IT Project Manager, Africa

Position/Employment Type

IT Project Manager, Africa

Organization/Reporting line:

Reporting to the IT Director, Africa

Place of work/Travel:

Nairobi, Kenya or Johannesburg, South Africa with some travel to our country offices including but not limited to Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Rwanda, Burundi, DRC, Nigeria, Mozambique, Angola and other locations where the company has operations.

Contact and Cooperation:

Internally : Senior Leadership Team, Country Management Teams, GardaWorld IT Teams
Externally: IT vendors, implementation partners, managed service providers, software and hardware suppliers.

Job Summary:

GardaWorld Security Africa is undertaking a portfolio of strategic, high-impact technology initiatives across the Africa region. The IT Project Manager, Africa is accountable for the successful end-to-end delivery of assigned Business Technology programmes and projects, from initiation and planning through execution, change adoption, operational handover and benefits realisation.

This is a senior, hands-on project management role for an exceptional Project Manager who combines rigorous project management discipline with a strong bias for delivery. The successful candidate will bring deep expertise in project planning, governance, risk, financial control, stakeholder management and delivery methodology, while taking personal ownership for driving outcomes and getting complex initiatives delivered.

The role requires a Project Manager who creates structure from ambiguity, establishes clear accountability, drives decisions and dependencies to closure, removes blockers and maintains momentum across business, technology and vendor teams. They must be equally effective in detailed project control and executive-level communication, and comfortable operating from frontline users and technical teams through to Country Management and C-suite stakeholders.

A critical success factor is strong organisational change management capability. The Project Manager must ensure that impacted stakeholders are engaged, prepared and supported through change, and that solutions are not only implemented but adopted, embedded into operations and delivering the intended business outcomes.

Success is measured by controlled, predictable delivery and realised outcomes: projects delivered to agreed scope, schedule, budget and quality; risks actively managed; stakeholders aligned; change successfully adopted; and expected business benefits achieved.

Key Responsibilities:

Key duties will be as follows.

1. Project Leadership & End-to-End Delivery
• Take full accountability for assigned projects from initiation through planning, execution, implementation, transition and formal closure.
• Establish clear project scope, objectives, deliverables, success criteria, governance and accountabilities.
• Develop and maintain robust integrated project plans, work breakdown structures, milestone schedules, resource plans and critical-path dependencies.
• Drive delivery actively and maintain momentum across business, IT, vendors and implementation partners.
• Convert commitments into clear actions, owners and deadlines, and relentlessly follow through to completion.
• Identify and remove blockers early; where escalation is required, present the impact, options and a recommended course of action.
• Ensure projects are delivered to agreed scope, schedule, budget, quality and business outcomes.
• Lead project closure, operational handover, lessons learned and post-implementation reviews.

2. Project Governance & Control
• Apply strong project management discipline appropriate to the scale, complexity and risk of each initiative.
• Establish and manage project governance structures, stage gates, baselines, controls and approval processes.
• Maintain accurate RAID, dependency, decision, action and change-control logs with clear ownership and due dates.
• Manage project constraints across scope, time, cost, quality, resources, risk and dependencies.
• Ensure project documentation and controls remain current, meaningful and decision-oriented throughout delivery.
• Chair project governance forums and ensure decisions and actions are documented and driven to closure.
• Maintain a clear audit trail of key approvals, decisions, changes and project commitments.

3. Stakeholder Leadership & Communication
• Serve as the primary project lead and point of accountability across business stakeholders, IT teams, vendors and implementation partners.
• Build trusted relationships and operate credibly at all levels, from frontline users and technical specialists to Country Management, Senior Leadership and C-suite executives.
• Develop and execute stakeholder engagement and communication plans for each initiative.
• Provide concise, transparent and decision-oriented reporting on progress, milestones, financials, risks, issues, dependencies and required interventions.
• Prepare and deliver steering committee packs, executive briefings and decision papers.
• Facilitate project meetings, steering committees, issue-resolution sessions and executive reviews with clear agendas, decisions, actions, owners and deadlines.
• Manage stakeholder expectations proactively and address misalignment before it impacts delivery.

4. Organisational Change Management & Adoption
• Lead or coordinate the organisational change management activities required for successful project adoption.
• Assess stakeholder impact, readiness, resistance and adoption risks throughout the project lifecycle.
• Develop and execute practical change, communication, training and adoption plans aligned to project milestones.
• Engage leaders, managers and end users early to build understanding, ownership and readiness for change.
• Ensure business readiness, training, communications, procedures, support arrangements and transition activities are completed before go-live.
• Monitor adoption following implementation and drive corrective action where expected behaviours or outcomes are not being achieved.
• Ensure project success is measured by sustainable adoption and realised business outcomes, not technical go-live alone.

5. Risk, Issue, Dependency & Change Management
• Proactively identify, assess, prioritise and manage project risks, issues, assumptions and dependencies.
• Develop practical mitigation and recovery plans and ensure accountable owners deliver agreed actions.
• Escalate material risks and issues early, with clear impact assessment, options and recommendations.
• Lead formal project change control, assessing proposed changes against scope, schedule, budget, resources, quality and risk before approval.
• Protect approved project baselines while ensuring legitimate business changes are evaluated and incorporated in a controlled manner.
• Develop recovery plans for projects or workstreams that move off track and drive execution back to agreed tolerances.

6. Financial, Resource & Vendor Management
• Own project budget management including forecasting, commitments, actuals, accruals and variance reporting.
• Plan and coordinate internal resources, contractors, vendors and implementation partners across project workstreams.
• Identify capacity constraints early and secure or escalate resource requirements before they impact delivery.
• Manage vendor performance and hold third parties accountable for contracted milestones, deliverables, quality and service commitments.
• Coordinate procurement and contracting activities with the relevant functions and incorporate commercial lead times and dependencies into project plans.
• Challenge cost, scope and delivery assumptions where necessary to protect project outcomes.

