Position Overview
The CAT 1 & CAT 2 Certified Project Manager is responsible for leading, planning, executing, and closing complex projects while ensuring adherence to PMO standards and regulatory compliance. The role involves managing end-to-end project lifecycles, engaging cross-functional teams, mitigating risks, and ensuring delivery within scope, quality, timeline, and budget.
Key Responsibilities
1. Project Planning & Execution
- Lead full lifecycle project management from initiation to closure across multiple large-scale and medium-complexity projects.
- Develop project charters, detailed project plans, resource plans, and timelines.
- Define scope, deliverables, milestones, budgets, and success criteria.
2. Stakeholder & Client Management
- Engage senior stakeholders, business users, vendors, and cross-functional teams.
- Facilitate steering committee updates, project reviews, and status reporting.
- Manage expectations, resolve issues, and maintain strong customer relationships.
3. Governance & Compliance
- Ensure adherence to CAT 1 and CAT 2 project governance frameworks.
- Maintain project documentation, RAID logs (Risks, Assumptions, Issues, Dependencies), and PMO compliance reports.
- Conduct regular project audits, post-implementation reviews, and lessons learned.
4. Risk & Issue Management
- Identify, assess, and track project risks and issues with mitigation strategies.
- Escalate critical risks to sponsors and ensure proper contingency planning.
- Maintain strict change control processes and evaluate project impacts.
5. Budgeting & Financial Control
- Prepare and monitor project budgets, cost forecasts, and financial reports.
- Ensure project spend aligns with approved budgets and financial controls.
- Validate vendor invoices and ensure contract compliance.
6. Team Leadership
- Lead cross-functional project teams including business analysts, engineers, developers, testers, external vendors, and operational teams.
- Foster a collaborative environment, provide direction, and ensure accountability.
- Mentor junior project coordinators and team members.
7. Quality Assurance & Delivery
- Ensure deliverables meet quality standards and regulatory requirements.
- Conduct periodic quality checks and ensure readiness for UAT and implementation.
- Drive adoption, handover to operations, and transition support.
Required Skills & Competencies
- Strong understanding of CAT 1 and CAT 2 governance models.
- Expertise in project lifecycle methodologies (Waterfall, Agile, Hybrid).
- Excellent communication, presentation, and stakeholder management skills.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
- Vendor and contract management experience.
- Ability to manage multiple concurrent projects under tight deadlines.
Qualifications
- CAT 1 & CAT 2 certification (mandatory).
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, IT, Business, or related field (Master's preferred).
- 12-14 years of total professional experience with at least 8+ years in project management.
- PMP, PRINCE2, Agile/Scrum certifications are an added advantage.
Preferred Experience
- Experience in managing enterprise-scale transformation projects.
- Prior exposure to regulatory or compliance-driven environments.
- Hands-on experience working with PMO frameworks, dashboards, and reporting tools.
- High stakeholder visibility projects involving cross-departmental collaboration.
