Managed Service Delivery Lead & Project Manager

he Managed Service Delivery Lead & Project Manager is a strategic, dual-function role responsible for overseeing the holistic health of our IT operations and driving continuous technical enhancements for a KSA finance company. You will act as the primary point of accountability for the managed services engagement, ensuring that the Fineract loan management system, ERPNext, bespoke applications (mobile, middleware, credit engine, BPM), and GCP infrastructure meet strict SLA and performance targets. Simultaneously, you will project manage the development lifecycle for system upgrades, new feature rollouts, and custom integrations. Key Responsibilities Managed Service Delivery & Client Success Service Governance: Own the overall service delivery lifecycle. Conduct regular Service Level Review meetings with business stakeholders to report on system performance, SLA/KPI achievements, and operational stability. Continuous Improvement: Analyze service performance data alongside the ITSM Lead to identify recurring issues, optimize support workflows, and implement preventative measures across the infrastructure and application layers. Transition Management: Oversee the smooth transition of newly developed proprietary components (e.g., mobile app updates, new BPM workflows) from the engineering team into the live managed support environment. Vendor & Cloud Management: Coordinate with third-party vendors and manage the operational aspects of our Google Cloud Platform (GCP) hosting environment, ensuring cost-efficiency, scalability, and high availability. Project & Delivery Management End-to-End Project Execution: Lead the planning, execution, and delivery of ongoing software development projects, including enhancements to the custom middleware, credit decision engine, and loan management integrations. Agile Leadership: Facilitate Agile/Scrum ceremonies (sprint planning, daily stand-ups, retrospectives) for distributed engineering and delivery teams. Requirements & Scope Management: Work closely with business analysts and product owners to translate KSA financial business requirements into actionable technical project plans, managing scope creep and delivery timelines. Risk & Resource Management: Identify project bottlenecks, manage technical dependencies between off-the-shelf platforms (Fineract/ERPNext) and proprietary code, and dynamically allocate engineering resources to meet delivery deadlines. Requirements Qualifications & Technical Requirements Experience: 8+ years of combined experience in Project Management and Managed Services Delivery, with a strong background in the financial services, banking, or fintech sectors. Certifications: Active PMP, PRINCE2, or Agile (CSM/PMI-ACP) certification is required. ITIL v4 certification is highly desirable. Technical Acumen: Demonstrated experience managing complex software delivery involving a mix of core banking/loan management platforms (e.g., Fineract), ERP systems, and custom microservices. Strong understanding of cloud infrastructure deployments, preferably Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Familiarity with modern software development lifecycles (CI/CD, DevOps) and integration architectures (APIs, middleware). Regulatory & Market Knowledge: Familiarity with Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) regulations, data privacy compliance, and KSA financial sector operational standards. Communication: Exceptional stakeholder management and executive presentation skills. Bilingual proficiency (Arabic and English) is required to navigate KSA business requirements and coordinate with technical teams effectively.