Manager - Project Management - Payments

This role owns the PMO's operating model across noqodi's strategic programme portfolio: governance forums, reporting, action tracking, change control, document control and regulatory evidence. The Manager runs the portfolio's day-to-day governance rhythm and keeps it accurate and on time, so the Senior Project Manager can concentrate on delivery leadership, the critical path and the strategic initiatives.

The Manager owns PMO processes, standards and day-to-day tracking, and can lead selected workstreams end to end. Portfolio priorities, scope and timeline re-baselining, escalations to the CEO, Group CEO and SteerCo, regulatory, contractual and commercial positions, and commitments made to counterparties stay with the Senior Project Manager.

1. PMO governance and standards

• Own the PMO governance framework: project lifecycle, stage gates, RACI, templates and reporting standards.

• Make sure every programme follows the framework, and close gaps with programme and squad leads.

• Keep one consolidated view of the portfolio: UAEPay, Acquiring, Card Issuance, IO Backbone, Onboarding, AaNI, Compliance, Merchant Reconciliation and new programmes as they start.

• Improve PMO processes and tools over time, and propose changes to the Senior Project Manager.

2. Governance forums and reporting

• Run the governance calendar: programme meetings, workshops, the weekly Group CEO update and the bi-weekly SteerCos (UAEPay, Acquiring, Card Issuance).

• Own the weekly Group CEO update and the SteerCo packs end to end, from collecting status data to a review-ready pack for the Senior Project Manager.

• Make sure agendas, pre-reads, minutes and action logs are issued on time for every forum.

• Maintain the PMO dashboards (milestones, actions, risks and change requests), and prepare ad-hoc analyses and board pack inputs.

3. Action, risk and dependency management

• Own the portfolio action tracker, and drive 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 flag slippage on the critical path early, with impact and options.

4. Change control and document control

• Run the change control process: intake, logging, first-pass impact assessment and the change register.

• Prepare change request analysis (contract basis, scope, effort and timeline impact) for the Senior Project Manager's decision.

• Own document control: versioning, filing and access for project documents, specifications, contracts and sign-offs.

• Track NOC, contract and counterparty onboarding submissions through to approval.

5. Regulatory and audit readiness

• Own the evidence tracker for the CBUAE outsourcing and partnership findings remediation, and keep the evidence pack 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.

6. Workstream delivery and Agile support

• Lead selected workstreams or smaller projects end to end, as assigned by the Senior Project Manager.

• Support the move of every squad to one Agile/Scrum rhythm: 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.

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Information Technology, Engineering, Finance or a related field.

• PMP, PRINCE2 Practitioner or an Agile certification (for example PSM I) is a strong advantage.

Experience

• 5–7 years in project, programme or PMO management, including at least 3 years running PMO governance or reporting for a portfolio.

• Has run governance forums and executive reporting for several programmes at once.

• Has led projects or workstreams end to end with internal teams and external vendors.

• Experience in banking, payments or fintech is a strong advantage.

• Experience working with UAE regulators or government entities is a strong advantage.

Technical and domain knowledge

• Programme governance: stage gates, RAID management, change control, RACI, milestone and dependency tracking.

• Agile/Scrum delivery: ceremonies, backlog management and delivery metrics.

• Project and collaboration tools such as Jira, Confluence, MS Project and SharePoint; advanced Excel and PowerPoint.

• Payments and fintech delivery: cards, acquiring, wallets, bank and government integrations.

• The CBUAE regulatory context, including outsourcing and audit requirements, is an advantage.

Skills

• Structured and rigorous: builds governance that teams actually follow.

• Leads through influence: gets results from programme, product, IT and compliance teams without managing them directly.

• Clear executive writing and presentation skills; turns status data into concise CEO and SteerCo packs.

• Confident with senior stakeholders and external counterparties, and knows when to escalate.

• Discreet with confidential, regulatory and commercial information.

• Fluent English; Arabic is an advantage.