Senior Program Manager

Role Overview

The Program Manager is responsible for leading and coordinating a portfolio of IT projects within the financial services domain, ensuring alignment with business objectives, regulatory requirements, and technology strategy. This role oversees several Project Managers, provides governance, drives delivery excellence, and ensures that all projects within the program meet scope, schedule, budget, and quality expectations. Deep domain knowledge in General Insurance and Motor Insurance to lead and oversee multiple concurrent projects.

Key Responsibilities

Program Leadership & Governance

Lead a multi-project program consisting of several concurrent IT projects within insurance, or financial technology domains.

Provide direction, support, and performance management to assigned Project Managers.

Establish program governance frameworks, reporting structures, and delivery standards.

Ensure compliance with financial services regulatory requirements (e.g., AML, PCI-DSS, MAS / BNM guidelines depending on region).

Planning & Delivery Management

Develop and maintain integrated program plans covering timelines, dependencies, resources, risks, and budgets.

Monitor project progress and drive corrective actions to address issues, delays, or deviations.

Coordinate cross-functional delivery teams including business analysts, developers, QA, infrastructure, security, and vendor partners.

Facilitate decision-making across stakeholders and escalate critical issues as needed.

Stakeholder Engagement

Serve as the primary point of contact for senior leadership and business sponsors.

Present program status, dashboards, financial updates, and risk assessments.

Build strong relationships with business units, operations, compliance, technology leads, and external vendors.

Risk, Compliance & Quality Assurance

Identify, assess, and manage program-level risks, dependencies, and constraints.

Ensure project deliverables adhere to internal policies, cybersecurity standards, and regulatory expectations.

Conduct program reviews, retrospectives, and continuous improvement initiatives.

Financial & Resource Management

Own program budget planning, forecasting, and cost control.

Optimize resource allocation across multiple projects.

Support procurement and vendor management activities, including contract negotiation and performance evaluation.

Qualifications & Requirements

Education & Experience

Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Business, or related field; Master’s degree is a plus.

15+ years of experience in IT project / program management, 5 years in General and / or Motor Insurance domains with at least 3 years managing Project Managers.

Experience in the financial services industry (banking, insurance, fintech, payments) is required.

Technical & Domain Skills

Strong understanding of SDLC methodologies (Agile, Scrum, Waterfall, Hybrid).

Knowledge of financial systems such as core banking, digital channels, risk management systems, or payment platforms.

Familiarity with regulatory frameworks and cybersecurity standards in financial services.

Certifications (Preferred)

PMP, PgMP, or PRINCE2

Agile certifications (CSM, SAFe, PMI-ACP)

ITIL Foundation

Soft Skills

Excellent leadership and people management skills.

Strong communication and stakeholder engagement abilities.

High level of analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making capability.

Ability to thrive in a demanding, fast-paced environment.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Program delivery on time, within budget, and aligned to scope.

Stakeholder satisfaction and business value realization.

Regulatory and audit compliance metrics.

Team performance and engagement.

Effective risk mitigation and issue resolution.

Added Advantage

Modern Architecture & Engineering Concepts

Understanding of microservices architecture , APIs, and integration patterns.

Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP), including migration strategies (rehost, refactor, replatform).

Knowledge of containerization & orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes, OpenShift).

Awareness of DevOps practices , CI / CD pipelines, infrastructure-as-code (IaC).

Knowledge of application performance, scalability, and resilience concepts.

Experience with modern programming frameworks and legacy stacks (Java, .NET, COBOL, mainframe, etc., depending on environment).

Legacy Systems & Transformation Challenges

Understanding of monolithic architectures and technical debt.

Experience with data migration, schema changes, and modernization of integration layers.

Ability to work with SMEs to define modernization paths, carve-outs, and phased migrations.

Strategic Planning for Modernization

Ability to define multi-year modernization roadmaps. Experience leading large-scale application modernization or digital transformation programs involving multiple application teams and parallel release streams.

Skills in managing dependencies, sequencing workloads , and planning phased rollouts.

Risk management around legacy instability, cutover planning, and downtime avoidance.

Facilitate cross-squad coordination through Scrum-of-Scrums ceremonies, dependency mapping, and synchronized sprint planning across application, QA, DevOps, and architecture teams.