Senior Project Management Officer

Founded in 1984, APCO Worldwide is an award-winning, independently owned global communication and business strategy firm with offices in major cities throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. APCO combines a global perspective with local expertise to help clients around the world manage challenges, opportunities, perceptions and reputations. APCO clients include corporations and governments; industry associations and nonprofit organizations; and six of the top 10 companies on the Fortune 500. The firm is a majority women-owned business.

The role: Own and manage the complete project life cycle from kick-off to close-out including reporting and risk management

Primary Responsibilities
- Continuously monitor projects to ensure they are meeting standards, adhering to budgets, and meeting deadlines
- Collaborate with all departments and units to manage and prioritize project delivery
- Ensure team members carry out their tasks efficiently while upholding the standards of the client
- Monitor projects and report status to management on a regular basis
- Create and maintain a risk register to manage potential risks
- Manage the timely resolution of issues, including the escalation of issues that are outside of the project team’s scope of responsibility for respective project
- Develop, maintain, and manage detailed project plans, action items and major milestones for all assigned projects
- Act as a single point of contact for project status
- Address problems through risk management and contingency planning and present solutions to SC management
- Perform additional duties commensurate with the current role, as and when requested by the Head of Communication Planning
- Manage overall implementation
- Track and monitor program progress
- Manage internal and external communication related to project status
- Ensure stakeholder alignment
- Manage on-going issue resolution
- Identify and manage risks
- Prepare Leadership presentations storyline, align with program leaders and program manager, collect respective slides from workstreams
- Check budget and track savings and expenses
- Keep track of resources schedule
- Prepare project plan at the start of a project.
- Provide detail on activities and key milestones planned by each initiative/ work stream
- Provide detail for each initiative/ work stream on progress and key issues for reporting upwards
- Provide detail for each initiative/ work stream on issues and risks and potential remedies
- Create a shared file repository functionality with access control and version control
- Keep track of resources’ time and pre-plan time off and vacations.
- Prepare project budget and track savings and spend on an ongoing basis

**Requirements**:

- Bachelor’s degree in business administration / communications or any relevant field. Master’s degree or MBA strongly preferred
- 3 to 4 years of demonstrated experience in program management preferably in the field of communication
- Preferred Qualifications: PMP certification

About APCO in the Middle East and North Africa

Home to some of the fastest growing economies in the world, the Middle East and North Africa region has a pivotal role to play in driving global conversations - from environmental policies to religion and pop culture. The UAE and Saudi Arabia are clear leaders in this equation, although the wave of innovation continues to transcend borders.

APCO launched its regional operations in 2006 in Dubai. Growing from a team of less than 10 consultants, APCO today has over 200 people from 26 countries working in teams across Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Manama and Kuwait and our projects take us to countries across the region and the Levant. APCO was awarded Best Agency in the Middle East by PRWeek in 2019 and Best Agency to Work for: EMEA Network by PRovoke Media in 2017 and 2019.

With a portfolio of over 100 clients, APCO’s MENA offices deliver public relations and digital communication support across health, food, consumer & retail, finance, technology, real estate & hospitality, non-profit and public affairs practices. The region also offers specialized services, created for the Middle East, such as our Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model and our Compass and License to Operate offerings.

In addition, APCO’s global AI Comms Lab, a first-of-its-kind innovation center which utilizes artificial intelligence to build and protect the reputations of major global brands, governments and organizations is driven from the Dubai office.

From helping governments connect with the private sector and civil society, to supporting the Pope’s historic visit to the region and launching iconic brands and destinations, we understand the nuances of the MENA region and pride ourselves on making an impact.