Job Description

Aldar Education is seeking an outstanding Manager - Projects. This is an exciting opportunity for a skilled professional to join the highly successful Aldar family of schools and to help shape the future of Abu Dhabi’s leading school group.

Since its inception in 2007 with just 250 students, Aldar Education has grown into a highly sought-after education provider, with more than 25 owned and managed premium and super-premium schools and academies- in partnership with some of the world’s most prestigious institutions including Rugby School, King’s College Wimbledon, and Cranleigh. The Group now serves over 38,000 students through 5,000 educators from more than 100 nationalities to deliver world-class education across a broad range of curricula and learning pathways from nursery through to K12.

At Aldar Education, our impact goes far beyond the classroom: we are proud to contribute to the UAE’s vision for a sustainable, knowledge-based economy through premium education. With this in mind, we hire educators and industry professionals who not only embody our values and cultural ethos but also bring a genuine passion for education—qualities central to our mission of shaping the leaders of tomorrow.

If you are passionate about excellence and ready to make a meaningful impact, we invite you to apply and be part of our journey.

Responsible for the end-to-end delivery of assigned strategic programmes, priority projects and PMO workstreams, ensuring projects are delivered in line with agreed scope, schedule, budget, quality and governance requirements. The role leads project planning, execution, stakeholder engagement, risk management and reporting while driving timely decision-making and effective delivery across multiple business functions. The Project Manager also contributes to the continuous improvement of PMO governance, methodologies, reporting standards and project management practices.

Main Duties:

1. Project Delivery & Planning

• Lead the delivery of assigned projects from initiation through to closure, ensuring agreed objectives, scope, timelines and deliverables are achieved.
• Develop and maintain integrated project plans, schedules, governance documentation and delivery roadmaps.
• Manage project scope, risks, issues, assumptions, dependencies and change requests throughout the project lifecycle.
• Monitor project performance and implement corrective actions to maintain delivery against agreed objectives.
• Drive timely decision-making by identifying issues requiring management input and escalating where appropriate.
• Coordinate project mobilisation, execution, transition, handover and closure activities.

2. PMO Governance & Reporting

• Ensure projects comply with PMO governance standards, methodologies and reporting requirements.
• Prepare regular project status reports, highlighting progress, risks, key decisions, milestones and delivery issues.
• Maintain accurate and auditable project documentation, ensuring appropriate version control and record management.
• Monitor project health through RAID logs, action trackers and governance reporting.
• Contribute to the continuous improvement of PMO processes, templates, reporting standards and governance practices.

3. Stakeholder Management

• Build and maintain effective relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
• Coordinate cross-functional teams to ensure alignment, accountability and timely delivery.
• Facilitate project meetings, workshops and governance forums, ensuring clear actions, decisions and risks are documented and followed through.
• Engage stakeholders proactively to resolve issues, manage expectations and maintain project momentum.

4. Delivery Support for Strategic Programs & Special Projects

• Lead the delivery of assigned strategic initiatives, transformation programmes and special projects.
• Deliver projects including school openings, relocations, refurbishments, operational readiness, rebranding and other strategic initiatives.
• Coordinate business readiness activities across Education, Operations and corporate support functions.
• Monitor project benefits, milestones and readiness activities to support successful project outcomes.

5. Continuous Improvement

• Identify opportunities to improve project delivery, governance and PMO processes.
• Support the development of PMO methodologies, templates, reporting tools and governance frameworks.
• Promote best practice project management across the organisation

Specific Duties:

• Develop and maintain project charters, integrated project plans, schedules, RAID logs, stakeholder registers, communication plans, decision logs and project documentation.
• Track project milestones, dependencies, deliverables and critical paths across assigned projects.
• Prepare weekly, fortnightly and executive project reports, highlighting progress, risks, issues, overdue actions and decisions required.
• Coordinate project activities across Education, Operations, Enrolments, Finance, Procurement, DTS, Marketing, P&C, Licensing, schools and external stakeholders.
• Plan and coordinate governance meetings, project reviews and management meetings, including agendas, presentations, meeting minutes and action tracking.
• Prepare executive presentations, briefing papers and project updates for senior leadership and governance forums.
• Monitor project risks, issues, dependencies and change requests, ensuring appropriate mitigation and escalation.
• Coordinate approvals and governance decisions through the appropriate project approval processes.
• Support procurement, CAPEX, operational readiness and school development activities where assigned.
• Coordinate project handover, project closure, lessons learned and outstanding action tracking.
• Maintain organised project records, ensuring all project documentation is current, accessible and audit-ready.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree from a recognised university.
• Project management certification is preferred: PMP, PRINCE2 Foundation, CAPM, Agile, Scrum or equivalent
• Candidates without PMP should demonstrate strong project management knowledge and will be expected to obtain PMP certification within an agreed timeframe after joining.

Minimum Experience:

• 7–9 years' experience in project management, PMO, business transformation, operations or management consulting, with a proven track record of delivering cross-functional projects from initiation to completion. Experience within education, real estate, capital projects or multi-site organisations is advantageous.

Job Specific Knowledge & Skills:

• Strong knowledge of project management principles, governance frameworks and delivery methodologies.
• Demonstrated experience managing project scope, schedules, budgets, risks, issues, dependencies, stakeholders and change control.
• Ability to develop and maintain project plans, RAID logs, governance documentation, executive reports and project records.
• Experience facilitating workshops, governance meetings and executive presentations.
• Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills across multiple business functions.
• Strong analytical, organisational and problem-solving skills with the ability to manage multiple concurrent projects.
• Advanced Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, Teams and Planner skills; Microsoft Project and Power BI are advantageous.
• Demonstrated ability to leverage AI-enabled tools (e.g. Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude or equivalent) to improve project planning, reporting, documentation, analysis and delivery while maintaining appropriate governance and confidentiality.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to present complex information clearly and concisely.
• Ability to work independently, manage competing priorities and deliver results in a fast-paced environment.

What We Offer

Aldar Education is a family of world-class, child centered, and innovative schools based in the UAE. We educate over 25,000 students across our group of owned and managed schools and as we grow so does our need for highly skilled, inspirational, and dedicated school leaders. We offer an attractive remuneration package including medical cover, flights, housing, and free child school places. Our future-focused learning model includes both students and staff and so we place a special emphasis on professional development, coaching and training.

Successful candidates will have access to a wide network of professionals and opportunities to both lead and contribute to training others as well as developing themselves.

Aldar Education is keen to hear from like-minded, forward thinking school leaders who would welcome the challenge and opportunities that we have to offer.

This job description is not all inclusive. Aldar Education reserves the right to amend this job description at any time. We are an equal opportunity employer, committed to a diverse and inclusive work environment. We are also mindful of our national development strategy and encourage UAE Nationals in their application at our company.

Aldar Education is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff to share this commitment. Offers of appointment are subject to satisfactory references and police clearance.