Head of Special Projects

Job Title- Head Projects & CoE

Job Summary

The Head – Projects & CoE is responsible for leading the global project management office (PMO), ensuring high-quality delivery of IT infrastructure, cybersecurity, cloud, and service assurance initiatives across geographies. This role establishes standardized project governance, enforces delivery frameworks, and builds a Center of Excellence (CoE) for project delivery, agile maturity, and tool adoption. The incumbent acts as a strategic advisor to the CIO and IT leadership for project prioritization, cross-functional alignment, risk mitigation, and benefit realization.

Areas Of Responsibility

Key Responsibilities

• Project Governance & Delivery Oversight
• Define, enforce, and monitor global project management standards and delivery frameworks.
• Set up governance cadence including SteerCos, QBRs, milestone reviews, and benefit realization checkpoints.
• Drive portfolio-level risk management, timeline assurance, and program visibility.
• CoE Development & Capability Building
• Build and manage a Project Management Center of Excellence to provide tools, training, and playbooks for agile and hybrid delivery models.
• Promote project manager certification programs (PMP, Agile, PRINCE2, etc.) across the IT team.
• Tooling & Automation Enablement
• Implement and maintain project portfolio tools (e.g., Smartsheet, MS Project, Jira, ServiceNow PPM).
• Create real-time dashboards and scorecards for leadership visibility and performance tracking.
• Program Leadership
• Oversee strategic initiatives including global infra transformation, AD consolidation, and tool modernization.
• Act as the program lead for cross-functional and multi-region delivery initiatives.
• Stakeholder Engagement & Communication
• Partner with CIO, CFO, PMO, Digital CoE, and regional IT leaders for investment alignment and prioritization.
• Support ITBPs and Finance with status reporting, budget utilization, and ROI insights.

Specialized Knowledge Requirements

Internal Stakeholders and Nature of Interaction

External Stakeholders and Nature of Interaction

External Interaction %

Nature of Communication

Role Played in Negotiations

Key Decision-Making Expected

Key Challenges for the Role

Extent and Nature of Innovation Required for the Role

Job Requirements

Educational Qualification :

Certifications :

Experience :

Skills :

Travel Requirement :

Travel Estimate

Job Scope

Internal Interactions (within the organization)

Internal Stakeholders and Nature of Interaction

External Interactions (outside the organization)

External Stakeholders and Nature of Interaction

External Interaction %

Geographical Scope

Global

Financial Accountability (cost / revenue with exclusive authority)

Project cost, timelines & budgets, estimates

Job Requirements

Educational Qualification

Masters in Information Systems, Engineering, or related field

Specific Certification

PMP, PRINCE2, Agile / Scrum Master certifications (mandatory). SAFe or PPM tooling certifications (preferred)

Skills

PMO operations, risk management, stakeholder engagement. Delivery performance benchmarking and reporting. Cross-cultural team leadership

Experience

15+ years of experience in IT audit, risk, and compliance roles. Exposure to global audit environments and regulated industries (pharma / healthcare preferred)