Strategic Projects Manager

Cognita Schools; Dubai; On-site; AED 300,000 - 420,000; Full time

Job summary

Cognita is a global family of 86 schools seeking a Strategic Projects Manager to drive People & Culture initiatives across markets—from scoping to handover. You'll own the P&C portfolio, partner with Heads of P&C, Technology teams and stakeholders to deliver on time, realise value, and embed new processes into everyday practice.

This is a high-visibility, individual-contributor role. Essential requirements include 7–10 years of project management experience in HR or transformation, with strong

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in HR, Business Administration or a related field.
• 7–10 years' progressive experience in project or programme management, HR transformation or HR business partnering.
• Proven track record delivering multiple strategic initiatives on time.
• Experience partnering with senior leaders to align projects with strategic priorities.
• Experience with technology-enabled HR initiatives and vendor management.
• Strong stakeholder management and change management skills.

Responsibilities

• Deliver strategic projects end to end with defined scope, milestones, owners and success measures.
• Run governance, status reporting, risk tracking and escalation.
• Identify risks and resourcing constraints and drive timely resolution.
• Track outcomes post-delivery and ensure embedding into business as usual.
• Collaborate with HR leaders and technology teams to scope and deliver HRIS enhancements and digital processes.

Skills

Stakeholder management

Change management

People analytics

Communication

Influencing

HRIS familiarity

Vendor management

Leadership

Education

Bachelor's or Master's degree in HR, Business Admin or related field

Tools

HRIS systems

Job description

Cognita is a global family of 86 schools across 20 countries, with more than 100,000 students, 22,000 colleagues, 14 curricula and 9 languages of instruction. Our strength lies in our diversity. There is no single model of a Cognita school because education is inherently local. When families choose a school, they are making a deeply personal and community-based decision, and our schools reflect this.

What unites us is a shared ambition to deliver consistently high-quality education, alongside an exceptional experience for students and parents. We define this clearly through group-wide standards that articulate what "great" looks like, while allowing schools the freedom to express their local identity.

We have recently launched a new vision and strategic plan. It is ambitious and sets a clear direction for the years ahead.

Job Overview

Cognita's People & Culture (P&C) function has ambitious plans for the years ahead. As Strategic Projects Manager, you'll make sure they get delivered, turning strategic priorities into projects that land on time and make a lasting difference.

You'll own P&C's portfolio of strategic projects from scoping through to handover. You'll work with P&C Heads, Technology teams and stakeholders across the business to make sure projects land on time, deliver their intended value and become part of everyday practice. This is an individual contributor role with high visibility and real influence on how we build forward-looking people processes across multiple markets.

What you'll do

Deliver strategic projects end to end

• Turn strategic priorities into clear plans with defined scope, milestones, owners and success measures
• Run project governance, including status reporting, risk and dependency tracking, prioritisation and escalation
• Spot risks, interdependencies and resourcing constraints early and drive timely resolution
• Track outcomes after delivery so projects realise their value and embed into business as usual

Shape the roadmap and people practices

• Partner with P&C Heads to align each priority to the P&C roadmap, sequencing initiatives for maximum impact
• Design and embed robust, forward-looking people processes with internal and external stakeholders
• Bring market trends, benchmarks and best practice to inform the roadmap and project design
• Lead change management and communications, building awareness and adoption among managers, employees and P&C colleagues

Collaborate across Technology and the business

• Work with Technology teams to scope, prioritise and deliver technology-enabled initiatives, including HR systems enhancements and digitisation of people processes
• Partner with cross-functional stakeholders, regional HR teams and school and function leaders to secure input and shared ownership of outcomes
• Manage external vendors, consultants and implementation partners, tracking deliverables, timelines and performance

What you'll bring

Essential

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Human Resources, Business Administration or a related field
• 7-10 years' progressive experience in project or programme management, HR transformation or HR business partnering, ideally in a large, multi-country organisation
• A proven record of delivering multiple strategic initiatives to agreed timelines, including leading projects end to end, ideally in a People & Culture or HR context
• Experience partnering with senior leaders and heads of function to align projects with wider strategic priorities
• Experience working with Technology teams on technology-enabled initiatives such as HRIS implementations or enhancements
• Experience managing external vendors and consultants
• Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills, and confidence analysing and presenting project and people insights at all levels
• A confident communicator with strong change management skills, who is collaborative, people-centred and able to bring others through change

Desirable

• Professional project management certification (e.g. PMP, PRINCE2, Agile) and/or HR certification such as CIPD or SHRM-CP/SCP
• Experience in a global or regional role, partnering with HR teams across multiple markets
• Experience leading change management and communications for people-related initiatives
• Exposure to the education or wider services sector
• Working knowledge of HR systems and digital HR tools

This role is based in Dubai, and you'll work with colleagues and stakeholders across multiple markets, so some flexibility across time zones will be needed.

Cognita is committed to safeguarding the welfare of children and young people and expects the same from its employees. All new staff will be subject to detailed and enhanced pre-employment clearance, including identity checks, criminal background checks for all countries lived in, qualification checks, employment checks to include an exploration of any gaps in employment, and satisfactory reference checks for all employment in the last 10 years.