Head of Project Management Office

Job Description

Established in the 1930s as a trading business, Al-Futtaim Group today is one of the most diversified and progressive, privately held regional businesses headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Structured into five operating divisions; automotive, financial services, real estate, retail and healthcare; employing more than 35,000 employees across more than 20 countries in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, Al-Futtaim Group partners with over 200 of the world’s most admired and innovative brands. Al-Futtaim Group’s entrepreneurship and relentless customer focus enables the organization to continue to grow and expand; responding to the changing needs of our customers within the societies in which we operate.

By upholding our values of respect, excellence, collaboration and integrity; Al-Futtaim Group continues to enrich the lives and aspirations of our customers each and every day

Overview of the role:

Al Futtaim Automotive are at an exciting transformational journey of going from good to great. In collaboration with the core business units, centres of excellence and enabling functions, and different finance departments you will support the finance transformation.
The successful candidate will be expected to drive Finance projects, provide effective program and project office services, including best practice guidance and standards, and effective assurance to project and programme delivery. Deep Finance and SAP understanding is expected.

What you will do:

Deliver projects on time, cost and to quality:
– Create, manage and monitor breakdown of deliverables to activities and tasks
– Set-up and effectively manage scrum board / alternative (min. weekly)
– Create, manage and maintain project folder in MS Teams and ensure all mandatory artefacts are uploaded and updated
– Ensure all deliverables are aligned and mapped to project milestones & objectives
– Effective resource planning and reporting (no delays to project caused by insufficient resources)
– Adherance to PM methodology (Agile/ Waterfall/ Hybrid)
– Up to date RAIDD (risks, assumptions, issues, dependencies & decisions) log
– Flagging / escalating risks and issues proactively / on time (no unforeseen delays caused by poor management)
– Ensuring credible mitigation plans and get to green plans for all risks and issues

Develops new project portfolio governance models, project management methodologies, reporting and performance management frameworks and dashboards, and project management tools and templates:
– Contribution to the initiation and design of methodologies, frameworks and tools

Serves as primary interface for product owners, sponsors, leading planning and executing their projects, is intimately familiar with progress of all initiatives and proactively assists the team in preventing compromises to project scope, budget & deadlines:
– Effective stakeholder management (engagement & escalation matrix)
– Up to date RACI matrix and resource heatmaps for all projects/ workstreams
– Retrospective & lessons learnt after key deliverables (evidence to be submitted as part of artefacts)
– Engagement with L&D for training needs analysis & training delivery (where required)
– Engagement with Head of Comms and Change Manager for change needs analysis & communication (where required)

Promotes and measures adherence to the project management methodology and other project success factors (including stakeholder engagement), which includes training and continuous support to PMs as well as audits of PMs:
– Improvement in PM skills and capability in the business, as measured in Project Health Check

Prepares reports to all relevant stakeholders on the status and progress of the company’s portfolio of projects, insights as to key risk areas and mitigants, to ensure timely escalation and support:
– Satisfaction from stakeholders
– Agreement (with sponsor) and documentation of top 3-10 KPIs and targets
– Regular reporting of KPIs to monthly SteerCo.
– On time & quality submissions for monthly project SteerCo.
– On time & quality submissions for monthly exec board (transformation portfolio review)
– Adherance to project reporting governance, templates and guidelines

Required Skills to be successful:
– Project manager experience in finance
– Managed SAP project
– Automotive experience
– Strategic thinker & team player