Senior Strategic Projects & Portfolio Manager

Confidential Careers; Abu Dhabi Emirate; On-site; AED 350,000 - 650,000; Full time

Job summary

The Strategic Project Manager will support the management, coordination, monitoring, and delivery of a portfolio of strategic projects and cross-government initiatives in Abu Dhabi.

The role requires an experienced project management professional who can independently oversee multiple complex projects, coordinate with government entities and senior stakeholders, monitor progress against milestones, identify risks, and provide clear management-level reporting and recommendations.

Qualifications

• Minimum 10 years of relevant project management experience.
• Strong preference for candidates with experience in government, semi-government, public sector, or government-related organisations.
• Demonstrated experience managing complex, cross-government or multi-entity projects.
• Strong experience managing multiple strategic projects or programmes concurrently.
• Proven ability to engage and coordinate with senior stakeholders across different organisations.
• Strong knowledge of project governance, project planning, risk management, dependency management, and performance monitoring.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret project information and identify issues, trends, and required interventions.
• Excellent executive-level reporting and presentation skills.
• Strong follow-up skills with the ability to drive accountability without direct authority over stakeholders.
• Ability to work independently with limited supervision and manage competing priorities.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• PMP, PRINCE2, or equivalent project management certification is preferred.

Responsibilities

• Manage and monitor a portfolio of strategic projects and initiatives.
• Coordinate projects involving multiple government entities, departments, and external stakeholders.
• Develop and maintain project plans, milestones, deliverables, timelines, and action trackers.
• Track a high volume of projects simultaneously and ensure progress against agreed objectives and deadlines.
• Follow up with project owners and stakeholders to ensure actions and deliverables are completed on time.
• Identify project risks, issues, dependencies, and potential delays and ensure appropriate mitigation actions are developed and followed through.
• Escalate critical risks, delays, and decision points to management with clear recommendations.
• Prepare executive-level dashboards, progress reports, presentations, and project updates.
• Analyse project performance and provide management with insights on progress, risks, bottlenecks, and areas requiring intervention.
• Facilitate project meetings and governance forums, ensuring decisions and actions are clearly documented and followed up.
• Coordinate across different workstreams and entities to resolve dependencies and maintain project momentum.
• Support senior management in prioritising initiatives and monitoring overall portfolio performance.
• Maintain accurate project documentation, status reports, risk registers, decision logs, and action trackers.
• Drive accountability across project teams while maintaining effective relationships with senior internal and external stakeholders.

Skills

Project management

Stakeholder management

Governance

Risk management

Reporting

Communication

Job description

The Strategic Project Manager will support the management, coordination, monitoring, and delivery of a portfolio of strategic projects and cross-government initiatives in Abu Dhabi.

The role requires an experienced project management professional who can independently oversee multiple complex projects, coordinate with government entities and senior stakeholders, monitor progress against milestones, identify risks, and provide clear management-level reporting and recommendations.