Head: Project Management Office

Closing Date

2025/10/03

Reference Number

MMH250925-6

Job Title

Head: Project Management Office

Position Type

Permanent

Role Family

Information Technology

Cluster

International

Remote Opportunity

Some of the time

Location - Country

South Africa

Location - Province

Gauteng

Location - Town / City

Centurion

Introduction

Through our client-facing brands Metropolitan and Momentum, with Multiply (wellness and rewards programme), and our other specialist brands, including Guardrisk and Eris Property Group, the group enables business and people from all walks of life to achieve their financial goals and life aspirations.

We help people grow their savings, protect what matters to them and invest for the future. We help companies and organizations care for and reward their employees and members. Through our own network of advisers or via independent brokers and utilizing new platforms Momentum Metropolitan provides practical financial solutions for people, communities, and businesses. Visit us at www.momentumgroupltd.co.za

Disclaimer

As an applicant, please verify the legitimacy of this job advert on our company career page.

Role Purpose

To lead the Africa Life Project Management Office (PMO) in driving strategic programme delivery, ensuring all initiatives are aligned with the CEOs strategic intent, business architecture, value chains, and system dependencies. The role combines programme governance and execution leadership with enterprise design thinking, ensuring that initiatives are strategically sound, operationally feasible, and effectively implemented across countries. The Head PMO oversees large-scale, cross-functional projects, ensuring they deliver integrated business value, avoid duplication, and enable future-state capabilities.

Requirements

Degree in Business, IT, Engineering, or related field (essential)
MBA or relevant Masters degree (desirable)
Project Management certification (essential)
Process engineering certification (desirable)
TOGAF or Business Architecture certification (desirable)
10+ years in project/programme management, enterprise/business architecture, or business transformation
Proven track record of delivering large-scale, multi-stakeholder projects in insurance or financial services
Experience in both strategic design and hands-on delivery governance
Exposure to multi-country implementations (desirable)
Full retail and corporate life insurance lifecycle (products, systems, processes)
Project integration points (collections, payments, communications, commissions, underwriting, reinsurance, finance)
Enterprise and business architecture frameworks (capability mapping, value chain modelling)
Project management methodologies (Agile, Waterfall, hybrid)
Risk management, compliance, and governance requirements in insurance
Business process re-engineering and operational excellence practices

Duties & Responsibilities

PROCESS

Ensure scope, objectives, and interdependencies of all projects are clearly defined and documented, linking them to strategic capabilities and the Africa Life operating model.
Develop detailed project roadmaps showcasing sequencing, dependencies, milestones, and critical decision points across initiatives.
Translate strategic objectives into future-state capability models, operational blueprints, and clear delivery pathways.
Apply business architecture tools (capability mapping, value chain modelling, customer journey mapping, process decomposition) to guide project design.
Identify root causes of delivery blockages and resolve systemic issues.
Chair and manage governance forums (e.g. quarterly planning, portfolio reviews) to align delivery priorities and decisions across leadership and operational teams.
Maintain a centralised architecture and project artefact repository for traceability, alignment, and knowledge transfer.
Conduct post-implementation reviews and ensure lessons learned are embedded into methodology and design standards.
Coordinate with IT, product, operations, finance, and risk functions to ensure solutions are integrated and compliant.
Align initiatives with regulatory compliance and emerging industry trends to maintain competitive positioning.
Coordinate cross-country and cross-functional initiatives, ensuring synergy between corporate and retail insurance streams.

CLIENT

Build strong, trust-based relationships with key internal and external stakeholders across countries and corporate functions.
Engage with internal and external stakeholders to align on project outcomes and service expectations.
Facilitate design workshops to co-create solutions that improve both operational efficiency and the end-customer experience.
Ensure all projects deliver a measurable improvement in customer outcomes, including turnaround times, accuracy, and transparency.
Monitor delivery against SLAs and service promises.
Anticipate potential service risks during transformation and implement proactive mitigations.

FINANCE

Partner with Finance to develop multi-year portfolio budgets that balance delivery ambition with operational capacity.
Track programme ROI by measuring delivery benefits against strategic investment cases.
Identify opportunities for cost efficiency, automation, and digitisation across operational value chains.
Provide robust governance on financial risk assessments, contract management, and vendor accountability for major programmes.
Reduce cost leakage by ensuring project designs address root causes of operational inefficiency.

PEOPLE

Lead, coach, and develop direct reports (Senior Project Manager, Senior Business Analyst) to deliver with both execution discipline and strategic alignment.
Build a collaborative, high-performance PMO culture that champions ownership, accountability, and continuous improvement.
Strengthen delivery capability in in-country teams through training, templates, and knowledge transfer.
Promote a culture of structured problem-solving and evidence-based decision-making across the PMO and wider organisation.
Enable cross-functional teams to adopt Agile and hybrid delivery methods, ensuring these align with architectural design principles.
Actively manage and deepen relationships with business leaders, functional heads, and in-country executives to align delivery priorities.

Competencies