Senior Programme Manager

Napier AI; Atlanta (GA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Napier AI in the USA is seeking a Senior Programme Manager to lead Napier's most complex enterprise delivery programs, including Tier 1 bank implementations. You will establish governance, manage multi-party relationships, and drive end-to-end delivery with cross-functional teams to ensure on-time, compliant go-lives and sustained value realization for strategic accounts. The role is client-facing, highly strategic, and requires deep regulatory and commercial acumen.

Qualifications

• 12+ years leading large-scale enterprise software delivery programs.
• Direct financial crime compliance domain experience: AML, KYC, Transaction Monitoring, Sanctions Screening, or Case Management.
• Delivered at least one enterprise implementation into a Tier 1 or systemic bank, chairing steering committees at C-1 level.
• Proven turnaround experience: taken over a live enterprise program mid-flight and landed a successful outcome.
• Cloud-based enterprise SaaS platform delivery experience, including hyperscaler-hosted environments (Azure, AWS, or GCP).
• Multi-vendor program management across client, primary vendor, hyperscaler, and system integrator.
• Strong commercial and contractual instincts: defended margin and governance against scope creep.
• Experience with regulatory or contractual hard deadlines (go/no-go gates, DORA, PRA/FCA)
• Presence and credibility at C-1 and C-suite client levels.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end delivery of Napier's largest enterprise programs, including Tier 1 bank engagements.
• Establish and run program governance: steering committees, executive status reviews, RAID discipline, decision logs.
• Define and defend acceptance criteria for go-live and regulatory milestones.
• Coordinate delivery across Napier's Professional Services, Product, Engineering, Platform, Support, and Customer Success functions.
• Act as single senior Napier delivery contact with client's program director and executive sponsor.
• Chair steering committees and executive status forums with authority and credibility.
• Prevent client escalations bypassing program governance.
• Represent Napier at client executive escalations and third-party governance.
• Own program P&L, forecast, and margin.
• Run formal change control against scope movement, defects, and delivery obligations.
• Defend Napier against uncapped commitments and risky acceptance criteria.
• Ensure no product commitments leave Napier without your sign-off.
• Escalate commercial risk to the CCO.
• Maintain end-to-end program plan, dependency map, and critical path.
• Own risk register and drive mitigations with accountable owners.
• Establish go/no-go readiness against criteria.
• Drive continuous improvement in Napier's delivery methodology.
• Manage escrow or regulatory instruments in programs with Napier Legal and third parties.
• Manage client expectations on trigger events and verification cycles.
• Ensure customers achieve successful implementation and value realization.
• Manage a clean transition from delivery into Customer Success and Support with complete documentation.

Skills

Enterprise program leadership

Financial crime domain experience

Tier 1 bank delivery

Turnaround delivery

Cloud-based SaaS delivery

Multi-vendor program management

Commercial risk management

Regulatory deadline experience

C-suite stakeholder management

Regulatory instruments experience

Tools

MSP

PgMP

PMP

Prince2

Job description

Description

Imagine catching criminals before they strike - that’s exactly what Napier’s AI-powered platform does! By analysing transactions and customers in real time, Napier AI’s technology empowers financial institutions to spot suspicious activity, like money laundering, and stops it in its tracks.

Application Deadline: 13 November 2026

Department: Professional Services

Location: USA

The Role: Senior Program Manager

You will lead Napier AI's most complex and highest-value enterprise delivery programs including Tier 1 bank implementations. From there you will take portfolio leadership of Napier's strategic Tier 1 accounts as we scale that tier of the business.

These programs operate under regulatory and contractual hard deadlines, multi-party governance (bank, Napier, hyperscaler, third-party integrators), and executive-level scrutiny on both sides. You will be brought in at critical phases, expected to establish authority quickly, restore delivery confidence where needed, hold the commercial line, and land go-live cleanly.

