IT Governance Senior Specialist

SiFi - Simplified Financial Solutions Company; Riyadh; Remote; SAR 335,000 - 603,000; Full time

Job summary

SiFi - Simplified Financial Solutions Company is seeking an IT Governance Senior Specialist to design and govern IT governance, ITSM and change processes in a live payment environment. You will ensure regulatory alignment with SAMA IT Governance Framework and collaborate with Cybersecurity, Infrastructure and Engineering teams.

The role emphasizes audit readiness, remediation tracking, and governance through a cross-functional lens while enabling a remote-first work arrangement with Saudi

Qualifications

• Minimum 6 years of experience in IT governance, IT service management or change management, ideally in banking or regulated financial services.
• Expert, hands-on knowledge of ITIL; ITIL 4 Foundation certification required.
• Proven track record designing and governing a change management process in a live production environment.
• Strong stakeholder management; drive adoption across engineering, infrastructure and security teams.

Responsibilities

• Set and govern IT governance policies aligned with ITIL 4 and SAMA IT Governance Framework.
• Lead ITSM rollout and continuous improvement with cross-functional teams; define SLAs/OLAs.
• Design and govern the change management framework; manage CAB and post-implementation reviews.
• Oversee Access Governance, IAM lifecycle processes and periodic access reviews.
• Produce IT governance and service KPIs/KRIs and report audit findings to closure.

Skills

IT governance

ITSM

Change management

ITIL

SAMA framework

Stakeholder management

Audits & regulatory

IAM governance

ServiceNow/Jira

Education

Bachelor's degree in IT/CS

Tools

ServiceNow

Jira Service Management

Freshservice

Job description

SiFi is a fast-growing B2B FinTech company specializing in spend management and card issuance solutions. We help companies take control of their spending, streamline expense workflows, and operate with greater efficiency.

Role Overview

The IT Governance Senior Specialist sets and governs the processes that control how SiFi runs and changes its technology. As a SAMA-licensed institution operating live payment systems, every production change and every service process has to be controlled, traceable and audit-ready.

This role designs SiFi's IT governance, IT service management (ITSM) and change management processes together with the Infrastructure, Engineering and Cybersecurity teams, and makes sure they are implemented and followed. The processes must align with ITIL best practice and the SAMA IT Governance Framework, and hold up under audit and regulatory review.

Key Responsibilities

1. IT Governance & Regulatory Alignment

• Develop and maintain IT governance policies, standards and procedures aligned with ITIL 4 and the SAMA IT Governance Framework
• Run gap and maturity assessments against SAMA requirements, and own the resulting remediation plans through to closure
• Prepare evidence and coordinate internal audits, external audits and regulatory reviews of IT governance controls
• Work with Cybersecurity GRC, Risk and Compliance on shared controls (SAMA Cyber Security and Business Continuity frameworks)

2. IT Service Management

• Co-design, roll out and continuously improve ITSM processes with Infrastructure, Engineering and Cybersecurity: incident, problem, service request, service level, configuration and asset, and knowledge management
• Define and maintain the IT service catalogue, SLAs and OLAs with Engineering, Operations and Customer Support
• Monitor third-party and vendor service levels and escal…
• Configure process workflows in the ITSM platform and drive adoption across teams

3. Change Management

• Design and govern the change management framework: change request standards, risk and impact classification, Change Advisory Board (CAB), standard and emergency changes, and post-implementation reviews
• Identify and track IT risks and control gaps arising from technology changes, ensure appropriate mitigating controls and ownership are defined, and follow remediation actions through to closure.
• Co-develop the process with Infrastructure, Engineering and Cybersecurity so it fits how each team delivers, and embed it in their tooling and workflows
• Act as process owner, not technical approver: approval of individual changes stays with the relevant engineering, infrastructure and security leads
• Monitor adherence: verify that production changes are approved, tested, segregated, traceable and have a rollback plan, and escape non-compliance
• Track change success rate, failed changes and unauthorized changes, and drive improvements with the owning teams

4. Access Governance & IAM Oversight

• Govern user access lifecycle processes, including joiner, mover and leaver activities.
• Define and coordinate periodic user access reviews across systems and applications.
• Govern role-based access, least privilege, privileged access and segregation of duties requirements.
• Monitor access exceptions, dormant accounts, excessive privileges and unresolved access issues.
• Ensure access approvals, ownership and review responsibilities are clearly defined and followed.
• Coordinate with IT, Engineering, Cybersecurity, HR and system owners on IAM governance and remediation activities.

5. Reporting & KPIs

• Produce IT governance and service management KPIs/KRIs for management and committees
• Track audit findings and regulatory action items, and report status to closure

Requirements

• Minimum 6 years of experience in IT governance, IT service management or change management, ideally in banking, payments or another regulated financial services environment
• Expert, hands-on knowledge of ITIL; ITIL 4 Foundation certification required
• Proven track record designing and governing a change management process, including facilitating CAB, in a live production environment
• Strong stakeholder management: able to drive adoption of processes across engineering, infrastructure and security teams without direct authority
• Hands-on experience with ITSM platforms (e.g., ServiceNow, Jira Service Management, Fresh-service)
• Working knowledge of the SAMA IT Governance Framework and related SAMA frameworks
• Proven ability to work under pressure and deliver to short deadlines, such as audit and regulatory submissions
• Excellent written and spoken English is required; Arabic is preferred
• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Information Systems or a related field

Preferred Qualifications

• ITIL 4 Managing Professional or Strategic Leader
• Experience in a SAMA-regulated institution

Working Arrangement

• Fully remote
• Available during Saudi business hours (Sunday to Thursday), with flexibility when urgent incidents or audit deadlines require it