Job Description

Our Client
Our client is a niche higher-education institution in Dubai preparing to launch later this year. As a new entrant to the market, the college is assembling a founding leadership team to support a successful and high-quality market entry within the UAE's regulated education environment.
Your Role
As Senior Project Manager / PMO Lead, you will own the end-to-end college launch programme, spanning regulatory and academic readiness, campus delivery, systems implementation, staffing and the student-facing "day one" experience. Acting as the central PMO, you will coordinate founders, the Dean, QA/Accreditation, HR, IT, marketing, facilities teams and external partners to ensure the institution opens on time and to a high standard.
Key responsibilities include:

• Leading and managing the integrated project plan for the college launch, covering regulatory approvals, academic programme development, campus fit-out, IT and systems, recruitment, marketing and student-services readiness.
• Establishing light but effective PMO governance, including project standards, risk and issue management, dependency tracking, status dashboards and steering-committee reporting.
• Working closely with QA/Accreditation and academic leadership to align project timelines with CAA, KHDA and UQAIB requirements and key academic calendar milestones.
• Coordinating internal teams and external partners (contractors, vendors, technology providers, marketing agencies and recruitment partners) to manage timelines, budgets and delivery risks.
• Monitoring overall launch readiness through structured readiness reviews across people, processes, systems and facilities, and leading cut-over planning, go-live execution and post-launch stabilisation.
• Engaging directly with founders, the Board and senior academic leaders, while building scalable PMO practices to support future institutional growth.

Must-Have

• 8-12+ years of project management and/or PMO leadership experience, including experience within UAE higher education or large education groups (universities, colleges or major school networks).
• Proven track record delivering complex, multi-workstream programmes with fixed launch dates, such as new campus or institution openings or major academic or systems roll-outs.
• Strong understanding of the UAE education ecosystem, including regulatory processes, stakeholders and operating environment.
• Excellent planning, risk management, stakeholder engagement and communication skills, with the ability to operate effectively at Board and Dean level while remaining hands-on.
• Professional project management certification (PMP, PRINCE2 or equivalent) is highly desirable.

Next Steps
Upload your resume via our ATS platform and ensure all form details are complete. Shortlisted candidates will be contacted within 5-7 working days for a detailed discussion about the role. Due to high application volumes, we will only respond to shortlisted profiles.

Skills Required