Project Delivery Senior Manager

The Program Manager is responsible for driving the successful delivery of client programs across Africa, ensuring strong delivery control while supporting Network International’s commercial objectives. The role ensures programs are executed with high governance standards, effective risk management, and clear accountability, while enabling positive client outcomes, revenue protection, and long‑term partnership growth in a remote delivery model

Responsibilities

Program Ownership & Governance

• Own end‑to‑end accountability for one or more strategic client programs, delivering payment processing, issuing, acquiring, and digital payment capabilities across multiple African markets.
• Establish and maintain robust program governance, including scope control, milestones, dependencies, risk management, and executive reporting.
• Ensure program delivery aligns with Network International’s delivery methodology, quality standards, and commercial commitments.

Client Partnership & Remote Delivery

• Act as the primary senior delivery point of contact for clients, building trusted, long‑term partnerships despite geographic distance.
• Lead program delivery for remote African clients, coordinating across time zones, cultures, and regulatory environments.
• Proactively manage client expectations, escalations, and change requests, ensuring transparent communication and timely decision‑making.
• Represent Network International with professionalism, credibility, and deep understanding of client business needs.

Cross‑Functional Leadership

• Orchestrate delivery across Technology, Operations, Product, Risk, Compliance, PMO, and external partners, ensuring seamless execution.
• Drive alignment between internal teams and client stakeholders to resolve dependencies and remove delivery blockers.
• Provide clear leadership to virtual delivery teams, fostering accountability and a delivery‑first mindset.

Risk, Compliance & Control

• Identify, assess, and actively manage delivery, regulatory, operational, and commercial risks across African markets.
• Ensure full compliance with PCI‑DSS, scheme rules (Visa, Mastercard), local regulatory requirements, and Network International internal controls.
• Maintain high standards of data security, resiliency, and operational readiness across all program phases.

Reporting & Continuous Improvement

• Provide clear, fact-based reporting to internal leadership and client steering committee
• Drive continuous improvement in delivery effectiveness, applying lessons learned across programs.
• Contribute to strengthening Network International's Africa delivery model, tools and best practices

Qualifications

Education & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, Computer Science, Business, or related discipline.
• Minimum of 8 years experience in program/project management 
• Program or Project Management certification (PMP, PgMP, PRINCE2, Agile) preferred.
• Significant experience delivering technology or payment programs or projects for financial institutions, ideally with exposure to Africa or emerging markets.

Program & Delivery Excellence

• Proven experience managing complex, multi‑country programs/projects in payments, banking, or financial services.
• Strong command of structured delivery methodologies (Waterfall, Agile, Hybrid) and governance frameworks.
• Ability to balance speed, quality, and control in high‑scale production environments.

Payments & Market Knowledge

• Solid understanding of card payments, processing platforms, issuing/acquiring models, and digital payment ecosystems.
• Exposure to Africa market dynamics, including regulatory diversity, infrastructure variability, and partner dependency is preferred.
• Familiarity with scheme requirements, certification processes, and production cutover models.

Stakeholder & Communication Skills

• Confident communicator with the ability to influence senior client stakeholders and internal leadership.
• Skilled in managing remote relationships, ensuring engagement, alignment, and trust without constant onsite presence.
• Clear, structured, and solution‑oriented communication style.

Leadership & Mindset

• Customer‑centric: puts client outcomes and service quality at the center of decisions.
• Accountable: takes ownership for delivery results and follows through on commitments.
• Collaborative: works effectively across functions, geographies, and cultures.
• Resilient: operates effectively under pressure in fast‑moving, regulated environments
• Commercially aware: understands the link between delivery performance, revenue, and client satisfaction.

Tools & Reporting

• Proficient in program management and reporting tools (MS Project, Jira, Confluence, Power BI or equivalent)
• Strong documentation, planning, and executive presentation skills.