IT Project Manager, Africa

GardaWorld International Protective Services is the international security division of GardaWorld Security Corporation, the world's largest privately owned security company. Our services include static security, consulting, threat monitoring and reporting, crisis response, logistical support, mobile security, close protection, training and risk management.

This senior, hands-on IT Project Manager position at GardaWorld Security Africa is crucial for overseeing a portfolio of strategic technology initiatives across the continent. The successful candidate will be fully accountable for the entire project lifecycle, encompassing initiation, planning, execution, change adoption, operational handover, and ensuring the realization of benefits for assigned Business Technology programs and projects. The role demands an exceptional project manager who combines rigorous project management discipline with a strong focus on delivery, possessing deep expertise in project planning, governance, risk management, financial control, and stakeholder management. The manager will be responsible for creating structure in ambiguous situations, establishing clear accountability, driving decisions and dependencies to closure, removing obstacles, and maintaining momentum across business, technology, and vendor teams. Effective communication at both detailed project control and executive levels is essential, engaging stakeholders from frontline users to C-suite executives. A critical success factor is strong organizational change management capability, ensuring stakeholders are engaged, prepared, and supported through changes, leading to the adoption and embedding of solutions that deliver intended business outcomes. Success is measured by controlled, predictable delivery, adherence to agreed scope, schedule, budget, and quality, active risk management, stakeholder alignment, successful change adoption, and the achievement of expected business benefits. The IT Project Manager reports directly to the IT Director, Africa, and is responsible for maintaining strict control over project scope, schedule, budget, quality, risk, resources, and dependencies, while actively driving execution across all stakeholders. The role requires proactive identification of delivery threats, ownership of resolutions, and timely escalation with clear context and recommendations when intervention is needed, with accountability extending through implementation, business readiness, adoption, operational handover, and benefits realization.

1. Take full accountability for assigned projects from initiation through planning, execution, implementation, transition, and formal closure.
2. Establish clear project scope, objectives, deliverables, success criteria, governance, and accountabilities.
3. Develop and maintain robust integrated project plans, work breakdown structures, milestone schedules, resource plans, and critical-path dependencies.
4. Drive delivery actively and maintain momentum across business, IT, vendors, and implementation partners.
5. Convert commitments into clear actions, owners, and deadlines, and relentlessly follow through to completion.
6. Identify and remove blockers early; escalate when necessary, presenting impact, options, and recommended actions.
7. Ensure projects are delivered to agreed scope, schedule, budget, quality, and business outcomes.
8. Lead project closure, operational handover, lessons learned, and post-implementation reviews.
9. Apply strong project management discipline appropriate to the scale, complexity, and risk of each initiative.
10. Establish and manage project governance structures, stage gates, baselines, controls, and approval processes.
11. Maintain accurate RAID (Risks, Assumptions, Issues, Dependencies), dependency, decision, action, and change-control logs with clear ownership and due dates.
12. Manage project constraints across scope, time, cost, quality, resources, risk, and dependencies.
13. Ensure project documentation and controls remain current, meaningful, and decision-oriented throughout delivery.
14. Chair project governance forums and ensure decisions and actions are documented and driven to closure.
15. Maintain a clear audit trail of key approvals, decisions, changes, and project commitments.
16. Serve as the primary project lead and point of accountability across business stakeholders, IT teams, vendors, and implementation partners.
17. Build trusted relationships and operate credibly at all levels, from frontline users to C-suite executives.
18. Develop and execute stakeholder engagement and communication plans for each initiative.
19. Provide concise, transparent, and decision-oriented reporting on progress, milestones, financials, risks, issues, dependencies, and required interventions.
20. Prepare and deliver steering committee packs, executive briefings, and decision papers.
21. Facilitate project meetings, steering committees, issue-resolution sessions, and executive reviews with clear agendas, decisions, actions, owners, and deadlines.
22. Manage stakeholder expectations proactively and address misalignment before it impacts delivery.
23. Lead or coordinate organizational change management activities for successful project adoption.
24. Assess stakeholder impact, readiness, resistance, and adoption risks throughout the project lifecycle.
25. Develop and execute practical change, communication, training, and adoption plans aligned to project milestones.
26. Engage leaders, managers, and end users early to build understanding, ownership, and readiness for change.
27. Ensure business readiness, training, communications, procedures, support arrangements, and transition activities are completed before go-live.
28. Monitor adoption following implementation and drive corrective action where expected behaviors or outcomes are not being achieved.
29. Ensure project success is measured by sustainable adoption and realized business outcomes, not technical go-live alone.
30. Proactively identify, assess, prioritize, and manage project risks, issues, assumptions, and dependencies.
31. Develop practical mitigation and recovery plans and ensure accountable owners deliver agreed actions.
32. Escalate material risks and issues early, with clear impact assessment, options, and recommendations.
33. Lead formal project change control, assessing proposed changes against scope, schedule, budget, resources, quality, and risk before approval.
34. Protect approved project baselines while ensuring legitimate business changes are evaluated and incorporated in a controlled manner.
35. Develop recovery plans for projects or workstreams that move off track and drive execution back to agreed tolerances.
36. Own project budget management including forecasting, commitments, actuals, accruals, and variance reporting.
37. Plan and coordinate internal resources, contractors, vendors, and implementation partners across project workstreams.
38. Identify capacity constraints early and secure or escalate resource requirements before they impact delivery.
39. Manage vendor performance and hold third parties accountable for contracted milestones, deliverables, quality, and service commitments.
40. Coordinate procurement and contracting activities with relevant functions and incorporate commercial lead times and dependencies into project plans.
41. Challenge cost, scope, and delivery assumptions where necessary to protect project outcomes.
42. Define project quality requirements, acceptance criteria, stage gates, and go-live readiness requirements.
43. Coordinate testing and UAT planning, ensuring defects, outcomes, approvals, and outstanding risks are appropriately managed.
44. Lead formal go-live readiness reviews covering technology, business readiness, support, training, communications, data, security, and operational dependencies.
45. Ensure no project transitions into production without appropriate acceptance, ownership, support arrangements, and contingency planning.
46. Coordinate hypercare and transition activities following implementation and ensure outstanding issues are driven to closure.
47. Maintain accurate portfolio-level visibility for the IT Director across project health, milestones, financials, risks, dependencies, resources, and decisions.
48. Support project prioritization, sequencing, estimation, dependency mapping, and resource forecasting across the Africa technology portfolio.
49. Contribute to the continuous improvement of project management standards, governance, templates, and delivery practices.
50. Apply lessons learned from completed projects to improve predictability and delivery performance across future initiatives.

1. Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Business, Project Management, or a related field from a recognized institution.
2. Project Management Professional (PMP) or PRINCE2 Practitioner certification (mandatory).
3. PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) or Certified Scrum Master (CSM) (added advantage).
4. Minimum seven (7) years of experience in IT project management, with at least three (3) years managing enterprise-scale technology projects or programs.
5. Demonstrated track record of personally leading complex IT projects from initiation through implementation, change adoption, handover, and closure, with clear accountability for scope, schedule, budget, quality, and outcomes.
6. Proven experience in vendor and third-party contract management throughout a project lifecycle.
7. Strong proficiency in project management and collaboration tools such as Microsoft Project, Jira, Smartsheet, Monday.com, or equivalent.
8. Experience in IT system implementation, migration, and integration.
9. Exposure to Agile/Scrum delivery frameworks in an IT environment.
10. Ability to produce effective project documentation including charters, plans, risk registers, status reports, and lessons learned.
11. Strong practical experience in project governance, integrated planning, RAID management, dependency management, financial tracking, change control, executive reporting, and steering committee governance.
12. Demonstrated organizational change management experience on technology-enabled business change, including stakeholder impact assessment, readiness, communications, training, adoption, and reinforcement.
13. Proven ability to recover projects or workstreams that are off track by identifying root causes, establishing recovery plans, and driving actions to closure.
14. Demonstrated ability to operate effectively at all organizational levels, from frontline users and technical specialists through to Country Management, Senior Leadership, and C-suite executives.
15. Strong stakeholder leadership, facilitation, negotiation, and influencing capability, including the ability to drive accountability across matrix teams and third parties without relying solely on formal authority.
16. Experience working across multiple countries, business units, or geographically dispersed teams is strongly advantageous.
17. Ability to work across Waterfall, Agile, and hybrid delivery approaches and apply the appropriate level of governance and control to the project context.
18. Formal change management certification such as Prosci, APMG Change Management, or equivalent (advantageous).