to identify recurring bottlenecks, forecasting weaknesses, capacity constraints, and opportunities for execution improvement.

Required Qualifications

- Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Finance, Engineering, IT, or a related discipline. An MBA or relevant master’s degree is preferred.

- Minimum of 8 years of progressive experience in project, program, portfolio, transformation, or PMO roles, including at least 4 years in a PMO/EPMO, program, or portfolio leadership position.

- Proven success leading cross-functional, technology-enabled initiatives such as system implementations, integrations, product releases, and operational transformations.

- Strong expertise in establishing or enhancing governance frameworks, portfolio reporting, prioritization, risk and issue management, and change control.

- Experience presenting portfolio health, delivery risks, and recovery recommendations to senior management.

- Background in banking, fintech, digital banking, payments, or other regulated environments is preferred, with familiarity in core banking, APIs, UAT, release management, and regulatory, audit, and compliance requirements.

- Professional certifications such as PMP, PgMP, PfMP, PRINCE2, SAFe, or equivalent are preferred.

Skills and Competencies

- Expertise in enterprise PMO governance, portfolio and program management, project intake, business-case review, prioritization, stage gates, and change control across Agile, Waterfall, and Hybrid methodologies.

- Strong skills in risk, issue, dependency, change, and recovery management, including challenging delivery plans and escalating material slippages.

- Deep understanding of technology-enabled delivery and release governance, including digital banking, core banking, APIs, integrations, testing/UAT, release readiness, deployment, and operational handover.

- Working knowledge of project financials, resource planning, delivery metrics, benefits realization, and regulatory, information security, audit, and compliance dependencies within financial services.

- Proficiency in project and portfolio management tools such as Jira, Microsoft Project, Excel, and Power BI (or equivalents) for dashboards, action logs, risk registers, and dependency mapping.

Raqami Bank is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive workplace where all qualified individuals, including Persons with Disabilities (PWDs), have the opportunity to succeed.

Applications are accepted until November 15, 2026.