Senior Project Manager

InnovationTeam; Riyadh; On-site; SAR 360,000 - 600,000; Full time

Job summary

InnovationTeam in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, seeks a Senior Project Manager to lead end-to-end delivery of strategic software and IT services engagements for key customers in Saudi Arabia. You will manage delivery, governance, and commercial aspects, coordinating cross-functional teams and executives to ensure successful outcomes.

The role requires senior leadership, risk management, and strong communication with customer executives and internal leadership, with on-site delivery and governance across

Qualifications

• Minimum 10 years of professional experience in software/technology/IT services environments.
• Minimum 6 years of direct project management experience with accountability for scope, schedule, budget, quality and outcomes.
• Proven experience managing complex software development or systems integration projects through lifecycle.
• Experience with large enterprise or government customer accounts in Saudi Arabia.
• Experience leading cross-functional and geographically distributed delivery teams.
• PMP certification is required; Agile certifications are advantageous.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end delivery of complex software development, systems integration, digital transformation, and IT services projects.
• Establish and maintain the project governance framework with methodologies, stage gates, and change management.
• Develop and manage integrated project plans covering scope, schedule, budget, resources, and acceptance criteria.
• Maintain RAID and decision logs, mitigation, escalation, and resolution of risks and dependencies.
• Lead project-level financial and commercial management including budget Tracking and commercial risk.
• Lead customer governance meetings, executive reviews, and SteerCo presentations.
• Translate complex technical delivery information into clear, decision-ready communication for executives.

Skills

Leadership

Stakeholder management

Executive communication

English proficiency

Contractual awareness

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science/Engineering/IT

Master's degree in business/technology/PM (advantage)

Tools

Jira

Azure DevOps

Microsoft Project

Microsoft 365

Job description

Role Overview

InnovationTeam is seeking an experienced Senior Project Manager to lead the end-to-end delivery of strategic software and IT services engagements for key customers in Saudi Arabia. The role combines delivery leadership, customer relationship management, commercial discipline, and governance. The Senior Project Manager will be accountable for managing complex, business-critical technology projects from initiation through successful delivery and closure, ensuring alignment with contractual commitments, customer expectations, quality standards, and organizational objectives.

The successful candidate will provide senior-level leadership to multidisciplinary delivery teams, proactively manage project risks and dependencies, and maintain clear, decision-oriented communication with customer executives and internal leadership.

Key Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end delivery of complex software development, systems integration, digital transformation, and IT services projects.
• Establish and maintain the project governance framework, ensuring compliance with delivery methodology, stage gates, quality controls, and change management processes.
• Develop and manage integrated project plans covering scope, schedule, budget, resources, dependencies, quality, and acceptance criteria.
• Maintain comprehensive RAID and decision logs, ensuring timely mitigation, escalation, and resolution of project risks, assumptions, issues, and dependencies.
• Lead project-level financial and commercial management, including budget tracking, resource utilization, revenue and cost awareness, milestone acceptance, and identification of contractual exposure.
• Enforce formal change control and ensure additional customer requirements are assessed, estimated, approved, and commercially addressed before execution.
• Manage cross-functional teams comprising software engineering, quality assurance, DevOps, architecture, business analysis, UX/UI, infrastructure, security, and third-party vendors.
• Provide leadership and direction to Project Managers, workstream leads, technical leads, and delivery team members where applicable.
• Apply appropriate SDLC and delivery methodologies, including Agile, Scrum, Waterfall, and hybrid approaches, according to project and contractual requirements.
• Ensure appropriate application of CI/CD, release management, configuration management, testing, and production deployment practices.
• Lead customer governance meetings, executive reviews, SteerCo presentations, status reporting, and escalation discussions.
• Translate complex technical and delivery information into clear, concise, and decision-ready communication for executive stakeholders.
• Manage customer expectations, maintain strong working relationships, and drive timely decisions, approvals, and deliverable acceptance.
• Coordinate resource planning with PMO, Operations, Engineering, and supporting functions, proactively addressing capacity gaps and delivery constraints.
• Ensure project documentation, customer approvals, acceptance records, and contractual evidence are complete and properly maintained.
• Drive project recovery plans when delivery deviates from agreed scope, schedule, budget, quality, or customer expectations.
• Support project closure, operational handover, lessons learned, and realization of agreed delivery outcomes.
• Contribute to continuous improvement of PMO standards, delivery processes, templates, tools, metrics, and governance practices.
• Support pre-sales and commercial teams when required by contributing to delivery approaches, estimates, assumptions, risks, resource plans, and transition strategies.

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• A master’s degree in business, technology, or project management is an advantage.

Professional Experience

• Minimum 10 years of total professional experience in software, technology, digital transformation, or IT services environments.
• Minimum 6 years of direct project management experience with accountability for project scope, schedule, budget, quality, resources, risks, and customer outcomes.
• Proven experience managing complex software development or systems integration projects through the complete lifecycle, from initiation and planning through deployment, acceptance, and closure.
• Demonstrated experience managing large enterprise or government customer accounts in Saudi Arabia.
• Strong experience within a software development, IT consulting, systems integration, or managed services organization.
• Experience leading cross-functional and geographically distributed delivery teams.
• Demonstrated exposure to project financials, contract management, change requests, resource planning, and commercial risk.
• Experience managing multiple workstreams, vendors, system dependencies, and senior stakeholders.
• Previous experience working within STC, government entities, or other major KSA enterprise environments is highly desirable.

Technical & Delivery Knowledge

• Strong understanding of the software development lifecycle and contemporary delivery models.
• Practical knowledge of Agile, Scrum, Waterfall, and hybrid project delivery methodologies.
• Good understanding of enterprise applications, digital platforms, APIs, integration architectures, cloud environments, and data migration.
• Familiarity with DevOps practices, CI/CD pipelines, release management, quality assurance, and production deployment.
• Strong competence in project planning, effort estimation, resource forecasting, financial tracking, RAID management, change control, and executive reporting.
• Proficiency with common project and delivery management tools, such as Jira, Azure DevOps, Microsoft Project, and Microsoft 365.

Certifications

• PMP certification is required.
• PMI-ACP, PRINCE2, SAFe, CSM, PSM, or another recognized Agile certification is an advantage.
• ITIL or a relevant service management certification is an advantage for candidates with managed services experience.

Skills & Competencies

• Strong leadership with hands-on ownership of delivery outcomes.
• Excellent stakeholder management and customer relationship skills.
• Executive-level communication and presentation capabilities.
• Professional fluency in English; Arabic communication capability is strongly preferred.
• Strong commercial awareness and ability to identify contractual or financial exposure before it materializes.
• Ability to challenge unrealistic expectations professionally and protect approved project scope.
• Structured problem-solving, negotiation, decision-making, and conflict-resolution skills.
• Ability to work effectively under pressure and lead recovery of complex or challenged projects.
• Strong attention to delivery evidence, governance discipline, and contractual documentation.
• Collaborative leadership style with the ability to influence technical teams, business stakeholders, customers, and senior management.

Work Requirements

• Location: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
• Availability: Maximum one-month notice period.
• The role may require on-site customer engagement and travel within Saudi Arabia based on project requirements.