PROJECT MANAGER CORE INSURANCE SYSTEM UPGRADE (EXPORT BANK)📣 Job Ad

About the Role

Duncan & Ross is seeking an experienced Project Manager to lead the end-to-end delivery of a core insurance system upgrade for a client in Riyadh. This full-time role requires a minimum of 10 years of experience in IT project management, with a strong preference for candidates familiar with the specialized underwriting, risk, and compliance environments of export credit agencies or export/development banks.

Role Overview and Responsibilities

The Project Manager will oversee the entire lifecycle of the core insurance system upgrade, from initial planning and mobilization through execution, testing, data migration, and go-live. This position involves hands-on project delivery, governance, vendor coordination, and senior stakeholder management within a regulated financial setting. Key responsibilities include:

• Owning the full project lifecycle: scope, plan, schedule, budget, and delivery of the core insurance system upgrade.
• Defining the project plan, milestones, and critical path in collaboration with business, IT, the system vendor, and implementation partners.
• Managing the migration from the legacy platform, including data migration, cutover planning, and rollback readiness.
• Establishing and running project governance, including steering committees, working groups, decision forums, and escalation paths.
• Maintaining RAID logs (risks, assumptions, issues, dependencies) and driving proactive mitigation strategies.
• Providing clear and timely status reporting to executive stakeholders and the PMO.
• Coordinating the software vendor, system integrator, and third-party delivery partners against contracted milestones.
• Managing stakeholders across underwriting, claims, finance, risk, compliance, and IT to ensure alignment.
• Overseeing testing cycles (SIT, UAT, regression) and quality gates.
• Ensuring operational readiness, training, and change management prior to go-live.
• Managing post-implementation stabilization and handover to business-as-usual (BAU) support.
• Ensuring project delivery aligns with regulatory, audit, and internal control requirements.

Required Experience and Skills

Candidates must possess:

• A minimum of 8 years of IT project/programme management experience, with a proven track record in core system implementations or upgrades.
• Demonstrable experience delivering core insurance platforms (policy administration, underwriting, claims, or reinsurance systems) or comparable core financial/banking platforms.
• Strong command of full-lifecycle delivery, including planning, budgeting, migration, testing, cutover, and go-live.
• Experience managing software vendors, system integrators, and multiple concurrent delivery partners.
• Proficiency in managing RAID, dependencies, and stakeholders within a regulated environment.
• Proficiency in project tooling such as MS Project, JIRA, Confluence, or equivalent.
• A PMP, PRINCE2, or equivalent project management certification is required.

Preferred Qualifications

The following qualifications are considered advantageous:

• Experience with export credit agencies, export banks, or development finance institutions, including familiarity with export credit insurance, trade finance, guarantees, or specialized underwriting and risk models.
• Experience with data migration from legacy insurance or banking systems.
• Exposure to Agile and Waterfall (hybrid) delivery environments.
• Regional or relevant market experience.
• MSP, PgMP, or Agile/Scrum certification.

Success Criteria

Successful candidates will be expected to achieve the following:

• Deliver the core insurance system upgrade on time, within budget, and to agreed scope and quality standards.
• Execute a successful data migration and cutover with minimal business disruption.
• Maintain robust governance, RAID management, and reporting throughout the delivery process.
• Ensure a stable go-live and a clean handover to BAU support, with post-implementation issues resolved promptly.