Senior Manager - Projects

The Senior Project Manager – Foods Business owns the end-to-end planning, execution and governance of the Foods delivery portfolio: multi-entity Microsoft Dynamics 365 roll-outs, Advanced Warehouse Management deployments, BI, reporting, analytics and automation initiatives, and the continuous stream of small change requests, optimisations, enhancements and Business-As-Usual (BAU) items that keep the estate current.

The role is the delivery engine of the IT Business Partnering function, converting business requirements and COE-approved solutions into well-governed delivery that lands on time, within budget and to the expected quality.

Al Ghurair Foods is a strategic business within Al Ghurair Investment Group, with growth priorities for 2028 and beyond to be a Foods value chain player with leadership in grains, and a Top Ten Foods CPG player.

Delivering on this growth depends on a steady, well-governed stream of BAU (Business-As-Usual) IT projects and enhancements that keep operations, systems and reporting running reliably across the Foods businessThis is a senior-management delivery role with a defining characteristic: the incumbent leads a cross-functional delivery squad that does not report to them.

Functional and technical consultants, BI and data engineers, COE specialists, business super-users and vendor resources are drawn from their own reporting lines and committed to the portfolio on a matrix basis.

The incumbent is fully accountable for the outcome without positional authority over the people producing it, and must therefore lead through clarity of plan, credibility of judgement, disciplined governance, and negotiated and transparent capacity commitments with the line managers who own those people.

Day-to-day responsibility spans project chartering, planning, budgeting, resourcing, risk and issue management and stakeholder reporting, so that the technology roadmap set by the IT Business Partner is executed reliably and at pace.

The role runs two distinct delivery streams that must be managed differently but reported as one portfolio: structured roll-out projects with defined phases, cutovers and hyper care; and a high-volume flow of small change requests, optimisations, enhancements and BAU items that must be triaged, sized, prioritised and released in short cycles without destabilising the core platform or starving the project stream of capacity.

Both are delivered working closely with the IT Centres of Excellence (COEs), vendors and business stakeholders across Foods, and both are expected to be predictable and audit ready.

Working knowledge of food manufacturing and distribution operations - poultry, starch and value-added processing, warehousing, dispatch and transport - is important to this role, along with hands-on fluency in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations and its Advanced Warehouse Management capability, and in the Microsoft data and automation stack (Power BI, Power Platform, Azure data services), so that plans, dependencies, sizing and risks are realistic and grounded in how each business and each system actually operates.

Strategic

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead end-to-end project management including scope definition, resource planning, budgeting, and risk mitigation.
• Develop and implement project governance frameworks, KPIs, and performance dashboards.
• Direct and supervise cross-functional project teams, external consultants, and contractors to ensure cohesive execution.
• Delivery of projects on time, within budget, and to scope.
• Established project tracking metrics and executive reporting.
• Team performance reviews, compliance with milestones.
• Contractual risk mitigation, vendor performance KPIs.
• Operational Approve procurement strategies, evaluate vendor contracts, and oversee negotiations in alignment with legal and financial standards.
• Drive stakeholder engagement at senior levels across departments including Finance, Legal, Operations, and Government Entities.
• Maintain compliance with local authorities such as DEWA, RSB, Trakhees, and DP World, ensuring timely submissions and approvals.
• Oversee documentation systems, quality assurance, and knowledge management for all technical and commercial deliverables.
• Champion the development of SOPs, continuous improvement initiatives, and team capacity building.
• Stakeholder satisfaction, seamless inter-departmental coordination.
• Regulatory compliance reports and approval timelines.
• People Management Direct supervision of Project Managers, Coordinators, and indirect influence over cross-functional teams.
• Product/Process Improvement Team performance reviews, compliance with milestones.
• Contractual risk mitigation, vendor performance KPIs. Established project tracking metrics and executive reporting.

Qualifications

• Education & Certifications: PREFERRED : Master's Degree or PMP/Prince2 certification preferred.
• MINIMUM : Bachelor's Degree in Engineering (Civil/Mechanical/Chemical) or Project/Construction Management ..Knowledge & Skill Demonstrated success in managing large-scale capital projects, infrastructure development, or manufacturing/industrial upgrades.
• Experience working with government agencies, regulatory authorities, and international consultants is highly desirable.
• Expertise in project lifecycle management (initiation to closure), including scope, cost, quality, and schedule control.
• Proficient in project management tools and platforms such as Microsoft Project, Primavera, Oracle ERP, and Power BI for dashboards.
• Experience PREFERRED : MINIMUM : Minimum 8-10 years of experience in project management, including 3-5 years in a leadership role delivering complex infrastructure or industrial projects.