Programme Manager (Fixed-term Contract) (JHB Onsite)

ENVIRONMENT:

A global FinTech company seeks an experienced & commercially minded Programme Manager whose core role will be to own delivery end to end scope, plan, budget, people, risk and the client relationship at programme level. You will build and maintain the integrated programme plan across workstreams (configuration, migration, integration, testing, cut over), with clear milestones, dependencies and acceptance gates. The successful incumbent must have a track record of leading a policy migration or book consolidation in life insurance through to successful cut-over with at least 10 years in Programme or Project Management, with 5 or more leading large technology programmes (indicatively R50m+ or 20+ person teams). You must have led at least one end-to-end policy administration system implementation or legacy book migration in long-term insurance, ideally in South Africa.

DUTIES:

Planning and Control –

• Build and maintain the integrated programme plan across workstreams (configuration, migration, integration, testing, cut over), with clear milestones, dependencies and acceptance gates.

• Drive the book-by-book migration approach, including data mapping, trial migrations, reconciliation sign-off, dress rehearsals and go-live readiness.

• Manage budget, resource burn and margin; control scope through formal change requests; protect commercial position under the contract.

• Run programme governance and represent at steering committees, with honest RAG reporting, a live RAID log and timely escalation.

• Be the day-to-day senior counterpart to client's programme lead, managing expectations and building trust with business and IT stakeholders.

• Lead and coordinate onshore and delivery-hub teams, plus any third-party partners on the company’s side, holding leads to clear commitments.

• Ensure test strategy, defect management, and regulatory and audit requirements are met before each release and cut over.

• Plan transition to business-as-usual support and service management at the end of the programme.

• The non-negotiable is a track record of leading a policy migration or book consolidation in life insurance through to successful cut-over.

• At least 10 years in programme or project management, with 5 or more leading large technology programmes (indicatively R50m+ or 20+ person teams)
• Led at least one end-to-end policy administration system implementation or legacy book migration in long-term insurance, ideally in South Africa
• Understanding of data migration: mapping, transformation, trial runs, reconciliation and financial balancing of policy books
• Delivered on the vendor side, managing scope, change control and commercials against a client contract

• Worked within a bank or bancassurance environment, or another heavily governed financial services setting, including formal steering and audit
• Strong working knowledge of South African long-term insurance regulation relevant to migrations, such as policyholder protection and data protection requirements
• Comfortable with hybrid delivery: waterfall governance and gates combined with agile delivery teams
• Excellent written reporting and the confidence to present to client executives

• Calm authority under pressure, especially around cut-over weekends and escalations.
• Commercially minded: protects business interests while keeping the client relationship strong.
• Candid reporting; surfaces bad news early rather than managing it quietly.
• Credible with both business executives and technical teams, and able to translate between them.
• Committed to seeing a long programme through, with low risk of leaving mid-programme.

Desired Skills:

• Programme
• Manager
• Fixed