Senior Project Manager

About the Role

InnovationTeam is seeking a Senior Project Manager to lead the end-to-end delivery of strategic software and IT services engagements for key customers in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This full-time 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.

This position requires providing senior-level leadership to multidisciplinary delivery teams, proactively managing project risks and dependencies, and maintaining clear, decision-oriented communication with customer executives and internal leadership.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the end-to-end delivery of complex IT projects and programs, developing and managing integrated project plans covering scope, schedule, budget, resources, dependencies, quality, and acceptance criteria.
• Manage project budgets, cost controls, financial performance, and resource utilization, while tracking revenue milestones and contractual obligations.
• Govern project change requests and scope modifications, ensuring all changes are evaluated, estimated, approved, and contractually aligned.
• Coordinate resource planning with PMO, engineering, operations, and supporting teams, managing project staffing requirements and allocation plans.
• Build and maintain strong customer relationships, leading governance meetings, steering committees, and acting as the primary escalation point for project-related matters.
• Coordinate activities across software engineering, QA, DevOps, architecture, infrastructure, security, business analysis, and external vendors.
• Apply Agile, Scrum, Waterfall, and Hybrid delivery methodologies, ensuring adherence to Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) processes.
• Manage external vendors, partners, and subcontractors, monitoring performance and ensuring deliverables meet agreed quality and timelines.
• Develop and execute recovery plans for challenged projects, addressing schedule slippages, quality concerns, and budget overruns.
• Ensure successful project closure and operational handover, capturing lessons learned and validating contractual completion.
• Contribute to the enhancement of PMO frameworks, tools, templates, metrics, and governance practices.
• Support business development and pre-sales activities, contributing delivery estimates, assumptions, risks, and resource plans.

Qualifications and Experience

• 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 of 10 years of total professional experience in software, technology, digital transformation, or IT services environments. At least 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.
• 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.
• Previous experience working within STC, government entities, or other major KSA enterprise environments is highly desirable.

Technical 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.

Required Skills and Competencies

• Strong leadership with hands-on ownership of delivery outcomes.
• Excellent stakeholder management and customer relationship skills.
• Executive-level communication and presentation capabilities.
• Strong commercial awareness and ability to identify contractual or financial exposure.
• 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.
• Displays strong domain versatility to match complex telecom environments and loyalty program networks.