IT Project Manager, Africa

Job Summary

Garda World Security Africa is undertaking a portfolio of strategic, high-impact technology initiatives across the Africa region. The IT Project Manager, Africa will serve as the primary driver of project delivery across this portfolio, owning end-to-end execution, governance, and stakeholder management for all Business Technology programmes. This is a dedicated project management role. The successful candidate will bring deep PM methodology expertise, proven experience delivering complex enterprise technology projects on time and within budget, and the leadership presence to influence at all levels of the business.

Key Responsibilities

Project Governance & Delivery

• Own the full project lifecycle; from initiation through planning, execution, monitoring, and formal closure — for all assigned IT projects.
• Define project scope, objectives, deliverables, and success criteria in alignment with the IT Director and business stakeholders.
• Develop and maintain comprehensive project plans, work breakdown structures (WBS), resource plans, and milestone schedules.
• Ensure all projects are delivered on scope, on time, and within approved budget constraints.
• Manage project budgets including forecasting, tracking actuals, and variance reporting.
• Lead project closure activities: lessons learned, benefits realisation, handover to operations, and post-implementation reviews.

Stakeholder Management & Communication

• Serve as the primary point of contact for all project stakeholders, internal leadership, IT teams, vendors, and external partners.
• Prepare and deliver structured project status reports, steering committee presentations, and executive briefings.
• Develop and execute project communication plans ensuring the right information reaches the right audience at the right time.
• Facilitate all project meetings: kick-offs, status updates, issue resolution, and steering sessions — with clear agendas, actions, and minutes.
• Build trusted relationships with departmental heads and end-user communities to ensure alignment with business needs.

Risk, Issue & Change Management

• Proactively identify, assess, and manage project risks; develop and implement mitigation strategies.
• Maintain risk and issue registers; elevate critical risks to the IT Director with recommended remediation actions.
• Lead formal change control processes: evaluate change requests for impact on scope, schedule, budget, and quality; obtain approval before implementation.
• Monitor and manage project constraints, scope, time, cost, quality, risk, and resources throughout the project lifecycle.
• Plan, allocate, and optimise project resources, internal staff, contractors, and third-party suppliers.
• Manage relationships with IT vendors and implementation partners; hold them accountable to contracted SLAs and deliverables.
• Coordinate procurement activities in liaison with the procurement function; oversee contract management for project-related engagements.
• Track and manage resource utilisation across concurrent projects to ensure capacity is not overextended.

Quality Assurance & Testing Oversight

• Develop and implement project quality management plans; define quality gates and acceptance criteria for each project phase.
• Coordinate user acceptance testing (UAT) schedules and ensure test results are documented and approved before go‑live.
• Ensure all project documentation is complete, accurate, and archived in line with Garda World standards.
• Maintain an up-to‑date project portfolio dashboard for the IT Director, providing visibility into status, risks, and financials across all active projects.
• Contribute to continuous improvement of project management standards, templates, and processes within the IT function.
• Support the IT Director in pipeline planning: effort estimation, sequencing, dependency mapping, and resource forecasting for new initiatives.

Accountability

The IT Project Manager is accountable to the IT Director for the successful delivery of all assigned projects against agreed scope, schedule, budget, and quality parameters. These responsibilities will be monitored and managed through the mid‑year and annual performance review and supported through the monitoring of KPIs.

Authority

As per Garda World authority matrix

Principal Outputs of this Role

• Approved project charters and initiation documents
• Detailed project plans and schedules (always current)
• Work breakdown structures and RACI matrices.
• Risk and issue registers with active mitigation plans.
• Change control logs and approved change requests.
• Project budget trackers with variance analysis
• Stakeholder communication and engagement plans
• Quality management plans and UAT sign‑off documentation
• Weekly/monthly project status reports and steering committee packs
• Post‑implementation review reports and lessons learned registers.
• Portfolio dashboard for the IT Director

Skills & Attributes

• Strong project planning, scheduling, and delivery execution skills.
• High degree of sensitivity and confidentiality when dealing with internal and external stakeholders.
• Influencer with excellent negotiation, interpersonal, and communication skills.
• Good leadership and people management skills across matrix teams.
• Forward planning with clear focus on critical deadlines and dependencies.
• Team player, able to work with remote supervision in a diverse, multicultural environment.
• Attention to detail, structured analytical thinking, and ability to troubleshoot complex project issues.
• Business acumen and strategic thinking with ability to make sound decisions under pressure.
• Excellent risk identification, problem analysis, and reporting skills.
• High moral standing with impeccable integrity.

Qualifications & Experience

• 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.