Role overview
We are hiring a Project Manager to lead Data and AI delivery for government and enterprise clients, from requirements through go-live and handover. The role needs an engineer who can read an architecture diagram, challenge a design, and then sit across the table from a client and keep the programme on track.
Key responsibilities
The Project Manager owns scope, schedule, budget, quality and client confidence for each Data and AI engagement.
Delivery and programme management
- Plan and run Data and AI projects end to end: discovery, data readiness, model development, integration, testing, deployment and handover.
- Maintain the plan, RAID log, dependency map and change control, and report progress, risks and decisions needed to the steering committee on a fixed cadence.
- Manage vendors, third-party suppliers and subcontractors against agreed scope, milestones and service levels.
Data and AI delivery
- Turn business and legal requirements into a clear backlog covering data sources, pipelines, models, integrations and reporting.
- Work with architects and engineers on data quality, lineage, migration from legacy systems, and model validation, monitoring and retraining.
- Set acceptance criteria for AI features, including accuracy thresholds, human review steps and fallback behaviour when a model is wrong or unavailable.
- Flag the production risks of newer AI technologies, such as model drift, hallucination, vendor lock-in and immature tooling, and agree mitigations with the client before build.
Client interface
- Be the day-to-day and executive point of contact for client sponsors, project directors and IT teams.
- Run workshops, requirement sessions, demos and steering meetings, and explain technical trade-offs in plain language to non-technical stakeholders.
- Manage expectations and negotiate scope, priorities and timelines with government stakeholders who may run legacy platforms such as AS/400 and follow established approval processes.
- Handle escalations early, and keep a written record of decisions, approvals and change requests.
Security, governance and compliance
- Make security a delivery gate, not a final check: threat modelling, access control, encryption, secrets management and secure coding reviews are planned into every release.
- Make sure penetration tests, vulnerability remediation and data protection requirements, including data residency, are completed before go-live.
- Where no secure option exists for a requirement, document the residual risk and obtain a written client decision.
- Apply audit-ready documentation standards across requirements, design, test evidence and release approvals.
Team leadership
- Direct a cross-functional team of engineers, analysts, testers and designers, and resolve blockers quickly.
- Coach the team on agile delivery, estimation and release discipline.
Required qualifications
Candidates must meet all of the following.
- Bachelor's degree in engineering (computer, software, electronics, data or a related discipline). A master's degree is an advantage.
- 8 or more years in IT delivery, including at least 4 years managing projects or programmes with Data, Analytics or AI components.
- Hands-on understanding of data platforms and AI delivery: data pipelines and ETL, data warehouses or lakehouses, BI and reporting, machine learning lifecycle, and the basics of generative AI and its limits.
- Proven record of delivering systems in production for external clients, with direct ownership of budget, schedule and outcome.
- Strong client-facing ability: running steering committees, presenting to senior stakeholders, handling difficult negotiations and managing change requests.
- Working knowledge of Agile and Waterfall delivery, and of formal change, risk and release management.
- Working knowledge of information security practices, including secure SDLC, access control, data protection and audit requirements.
- Excellent written and spoken English. Arabic is a strong advantage.
- Willingness to travel to client sites in the GCC as the project requires.
Professional certification is expected: PMP, PRINCE2 or equivalent.
Preferred qualifications and competencies
- Experience with government, justice, public-sector or regulated clients, including migration away from legacy platforms such as AS/400.
- Experience with cloud platforms (Azure, AWS or Google Cloud) and tools such as Azure DevOps or Jira.
- Exposure to Microsoft Azure AI, Power BI, Databricks, Python-based ML stacks or equivalent.
- Certifications such as PMI-ACP, Azure AI or Data Engineer, CISSP or CISM awareness, or ITIL.
- Experience with multilingual (Arabic and English) systems and right-to-left interfaces.
How success is measured
- Milestones delivered on the agreed dates and within approved budget.
- Client satisfaction, tracked through steering committee feedback and formal sign-offs.
- Zero critical or high security findings open at go-live.
- AI components meeting agreed accuracy and performance thresholds in production.
- Change requests, risks and decisions fully logged and traceable.
What we offer
- Lead role on large-scale digital transformation programmes for government clients in the GCC.
- Direct work with senior architects and executives.
- Competitive package, to be confirmed by HR, with professional certification and training support.