7. Quality, Testing & Go-Live Readiness
• Define project quality requirements, acceptance criteria, stage gates and go-live readiness requirements.
• Coordinate testing and UAT planning, ensuring defects, outcomes, approvals and outstanding risks are appropriately managed.
• Lead formal go-live readiness reviews covering technology, business readiness, support, training, communications, data, security and operational dependencies.
• Ensure no project transitions into production without appropriate acceptance, ownership, support arrangements and contingency planning.
• Coordinate hypercare and transition activities following implementation and ensure outstanding issues are driven to closure.

8. Portfolio Reporting & Continuous Improvement
• Maintain accurate portfolio-level visibility for the IT Director across project health, milestones, financials, risks, dependencies, resources and decisions.
• Support project prioritisation, sequencing, estimation, dependency mapping and resource forecasting across the Africa technology portfolio.
• Contribute to the continuous improvement of project management standards, governance, templates and delivery practices.
• Apply lessons learned from completed projects to improve predictability and delivery performance across future initiatives.

Accountability:

The IT Project Manager is accountable to the IT Director, Africa for the successful delivery and outcome of all assigned projects and programmes. Accountability includes maintaining rigorous control of scope, schedule, budget, quality, risk, resources and dependencies while actively driving execution across all stakeholders.

The role is expected to identify delivery threats early, take ownership of resolution, and escalate with clear context, impact, options and recommendations where intervention is required. Project administration and reporting are necessary disciplines, but do not constitute successful delivery on their own. The Project Manager remains accountable through implementation, business readiness, adoption, operational handover and benefits realisation.

Authority:

As per GardaWorld authority matrix

Principal Outputs of this Role:

• Approved project charters, business cases and initiation documents.
• Integrated project plans, work breakdown structures and milestone schedules.
• Project budgets, forecasts and variance reports.
• RAID, dependency, decision, action and change-control logs.
• Resource plans and RACI matrices.
• Stakeholder engagement and communication plans.
• Organisational change, training, adoption and business-readiness plans.
• Weekly/monthly project status reports and steering committee packs.
• UAT, quality-gate and go-live readiness documentation.
• Operational handover and transition documentation.
• Post-implementation reviews, lessons learned and benefits-realisation reporting.
• Accurate portfolio dashboard for the IT Director.

Competencies:

• Bachelor’s degree in information technology, Computer Science, Business, or a related field from a recognised institution.
• Project Management Professional (PMP) or PRINCE2 Practitioner certification — mandatory.
• PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) or Certified Scrum Master (CSM) — added advantage.
• Minimum seven (7) years’ experience in IT project management, with at least 3 years managing enterprise-scale technology projects.
• Demonstrated track record delivering complex IT projects: ERP implementations, system migrations, infrastructure rollouts, network upgrades, or enterprise application deployments.
• Proven experience in vendor and third-party contract management throughout a project lifecycle.
• Proficiency in project management tools such as Microsoft Project, Jira, Smartsheet, or equivalent.
• Experience in IT system implementation, migration, and integration.
• Exposure to Agile/Scrum delivery frameworks in an IT environment.
• Ability to produce effective project documentation. Charters, plans, risk registers, status reports, and lessons learned.
• Demonstrated track record of taking personal ownership for complex technology projects and driving delivery from initiation through implementation, business adoption, operational handover and formal closure.
• Strong practical experience in project governance, integrated planning, RAID management, dependency management, financial tracking, change control, executive reporting and steering committee governance.
• Demonstrated organisational change management experience on technology-enabled business change, including stakeholder impact assessment, readiness, communications, training, adoption and reinforcement.
• Proven ability to recover projects or workstreams that are off track by identifying root causes, establishing recovery plans and driving actions to closure.
• Demonstrated ability to operate effectively at all organisational levels, from frontline users and technical specialists through to Country Management, Senior Leadership and C-suite executives.
• Strong stakeholder leadership, facilitation, negotiation and influencing capability, including the ability to drive accountability across matrix teams and third parties without relying solely on formal authority.
• Experience working across multiple countries, business units or geographically dispersed teams is strongly advantageous.
• Ability to work across Waterfall, Agile and hybrid delivery approaches and apply the appropriate level of governance and control to the project context.

Qualifications & Experience:

• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Business, Project Management or a related field from a recognised institution.
• Project Management Professional (PMP), PRINCE2 Practitioner or equivalent recognised project management certification - strongly preferred.
• Formal change management certification such as Prosci, APMG Change Management or equivalent - advantageous.
• Minimum seven (7) years' experience in IT project management, including at least three (3) years leading complex enterprise-scale technology projects or programmes.
• Demonstrated track record of personally leading complex projects from initiation through implementation, change adoption, handover and closure, with clear accountability for scope, schedule, budget, quality and outcomes.
• Strong practical experience in project governance, integrated planning, RAID management, dependency management, financial tracking, change control, executive reporting and steering committee governance.
• Demonstrated organisational change management experience on technology-enabled business change, including stakeholder engagement, readiness, communications, training and adoption.
• Proven experience managing vendors, implementation partners and third parties, including holding suppliers accountable for contracted deliverables, milestones and service commitments.
• Experience delivering technology initiatives such as enterprise applications, system migrations, infrastructure rollouts, network upgrades, integrations or digital transformation programmes.
• Strong proficiency in project management and collaboration tools such as Microsoft Project, Jira, Smartsheet, Monday.com or equivalent.
• Experience working across multiple countries, business units or geographically dispersed teams is strongly advantageous.
• Exposure to Agile, Waterfall and hybrid delivery frameworks, with the judgement to apply the appropriate approach to the project context.