Overall Project Manager, Regional Cards Platform Project, Group Cards, CFS

Responsibilities:

• Define the project scope, objectives and business requirements, by collaborating with Business, IT and vendors. Develop and maintain an integrated project plan with clear milestones, timelines, dependencies and critical paths.
• Lead stakeholder engagement across senior management, country business teams, IT, vendors and external partners. Ensure effective governance, timely communication and stakeholder alignment throughout the project lifecycle.
• Identify, assess and manage project risks, issues and dependencies. Develop mitigation and contingency plans to minimize delivery, technology, security and operational risks.
• Monitor project execution against approved plans, proactively resolve issues, remove delivery roadblocks and manage project changes to maintain delivery objectives.
• Govern vendor delivery and performance, ensuring contractual commitments, project milestones, quality standards and service levels are achieved.
• Ensure successful integration of the Regional Cards Platform with internal and external systems, applications and business processes.
• Lead and coordinate cross functional teams, including Product Owners, Business Analysts, Solution Architects, Developers, Test Managers, Infrastructure, Training and Operations, to ensure successful project delivery.
• Develop and manage the end to end migration strategy and execution plan, including data migration, application migration, production readiness and rollback planning.
• Monitor project performance against scope, schedule, budget and quality metrics. Provide regular executive reporting and timely escalation of key risks, issues and decisions through the appropriate governance forums.
• Ensure the solution meets business, security, regulatory and compliance requirements through effective governance, testing, quality assurance and operational readiness.
• Drive organizational change management by overseeing communication, stakeholder readiness, training, operational handover, post implementation support and continuous improvement.
• Develop the overall production rollout strategy, go live plan and operational readiness framework. Lead go/no go governance and obtain the necessary approvals to ensure a controlled and successful implementation.

Requirement:

• Bachelor's Degree in a relevant discipline. A Master's degree is an advantage.
• Senior‐level project management background, with proven leadership in large‐scale banking or payment transformation programs is highly preferred.
• Experience delivering projects involving major card schemes such as Visa, Mastercard, American Express, UnionPay, JCB or domestic debit networks.
• Strong understanding of card issuing, acquiring, switching, authorization, settlement and reconciliation processes.
• Experience managing programs governance, Steering Committees, Change Control Boards and executive stakeholder communications.
• Strong knowledge of project management methodologies, including Agile, Waterfall and Hybrid delivery models.
• Strong analytical, problem solving and report writing skills, with the ability to analyze complex information and present clear, concise recommendations to senior management and stakeholders.
• Highly proficient in Microsoft Project, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint and Jira for project planning, tracking, reporting and executive presentations.
• Self motivated, results driven and a strong team player with the ability to work independently, manage multiple priorities and deliver outcomes with minimal supervision.