UBA Bank Zambia
UNITED BANK FOR AFRICA
Africa’s Global Bank
JOB OPPORTUNITY
IT Project Manager
REPORTING LINE: COO, Zambia
LOCATION: Lusaka, Zambia
Role Purpose
The IT Project Manager will be responsible for leading and coordinating the end-to-end delivery of technology and business transformation initiatives within UBA Zambia, while ensuring alignment with Group governance standards, strategic priorities, and enterprise delivery frameworks.
The role holder will serve as the primary in-country delivery lead, driving execution across digital banking, payments, channels, infrastructure, compliance, automation, and operational transformation initiatives. The role is intended to strengthen local execution capability, reduce over-reliance on centralized Group delivery resources, improve project turnaround time, and enhance stakeholder accountability within the subsidiary.
The Project Manager will work closely with Group Africa delivery teams, country leadership, vendors, and business stakeholders to ensure projects are delivered within approved scope, timelines, budget, quality, and regulatory expectations.
The role requires strong governance discipline, stakeholder management capability, execution rigor, and the ability to operate effectively within a matrix banking environment.
Key Responsibilities
- Project Delivery & Execution
- Lead the planning, execution, monitoring, and closure of assigned IT and business transformation projects within Zambia.
- Develop and maintain detailed project plans, schedules, RAID logs, dependency trackers, and governance artefacts.
- Ensure delivery against approved timelines, scope, budget, and quality standards.
- Coordinate project execution across internal teams, Group shared services, vendors, and third-party partners.
- Drive proactive issue resolution and escalation management to prevent delivery slippages.
- Ensure all projects follow approved PMO
governance frameworks, stage gates, and reporting standards.
- Support delivery of digital banking, payments, channels, APIs, infrastructure, automation, and regulatory initiatives.
- Governance & PMO Compliance
- Enforce compliance with Group PMO standards, methodologies, templates, and reporting requirements.
Prepare and present project status updates to Country EXCO, Steering Committees, and Group governance forums.
- Ensure all projects maintain updated:
- RAID logs
- Project schedules
- Financial tracking
- Governance approvals
- Change requests
- Action trackers
- Coordinate New Project Intake, Design Forum, Change Control Board, SIT, UAT, and Go-live governance activities where required.
- Ensure projects meet audit, risk, InfoSec, and regulatory requirements before production deployment.
- Ensure all projects are properly updated in the designated Project Tracker
- Stakeholder Management
- Serve as the primary coordination point between:
- Country business teams
- Group Africa delivery teams
- Vendors
- Operations teams
- Technology teams
- Build strong relationships with stakeholders to ensure alignment, accountability, and timely decision-making.
- Facilitate workshops, project reviews, steering meetings, and executive update sessions.
- Manage stakeholder expectations and drive resolution of conflicts or delivery bottlenecks.
- Vendor & Third-Party Coordination
- Coordinate implementation activities involving vendors, fintechs, telcos, and technology partners. • Track vendor deliverables, SLAs, timelines, and issue resolution.
- Ensure vendor solutions comply with Group architecture, security, and operational standards. • Support vendor due diligence, implementation reviews, and go-live readiness assessments.
- Risk, Compliance & Operational Readiness
- Identify, assess, and manage project risks, issues, assumptions, and dependencies.
- Ensure compliance with:
- Regulatory requirements
- Information Security standards
- Data privacy requirements
- Operational readiness criteria
- Coordinate UAT, operational handover, training, and post-go-live stabilization activities.
- Ensure production deployments are supported by:
- Approved rollback plans
- Monitoring frameworks
- Business continuity considerations
- Reporting & Performance Management
- Produce accurate weekly and monthly portfolio reporting for:
- Country leadership
- Africa PMO
Group governance forums
Maintain visibility of:
- Delivery health
- Risks/issues
- Budget utilization
- Resource constraints
- Benefits realization
- Support continuous improvement initiatives within the country delivery function.
Key Skills & Competencies
Technical & Delivery Competencies
- Strong end-to-end IT project management capability
- Experience managing:
- Digital banking projects
- Payment systems
- Channels implementations
- API integrations
Strong understanding of:
- Agile and Waterfall methodologies Banking operations
- Enterprise delivery governance
- Ability to manage multi-vendor and cross-functional delivery environments
- Strong risk management and issue resolution capability
- Excellent MS Suite (Ms Project, PPT, Word. Excel)
- Familiarity with:
- Finacle/Core Banking Systems
- APIs and middleware integrations
Behavioral Competencies
- Strong execution discipline
- High sense of ownership and accountability • Excellent stakeholder management capability • Strong communication and presentation skills • Ability to work under pressure in fast-paced environments
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills Ability to influence without direct authority
- Attention to detail and governance discipline • Strong escalation and decision-management capability
- Certifications and Education
Education
- Bachelor’s Degree in:
- Computer Science
- Information Technology
- Engineering
- Business Information Systems
- Related discipline
- A Master’s degree will be an added advantage.
- Professional Certifications (Preferred)
- PMP (Project Management Professional) • PRINCE2
- PMI-ACP / Agile Certification
- Scrum Master Certification
- ITIL Foundation (a plus)
Experience Requirements
- Minimum of 5-8 years’ experience in IT Project Management
- Experience within:
- Banking
- Financial Services
- Telecommunications • Fintech
- IT
- Proven track record delivering complex enterprise technology projects
- Experience working in matrix and multi-country environments preferred
- Experience managing vendors and third-party integrations required Success Measures (KPIs)
The success of the role will be measured against:
- % of projects delivered on time
- % of projects delivered within approved budget • Reduction in project delivery slippages/escalations
- Compliance with PMO governance standards • Reduction in dependency on Group Africa execution teams
- Quality and timeliness of reporting
- Successful delivery of regulatory and strategic initiatives
- Effective management of project risks and issues
- Benefits realization achievement for implemented projects
TO APPLY
United Bank for Africa is an equal opportunity employer. Interested candidates that meet the above job requirements should send their application in a single document comprising of detailed Curriculum Vitae, Grade Twele (G12) Certificate and Degree and other copies of professional qualifications (ZAQA verified) to: careers.zambia@ubagroup.com by 15th May, 2026