Strategic Projects Manager

About Cognita

Role overview

Project delivery and roadmap

• Turn strategic priorities into plans with defined scope, milestones, owners, and success measures; run governance, status reporting, risk and dependency tracking, prioritization, and escalation.
• Identify risks, interdependencies, and resource constraints early and drive resolution; track outcomes to ensure projects realize value and become business as usual.
• Align priorities with the P&C roadmap and sequence initiatives for impact; design and embed forward-looking people processes.
• Use market trends, benchmarks, and best practice to inform the roadmap and project design.

Change, technology, and stakeholders

• Lead change management and communications to build awareness and adoption among managers, employees, and P&C colleagues.
• Work with Technology teams to scope and deliver technology-enabled initiatives, including HR systems enhancements and digitization of people processes.
• Partner with cross-functional stakeholders, regional HR teams, and school and function leaders to secure input and shared ownership.
• Manage vendors, consultants, and implementation partners, tracking deliverables, timelines, and performance.

Essential qualifications and experience

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, or a related field.
• Seven to ten years of progressive project or programme management, HR transformation, or HR business-partnering experience; ideally in a large, multi-country organisation.
• Track record delivering strategic initiatives to agreed timelines and leading projects end to end; People & Culture or HR context is ideal.
• Experience partnering with senior leaders and heads of function and aligning projects with strategic priorities.
• Experience with Technology teams on initiatives such as HRIS implementations or enhancements, and experience managing external vendors and consultants.
• Strong stakeholder management, influencing, analytical presentation, change management, and communication skills; collaborative and people-centred approach.

Desirable qualifications and experience

• Project management certification such as PMP, PRINCE2, or Agile, and/or HR certification such as CIPD or SHRM-CP/SCP is desirable.
• Global or regional experience, change management communications for people initiatives, education or wider services-sector exposure, and working knowledge of HR systems or digital HR tools are desirable.

Location and working across markets

• The role is based in Dubai and works with colleagues and stakeholders across multiple markets.
• Some flexibility across time zones is needed.

Pre-employment checks

• New staff undergo enhanced pre-employment clearance, including identity, criminal background, qualification, employment-history, and reference checks.