IT Programme Manager - Insurance/Banking

Cornerstone Global Partners (CGP Group); Hong Kong; On-site; HKD 1,900,000 - 3,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Cornerstone Global Partners (CGP Group) is seeking a Senior IT Project Manager to lead large-scale technology initiatives end to end in Hong Kong. You will personally own project budgets and deliver outcomes, with direct accountability for finance and scheduling.

The role requires a delivery leader with hands-on budget management, strong stakeholder and vendor governance, risk control and a proven ability to drive projects from initiation through closure.

Qualifications

• Experience leading IT projects with budgets of US$5 million or more.
• Strong financial acumen and end-to-end budget ownership.
• Delivery leadership with hands-on budget management.
• Experience in financial services preferred.

Responsibilities

• Lead projects from initiation to closure, defining scope, milestones, resources and acceptance criteria.
• Maintain an integrated delivery plan and manage performance against scope, schedule, budget and quality commitments.
• Coordinate internal teams and external vendors; manage changes through impact assessment and change control.
• Provide transparent reporting on budget utilisation, forecast outturn, financial risks and funding decisions.
• Manage risks, issues and incidents with escalation plans and governance logs.
• Prepare steering committee materials and concise project reports covering delivery progress, finances, risks, issues and decisions required.

Skills

Budget management

Stakeholder management

Risk management

Vendor management

IT project management

Cross-functional leadership

Job description

The Senior IT Project Manager will lead large-scale technology projects end to end, with direct, hands-on accountability for project budgets of US$5 million or above. The role requires a delivery leader who personally manages project financials and delivery outcomes, rather than providing coordination support to another budget-owning project or programme manager.

Experience in financial services, particularly insurance or banking, is preferred.

Key Responsibilities

End-to-End Project Delivery

• Lead projects from initiation, business case development and planning through execution, testing, implementation, operational handover and closure.
• Define scope, deliverables, milestones, resource requirements, dependencies and acceptance criteria with business and technology stakeholders.
• Maintain an integrated delivery plan and manage performance against scope, schedule, budget and quality commitments.
• Coordinate internal teams and external vendors, resolve delivery blockers and manage changes through formal impact assessment and change control.

Direct Budget Ownership and Financial Control

• Personally manage project budgets of US$5 million or above, with direct accountability for financial planning, tracking, forecasting and control.
• Develop and maintain budget baselines, expenditure forecasts and estimates to complete in partnership with Finance and relevant delivery owners.
• Track actual expenditure and committed costs, reconcile variances and drive corrective action where financial performance deviates from plan.
• Assess the financial implications of scope, resource, vendor and schedule changes, presenting recommendations and obtaining required approvals.
• Provide transparent reporting on budget utilisation, forecast outturn, financial risks and funding decisions required.
• Work within delegated approval limits while retaining hands-on responsibility for project financial management.

Risk, Issue and Incident Management

• Maintain clear ownership of project risks, assumptions, issues and dependencies, with appropriate mitigation and escalation plans.
• Coordinate incident response throughout delivery, including incidents affecting testing, migration, implementation and post-launch stabilisation.
• Drive impact assessment, triage, escalation, recovery planning and stakeholder communications with the relevant technical and operational owners.
• Ensure contingency, rollback and operational readiness plans are established before implementation.
• Facilitate root cause analysis and track corrective and preventive actions through to closure.

Stakeholder, Vendor and Governance Management

• Manage relationships with business sponsors, senior technology stakeholders, Finance, operations, risk functions and vendors.
• Align stakeholders on priorities, investment decisions, delivery trade-offs and project outcomes.
• Manage vendor deliverables and financial commitments against agreed project requirements.
• Prepare steering committee materials and concise project reports covering delivery progress, finances, risks, issues and decisions required.
• Maintain effective governance, decision logs and action tracking throughout the project lifecycle.
• Proven experience personally leading IT projects with an individual project budget of US$5 million or above.
• Demonstrable direct, hands-on budget management, including baseline planning, expenditure and commitment tracking, forecasting, variance analysis and financial change control.
• Ability to clearly explain personal financial accountability, decisions made, actions taken and resulting project outcomes.
• End-to-end project delivery experience, from initiation through implementation, operational transition and closure.
• Strong delivery management, risk management, stakeholder management and project reporting capabilities.
• A solid practical foundation in incident handling and escalation across project stages.
• Ability to lead cross-functional teams and manage complex dependencies and competing stakeholder priorities.

Budget Ownership Assessment

• Candidates must demonstrate that they personally managed the qualifying project budget, not simply the overall value of a programme in which they participated.
• Indirect budget exposure, consolidation of financial reports without ownership, or shadowing a senior project or programme manager who retained financial control does not satisfy the Senior IT Project Manager requirement.
• Experience managing a smaller workstream within a US$5 million-plus programme does not meet the threshold unless the candidate directly managed a qualifying budget of US$5 million or above.
• Assessment should establish the project budget, the candidate's own financial responsibilities, their approval and escalation arrangements, and concrete examples of managing forecasts, variances and cost-related decisions.