Senior Project Manager & PMO Lead

ABOUT ALU

At the African Leadership University (ALU), we're more than just an institution—we're a catalyst for transformation. Our mission is to develop a new generation of ethical and entrepreneurial leaders who will shape Africa's future. Through our innovative curriculum, focus on experiential learning, and vibrant pan-African community, we empower students to become changemakers, problem-solvers, and innovators. At ALU, we're not just teaching; we're nurturing the leaders who will drive Africa's progress and prosperity in the 21st century

We are dedicated to fostering an open yet secure environment, balancing the safety of students, staff, and visitors with respect for individual rights, and safeguarding responsibilities.

HOW WE WORK

The ALU Team works in starkly different ways to traditional academic bureaucracies. We approach education from first principles, empower individuals to design, test, and implement creative new ideas, and work closely together to craft transformative learning experiences. We are deeply passionate about our students and excited by the challenge of building something entirely new.

The African Leadership University is committed to ensuring the safety and Well-being of all students under our care. As part of this commitment , we have a comprehensive safeguarding policy in place , which outlines our Zero-tolerance approach to any violation of safeguarding.

ABOUT ROLE

The Senior Project Manager & PMO Lead is responsible for shaping and driving ALU’s execution culture by building a strong Project Management Office (PMO) and delivering high-impact strategic and digital initiatives. This role is deeply hands-on: the PM will lead major institution-wide projects while simultaneously establishing the systems, standards and operating rhythms that ensure project discipline across the university.

The ideal candidate combines strategic oversight with operational precision, thrives in execution-heavy environments and has a proven ability to manage complex cross-functional teams. They will collaborate closely with the Enterprise Transformation team, ExCo, and departments across the Business Office (Risk & Performance, Finance, People, Legal) as well as academic leaders including Deans and their Heads of Department to strengthen project ownership, promote accountability and embed ALU’s unified project delivery framework across the institution.

ROLE RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Build and strengthen the Project Management Office (PMO)

• Establish strong foundations for a high-performance PMO, including standardizing governance models, communication rhythms and escalation pathways.
• Benchmark, refine and implement a unified Project Management Framework tailored to ALU’s needs.
• Digitize and streamline PMO processes, documentation and communication flows to ensure transparency, consistency and institutional memory.
• Develop OKRs and performance metrics for the PMO collaboratively within the first 90 days.

2. Drive hands-on project delivery

• Lead complex, strategic, operational and digital projects from discovery to close-out.
• Develop high-quality project artefacts including project charters, detailed plans, RAID logs, governance structures and cost tracking mechanisms.
• Facilitate structured working sessions and enforce disciplined execution, scope management and rigorous change control.
• Maintain precision in delivery, ensuring projects remain on track against scope, timelines and approved budgets.
• Expected outcome: consistently updated, accurate project dashboards; disciplined reporting cycles; strong hygiene across all PMO-led and departmental projects. 

3. Portfolio leadership and institutional visibility

• Lead strategic conversations with senior leadership to translate institutional priorities into a clear and actionable project portfolio.
• Partner with business units to identify needs, shape project proposals and develop period-based roadmaps that reflect strategic intent, capacity and resourcing realities.
• Drive disciplined portfolio management by constructively challenging RAG statuses, uncovering root-cause blockers and ensuring teams move beyond reporting to actively improving project health and delivery outcomes.
• Deploy and oversee an integrated Project Portfolio Management (PPM) dashboard offering clear visibility into project health, dependencies, risks and impact across all strategic and enabling initiatives.
• Ensure all active projects—both PMO-led and those led by departmental PMs—are updated monthly with complete and accurate data to enable confident ExCo decision-making.
• Support planning and prioritization cycles by providing reliable information on resource allocation, risk exposure and delivery feasibility.
• Expected outcome: a single source of truth for institutional execution, with transparent updates on scope, timelines, budgets and risks.

4. Cross-functional collaboration and leadership

• Serve as a partner to the ExCo, Transformation Office, Risk & Performance, Finance, Legal and People teams to ensure alignment between strategic objectives and project execution.
• Support Deans and their teams in building project ownership, planning clarity and structured follow-through.
• Facilitate alignment between academic and operational initiatives to ensure institutional coherence.
• Build trust and influence across diverse stakeholder groups, acting as a bridge between strategy and delivery.
• Expected outcome: a culture of accountability and structured communication adopted across departments.

5. Capability building and culture development

• Train project leads across all functions on the unified delivery framework and PMO tools.
• Establish a strong community of practice for project managers and coordinators institution-wide.
• Promote a culture of discipline, precision, transparency and ownership in every stage of project execution.
• Introduce monthly compliance check-ins to reinforce standards and build repeatable delivery habits across teams.
• Expected outcome: 100% adoption of the project management framework across all initiatives and strengthened internal execution muscle.

Ensure the safety and well-being of all young persons and vulnerable adults with whom we deal,  by adhering to ALCHE’s comprehensive safeguarding policy, maintaining a zero-tolerance approach to any violations of safeguarding standards.

REQUIRED EXPERIENCE

• At least a Bachelor’s degree in Project Management, Business, Management Information Systems or a related field.
• PMP certification is required (additional Agile or Prince2 certifications are an advantage).
• Expertise in project management tools e.g. Asana and JIRA is required.
• Minimum 8 years’ experience successfully managing large-scale, multi-stakeholder strategic projects across digital and non-digital domains.
• Demonstrated experience leading or establishing a PMO, including frameworks, governance and reporting structures.
• Strong analytical and communication skills, with the ability to translate complex project information into clear insights for executive audiences.
• Proven ability to deliver high-quality outcomes in environments with evolving processes, ambiguity and high accountability.

Preferred skills

• Experience working in higher education, transformation or systems implementation environments.
• Experience managing remote or cross-border teams.
• Strong facilitation and coaching ability.
• Knowledge of change management and communication principles.

Why this role matters

This role is central to how ALU executes. The Senior Project Manager & PMO Lead will set the standard for disciplined project delivery, unify how initiatives are planned and reported, strengthen project ownership across functions and embed a culture of accountability and precision. Through a combination of strong delivery, portfolio visibility and cross-functional leadership, this role ensures ALU’s most important initiatives are delivered reliably and consistently, enabling institutional transformation at scale.