Lead Project Manager - Cards & Payments

About the role

A global cards and payments firm, working with a leading bank in Jeddah, is looking for a Lead Project Manager to run the cards change portfolio for a lean, digital-first cards team. The role covers new credit card launches, scheme and regulatory mandates, digital wallet capabilities and a domestic scheme card programme. It is an onsite position in Abu Dhabi, UAE, on a 12-month initial contract with strong potential for extension, open to immediately available candidates.

Key responsibilities

• Set up and lead a PMO for the cards change portfolio, agree a master plan with the client and run Steering Committee governance.
• Act as the single point of contact between the payment scheme and the client across all workstreams.
• Deliver new credit card propositions end to end, from setup to customers transacting.
• Drive scheme and regulatory mandates to on-time compliance, escalate blocking dependencies early (including wallet and provisioning compliance).
• Coordinate the domestic scheme card rollout, including customer journey, communications and tracking activation after reissuance.
• Diagnose and improve the acquisition funnel (approval rates, onboarding drop-off, eligibility rules) with Credit, Product and Digital.
• Manage client teams and vendors against the master plan, manage RAID and report portfolio performance regularly.

Required profile

• Bachelor's degree in a related field such as project management, engineering or technology.
• PMP or similar project management certification; agile or hybrid delivery experience is valued.
• 10+ years in project management, focused on end-to-end delivery of complex projects in banking or payments.
• Experience on large-scale conversion programmes, banking or payments product launches and solution deployments in multiple markets.
• Excellent leadership, communication and stakeholder skills, comfortable presenting to senior committees.
• Arabic is an advantage.

Required skills

• End-to-end delivery of a card issuing programme (launch, migration or mandate)
• Structured project management: planning, RAID and governance
• English for executive reporting
• Good working knowledge of card management systems, processors, scheme certification, tokenisation and digital wallet provisioning