Digital Program Manager

DFI Retail Group; Selangor; On-site; MYR 234,000 - 313,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading retail company in Malaysia is searching for a Digital Program Manager to oversee its digital roadmap effectively. The role involves maintaining an organized portfolio for digital initiatives, ensuring project requirements are met, and proactively managing risks associated with resource allocation. The ideal candidate will have 5 to 7 years of experience in program management, with proficiency in Excel and fluency in English and Mandarin. Join the dynamic environment focused on digital innovation.

Qualifications

• 5 to 7 years of experience in PMO or Program Management with horizontal focus.
• Proven track record in digital roadmap planning.
• Experience in a Regional Hub or Matrix Organisation is mandatory.

Responsibilities

• Maintain the 'Single Source of Truth' for the Group Digital Portfolio.
• Proactively identify resource conflicts and scheduling overlaps.
• Drive the use of unified templates for roadmap submissions.
• Manage handover of projects from planning to active tracking.

Skills

Horizontal portfolio management

Cross-functional alignment

Advanced Excel proficiency

Fluent English and Mandarin

Job description

DFI Retail Group (the ‘Group’) is a leading pan-Asian retailer. At 31st December 2023, the Group and its associates and joint ventures operated some 11,000 outlets and employed some 213,000 people. The Group had total annual revenue in 2023 exceeding US$26 billion.

The Group provides quality and value to Asian consumers by offering leading brands, a compelling retail experience and great service; all delivered through a strong store network supported by efficient supply chains.

The Group (including associates and joint ventures) operates under a number of well‑known brands across food, convenience, health and beauty, home furnishings, restaurants and other retailing.

The Group’s parent company, DFI Retail Group Holdings Limited, is incorporated in Bermuda and has a primary listing in the standard segment of the London Stock Exchange, with secondary listings in Bermuda and Singapore. The Group’s businesses are managed from Hong Kong by DFI Retail Group Management Services Limited through its regional offices.

DFI Retail Group is a member of the Jardine Matheson Group.

The role

We are seeking a high‑caliber Digital Program Manager to lead the orchestration and horizontal management of the DFI Group Digital roadmap. Unlike a traditional Project Manager focused on vertical delivery, your role is to act as the strategic intake architect and operational intelligence hub for the department.

Your primary mandate is Roadmap Alignment and Pipeline Fluidity. You will partner directly with Business Banners during the annual planning cycle to ensure all digital initiatives are captured with rigorous, standardised data—including KPIs, ROI, and technical requirements—before they enter the delivery pipeline. By facilitating cross‑functional synchronization between Banners, Tech, and Finance, you ensure a "Single Source of Truth" for all budget and resource commitments.

Once the roadmap is established, you maintain an active horizontal view to detect bottlenecks, flag "ripple effect" risks, and provide stakeholders with the "What-If" scenario planning needed to maintain commercial velocity across all regional markets.

Responsibilities

Portfolio Visibility & Horizontal Tracking

Centralized Reporting: Maintain the "Single Source of Truth" for the Group Digital Portfolio. You aggregate status updates from various project teams into a consolidated Master Dashboard that provides horizontal visibility across all markets (HK, SG, SEA).

Status Validation: Act as the "integrity check" for the portfolio. You ensure that the data entered by Project Managers matches the reality of the resource plan (e.g., verifying that a project marked "On Track" actually has resources booked).

Risk Identification & Escalation

Bottleneck Detection: Proactively identify resource conflicts and scheduling overlaps before they become critical issues. (e.g., "Developer A is double‑booked across Project X and Project Y next week").

Ripple Effect Analysis: When a project delay occurs, you are responsible for mapping the downstream impact. You visually flag how a delay in the current sprint affects future projects in the pipeline, ensuring stakeholders understand the consequences of their changes.

Drive Resolution: Once a risk is flagged, you prompt the relevant owners (Banner PMs, Product Managers, Tech Leads) to provide a solution. You do not decide the solution, but you enforce the requirement for a decision to be made.

Scenario Planning: Provide "What-If" data to stakeholders to help them choose the best path (e.g., "If we prioritize Project A, Project B moves next month. Please confirm decision.").

Conflict Log: Maintain a log of operational risks and agreed resolutions to ensure that decisions are executed and do not get lost in daily operations.

Banner Planning Integration

Partner with Banners and cross‑functional stakeholder (Digital Product, Finance etc) during the annual roadmap cycle to ensure all proposed digital initiatives are captured with the necessary required information (KPIs, high‑level requirements, man‑day cost, ROI etc).

Standardised Submission Management

Drive the use of unified templates for all roadmap submissions, ensuring that business units provide consistent, high‑quality data to facilitate cross‑functional review.

Cross‑Functional Synchronisation

Facilitate alignment between Banners, Tech, and Finance teams to ensure a "single source of truth" regarding the scope and intent of projects submitted for budget approval.

Post‑Approval Transition

Manage the seamless handover of approved projects from the planning phase into active tracking, ensuring that initial roadmap commitments are accurately reflected in the Master Dashboard.

About you

Experience

5 to 7 years of experience in PMO or Program Management with a specific focus on horizontal portfolio management rather than vertical project delivery.

Roadmap Orchestration

Proven track record in facilitating annual or quarterly digital roadmap planning cycles, ensuring business requests are translated into structured, technically viable initiatives.

Matrix Expertise

Proven experience working in a Regional Hub or Matrix Organisation is mandatory. You must be comfortable coordinating across diverse markets such as HK, SG, and Vietnam.

Domain Knowledge

Prior exposure to Retail, E‑commerce, or Digital Product teams is highly preferred.

Strategic Intake Design

Ability to define and collect information required for roadmap submissions (e.g., business cases, high‑level dependencies, and success metrics) using standardised templates.

Data Mastery for Tracking

Advanced Excel proficiency (Pivot Tables, Power Query) is still required to maintain the "Single Source of Truth" and visualise ripple‑effect risks once the roadmap moves into execution.

Cross‑Functional Alignment

Demonstrated skill in aligning diverse stakeholders (Banners, Tech, Finance) to ensure everyone is on the same page regarding the scope and priority of roadmap submissions.

Language

Fluent English and Mandarin (Written & Spoken) are mandatory to explain complex roadmap trade‑offs and timeline conflicts to regional stakeholders (Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, etc).

Assertive Coordination

You are comfortable "influencing without authority," following up with stakeholders for updates, and ensuring answers are received, not just emails forwarded.

Proactive Problem Solving

You identify "Yellow" warning signs early to prevent them from turning into "Red" failures.