PMO Director - Insurance & Investments

About the role

The PMO Director leads the Project Management Office and sets up its governance framework, ensuring strategic and operational initiatives are planned, coordinated, monitored and delivered successfully. The role covers insurance operations, investment services, digital transformation, technology implementation, business process improvement and organizational development, working closely with executive leadership, department heads, project sponsors and project managers.

Key responsibilities

• Establish and lead the PMO, including policies, governance frameworks, standards, tools and documentation, and define approval processes, reporting and escalation procedures.
• Oversee the project portfolio, prioritizing initiatives and recommending corrective action on underperforming ones.
• Supervise project planning, scheduling, budgeting, execution, scope, change requests, quality control and resource allocation.
• Oversee insurance projects (product development, underwriting, claims, policy administration, distribution) and investment services, and support regulatory compliance, risk management and internal controls.
• Lead digital transformation and technology implementation projects such as core insurance systems, CRM, ERP, automation and data analytics.
• Manage project budgets, forecasts, expenditure and ROI, and coordinate with Finance, Procurement and business departments.
• Set up risk, compliance and quality processes, maintain documentation and audit records, and work with Risk, Compliance, Legal and Internal Audit.
• Develop dashboards, status reports and portfolio summaries, run governance reviews and report to senior management.
• Mentor project managers, PMO analysts and coordinators, build stakeholder relationships and coach project management capabilities.

Required profile

• Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Project Management, Finance, Engineering, IT or a related field; MBA preferred.
• Minimum 10-15 years in project, program or portfolio management, including at least 5 years in a senior PMO leadership role.
• Demonstrated experience setting up or improving a PMO and managing complex, cross-functional, enterprise-level projects.
• Experience in insurance, banking, investment management or financial services is highly desirable.
• Preferred certifications: PMP, PRINCE2 Practitioner, PfMP, PgMP, Agile/Scrum, Lean Six Sigma.

Required skills

• PMO strategy and governance, project portfolio management and planning oversight
• Budget and resource management, risk and compliance management
• Executive reporting, change management and business transformation
• Leadership and team development, project management software and reporting tools