Senior Project Manager

Through our client-facing brands Metropolitan and Momentum, with Multiply (wellness and rewards programme), and our other specialist brands, including Guardrisk and Eris Property Group, the group enables business and people from all walks of life to achieve their financial goals and life aspirations.

We help people grow their savings, protect what matters to them and invest for the future. We help companies and organisations care for and reward their employees and members. Through our own network of advisers or via independent brokers and utilising new platforms Momentum Group provides practical financial solutions for people, communities and businesses. Visit us at www.momentumgroupltd.co.za

Disclaimer As an applicant, please verify the legitimacy of this job advert on our company career page.

Role Purpose

To lead the delivery of large, complex, cross-functional projects within Momentum Africa Life, ensuring they are strategically aligned, well-orchestrated, and delivered on time, within budget, and to quality standards. This role combines project management expertise with business analysis capabilities, enabling the Senior Project Manager to understand business processes, interrogate requirements, and translate them into actionable delivery plans. The role ensures initiatives are not delivered in silos but are integrated into Africa Life’s value chain and aligned with the enterprise design led by the Head PMO.

Requirements

Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Project Management, Information Systems, Insurance, or a related field (essential)
• Project Management Certification (essential)
• Postgraduate degree (e.g., MBA or Honours in Business/Project Management) (desirable)
• Agile / hybrid delivery certification (e.g. Scrum Master) (desirable)
• 7–10 years’ experience in project management, with at least 3–5 years at a senior level managing large, complex, cross-functional projects.
• Proven experience managing projects within life insurance, demonstrating the ability to navigate regulatory requirements, product complexities, and operational interdependencies.
• Proven track record delivering projects in insurance or financial services environments.
• Demonstrated experience bridging project management and business analysis capabilities.
• Experience leading cross-country or multi-stakeholder initiatives.

Duties & Responsibilities

PROCESS

• Lead planning, scoping, and sequencing of large-scale projects in alignment with the Africa Life operating model and capability map.
• Develop and maintain detailed project plans, resource allocations, timelines, and dependencies.
• Apply business analysis techniques to interrogate requirements and assess process implications before project execution.
• Monitor and resolve delivery risks, dependencies, and blockages across multiple workstreams.
• Ensure projects are integrated with upstream functions (product, underwriting, actuarial, finance, IT) and downstream operations.
• Manage project governance forums, reporting, and escalations to stakeholders and Head PMO.
• Conduct project closure reviews and embed lessons learned into future planning cycles.

CLIENT

• Engage stakeholders across product, finance, actuarial, IT, and country operations to align on project outcomes.
• Ensure delivery outputs translate into tangible business benefits, customer experience improvements, and compliance with regulatory requirements.
• Manage stakeholder expectations and communicate progress, risks, and benefits clearly.

FINANCE

• Track project budgets, costs, and resource utilisation to ensure value for money.
• Support development of financial business cases for initiatives, ensuring ROI is measured and achieved.
• Recommend cost efficiencies and optimisation opportunities through improved planning and delivery.

PEOPLE

• Facilitate alignment across diverse stakeholders (product, underwriting, actuarial, finance, IT, and country operations) ensuring each function contributes at the right stage of the delivery lifecycle.
• Provide leadership to cross-functional project teams, fostering collaboration, accountability, and delivery discipline.
• Promote a culture of continuous improvement and agility within delivery teams.

Competencies

• Strategic orchestration
• Integrated collaboration
• Analytical thinking
• Stakeholder Influence
• Delivery Accountability
• Problem Solving
• Adaptability
• Systems Thinking
• Clear Communication
• Resilient Leadership

Skills and Knowledge

• In-depth understanding of life insurance operations across retail and corporate product lines, including the interdependencies between product, claims, underwriting, finance, actuarial, and reinsurance.
• Strong grasp of project management lifecycle methodologies and philosophies, including when to apply waterfall, agile, or hybrid approaches to ensure delivery success.
• Business process design and value chain dependencies.
• Insurance industry knowledge (life, retail, corporate) and operational processes.
• Risk and governance frameworks.
• Project management tools and reporting platforms.
• Project planning, scheduling, and sequencing
• Business analysis (requirements gathering, process mapping, use case documentation)
• Stakeholder engagement and influence
• Risk identification and mitigation
• Data interpretation for decision-making
• Facilitation and presentation skills
• Financial acumen for budgeting and ROI tracking