This is a senior, customer-facing role that carries programs accountability end to end. You will be the single senior Napier delivery point of contact with the client's program director and executive sponsor. You will be trusted internally to hold Product, Engineering, Platform, and Professional Services to their commitments to ensure customers realise value from their investment in Napier's platform.

Your day to day: Senior Programme Manager

Program Leadership

• Own end-to-end delivery of Napier's largest enterprise programs, including Tier 1 National and European bank engagements
• Establish and run program governance: steering committees, executive status reviews, RAID discipline, decision logs
• Define and defend the acceptance criteria for go-live and any regulatory or contractual milestone
• Coordinate delivery across Napier's Professional Services, Product, Engineering, Platform, Support, and Customer Success functions

Client and Executive Stakeholder Management

• Act as the single senior Napier delivery contact with the client's program director, delivery leads, and executive sponsors
• Chair steering committees and executive status forums with authority and credibility
• Prevent client escalations bypassing program governance
• Represent Napier at client executive escalations, industry regulator interactions where relevant, and third-party (hyperscaler, SI) governance

Commercial Governance

• Own program P&L, forecast, and margin
• Run formal change control against every scope movement, defect classification, and delivery obligation
• Defend Napier against uncapped commitments, one-sided release triggers, and unbounded acceptance criteria
• Hold the defect versus change request line: no product commitment leaves Napier without your sign-off
• Escalate commercial and contractual risk to the CCO before it becomes a client-facing position

Delivery Excellence and Risk Management

• Maintain the end-to-end program plan, dependency map, and critical path
• Own the risk register and drive mitigations with named accountable owners
• Establish and maintain go/no-go readiness assessment against agreed criteria
• Drive continuous improvement in Napier's delivery methodology from evidence in the field

Third-Party Regulatory Instruments

• Manage the operational side of any escrow, source-code deposit, or equivalent regulatory instrument on your programs, working with Napier Legal, Engineering, and the third-party agent
• Manage client expectations on trigger events, deposit content, and verification cycles

Customer Outcomes and Transition

• Ensure customers achieve successful implementation, adoption, and business value realisation
• Manage a clean transition from delivery into Customer Success and Support with complete documentation and no orphaned commitments

Do you have what it takes:

Essential

• 12+ years leading large-scale enterprise software delivery programs, with at least 5 years at senior program director or equivalent level
• Direct financial crime compliance domain experience: AML, KYC, Transaction Monitoring, Sanctions Screening, or Case Management platforms. Not adjacent, not learned on the job during a stint - deep and current
• Delivered at least one enterprise implementation into a Tier 1 or systemic bank in the UK, EU, or US, chairing steering committees at C-1 level
• Proven turnaround experience: taken over a live enterprise program mid-flight, restored client confidence, re-baselined credibly, and landed a successful outcome
• Cloud-based enterprise SaaS platform delivery experience, ideally including hyperscaler-hosted environments (Azure, AWS, or GCP)
• Multi-vendor program experience across client, primary vendor, hyperscaler, and system integrator
• Strong commercial and contractual instincts: has run defensive change control, held scope, defended margin, and defeated attempts to reclassify enhancements as defects
• Experience of programs with regulatory or contractual hard deadlines (go/no-go gates, DORA, PRA/FCA supervisory dates, or equivalent)
• Presence and credibility at C-1 and C-suite client levels

Highly Desirable

• Experience of escrow, source-code deposit, or equivalent third-party regulatory instruments in a live client engagement
• Experience across multiple geographic regions (EMEA, Americas, APAC)
• Program management certifications (MSP, PgMP, PMP, Prince2) - useful, but not a substitute for the experience above
• Experience in Private Equity-backed software companies operating to a defined value creation plan

About You

You bring calm authority and structured judgement to programs under pressure. You are equally comfortable in a technical defect triage, a commercial change control meeting, and a bank executive steering committee. You know when to push and when to protect, and you are willing to hold uncomfortable positions internally to protect the commercial and delivery outcome

You do not need consensus to act. You do need clarity of accountability, direct access to executive decision-making, and the trust to run your program.