Agile Project Manager Financial Services

As a Senior Manager Agile Program Management at Publicis Sapient, you will lead Agile transformation initiatives for large-scale programs, ensuring best practices and efficient delivery. You will collaborate with cross-functional teams, define Agile strategies, coach teams, and facilitate ceremonies. Your role involves managing risks, tracking metrics, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement to drive successful client outcomes.

Must Have

• Lead Agile transformation efforts, ensuring alignment with business objectives and Agile best practices.
• Manage and oversee Agile programs, ensuring successful delivery, risk mitigation, and stakeholder satisfaction.
• Collaborate with senior leadership to define Agile strategies and roadmaps for enterprise-wide adoption.
• Coach and mentor Agile teams, Scrum Masters, and Product Owners to enhance Agile maturity and performance.
• Facilitate Agile ceremonies, including PI Planning, Scrum of Scrums, and Inspect & Adapt sessions.
• Identify and address program-level dependencies, risks, and impediments to ensure smooth execution.
• Establish and track Agile program metrics to measure performance, identify areas for improvement, and drive continuous optimization.
• Work closely with product and engineering teams to ensure alignment on priorities, scope, and delivery timelines.
• Drive a culture of continuous improvement, fostering innovation and Agile excellence across teams.
• Provide thought leadership on Agile methodologies, frameworks, and best practices to enhance organizational agility.
• Experience in agile delivery within financial services, ideally payments, banking platforms, or digital identity.
• Strong knowledge of Scrum and SAFe.
• Familiarity with real-time payments, or payment modernization initiatives.
• Demonstrated ability to manage programme-level dependencies across product, technology, and compliance workstreams.
• Defined, mobilized and run program Governance forums - ideally exposure to senior stakeholders.
• Skilled in risk and issue management, ensuring alignment with regulatory deadlines and governance standards.
• Proven ability to prepare and deliver reporting packs (progress, KPIs, risks) for senior stakeholders and regulatory bodies.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills to work across banks, PSPs, central banks, and consortium partners.
• Strong communication and facilitation skills for client workshops, governance boards, and steering committees.
• Minimum 6 years in payment systems or large financial infrastructure projects.
• Minimum 6 years in agile (SAFe) environments with PI cycles (~12 weeks).

Perks & Benefits

• An inclusive workplace that promotes diversity and collaboration.
• Access to ongoing learning and development opportunities.
• Competitive compensation and benefits package.
• Flexibility to support work-life balance.
• Comprehensive health benefits for you and your family.
• Generous paid leave and holidays.
• Wellness program and employee assistance.

Company description

Publicis Sapient is a digital transformation partner helping established organizations get to their future, digitally enabled state, both in the way they work and the way they serve their customers. We help unlock value through a start-up mindset and modern methods, fusing strategy, consulting, and customer experience with agile engineering and problem-solving creativity. United by our core values and our purpose of helping people thrive in the brave pursuit of next, our 20,000+ people in 53 offices around the world combine experience across technology, data sciences, consulting, and customer obsession to accelerate our clients’ businesses through designing the products and services their customers truly value.

Overview

As a Senior Manager Agile Program Management, you will be responsible for leading and driving Agile transformation initiatives across large-scale programs. You will work closely with cross-functional teams to ensure Agile best practices are implemented, and programs are delivered with high quality and efficiency. Your expertise in Agile methodologies, program management, and stakeholder collaboration will be key in driving successful outcomes for our clients.

• Lead Agile transformation efforts, ensuring alignment with business objectives and Agile best practices.
• Manage and oversee Agile programs, ensuring successful delivery, risk mitigation, and stakeholder satisfaction.
• Collaborate with senior leadership to define Agile strategies and roadmaps for enterprise-wide adoption.
• Coach and mentor Agile teams, Scrum Masters, and Product Owners to enhance Agile maturity and performance.
• Facilitate Agile ceremonies, including PI Planning, Scrum of Scrums, and Inspect & Adapt sessions.
• Identify and address program-level dependencies, risks, and impediments to ensure smooth execution.
• Establish and track Agile program metrics to measure performance, identify areas for improvement, and drive continuous optimization.
• Work closely with product and engineering teams to ensure alignment on priorities, scope, and delivery timelines.
• Drive a culture of continuous improvement, fostering innovation and Agile excellence across teams.
• Provide thought leadership on Agile methodologies, frameworks, and best practices to enhance organizational agility.

Qualifications

• Experience in agile delivery within financial services, ideally payments, banking platforms, or digital identity.
• Strong knowledge of Scrum and SAFe
• Familiarity with real-time payments, or payment modernization initiatives (direct ECB digital euro experience not required).
• Demonstrated ability to manage programme-level dependencies across product, technology, and compliance workstreams.
• Defined, mobalised and run program Governance forums - ideally exposure to senior stakeholders
• Skilled in risk and issue management, ensuring alignment with regulatory deadlines and governance standards.
• Proven ability to prepare and deliver reporting packs (progress, KPIs, risks) for senior stakeholders and regulatory bodies.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills to work across banks, PSPs, central banks, and consortium partners.
• Strong communication and facilitation skills for client workshops, governance boards, and steering committees.
• ≥6 years in payment systems or large financial infrastructure projects
• ≥6 years in agile (SAFe) environments with PI cycles (~12 weeks)

Additional information

• An inclusive workplace that promotes diversity and collaboration.
• Access to ongoing learning and development opportunities.
• Competitive compensation and benefits package.
• Flexibility to support work-life balance.
• Comprehensive health benefits for you and your family.
• Generous paid leave and holidays.
• Wellness program and employee assistance.

As part of our dedication to an inclusive and diverse workforce, Publicis Sapient is committed to Equal Employment Opportunity without regard for race, color, national origin, ethnicity, gender, protected veteran status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, or religion. We are also committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans in our job application procedures.