Senior Project Manager, Credit & Risk Implementations (KSA)

About the job

About Synapse Analytics

Synapse Analytics builds AI-powered platforms that help financial institutions make faster, better, more transparent decisions. Konan, our decisioning and workflow platform, digitizes credit decisioning end to end inside banks and lenders. Doxter, our document intelligence platform, turns unstructured client documents into structured, usable data. We implement both inside regulated financial institutions across MENA and LATAM, and Saudi Arabia is one of our most important and fastest-growing markets.

About the Role

As Senior Project Manager for Credit & Risk Implementations in KSA, you will be Synapse's senior delivery lead on the ground in the Kingdom. You will own the end-to-end delivery of Konan and Doxter implementations at Saudi banks, finance companies, and lenders: programmes that digitize credit policy, automate underwriting and decisioning, and operate under the oversight of the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA).

This is not a generic PM role. Our KSA implementations sit at the point where credit and risk policy, regulatory compliance, client IT and InfoSec, and AI-powered software meet. You will need to hold a credible conversation with a Chief Risk Officer about policy and decisioning, with a CISO about outsourcing and data controls, and with our engineers about integration and deployment, and then turn all of it into one plan the client trusts.

You will run a portfolio of concurrent KSA engagements, lead senior client relationships and steering committees, protect scope and commercial boundaries, and act as the delivery authority for the region. As our presence in the Kingdom grows, you will also help build the local delivery team and the playbook it runs on.

Role and Responsibilities

Credit & Risk Implementation Leadership

• Lead end-to-end delivery of Konan and Doxter implementations for Saudi financial institutions, from contract handover and project charter through go-live, hypercare, and handover to Customer Success.
• Own the credit policy digitization workstream: lead policy discovery workshops with client credit and risk teams, and guide the translation of credit policy, eligibility and knockout rules, scorecards, limits, pricing, and approval matrices into Konan configurations alongside our Konan subject matter experts.
• Ensure every configured policy is traceable to the client's approved policy documents, fully tested, and formally signed off by the client's risk owners.
• Lead end-to-end lending journey design across retail, SME, and consumer finance products, including loan origination, onboarding, decisioning, and document verification flows.
• Coordinate data source and integration workstreams typical of the Saudi market, such as credit bureau, identity verification, income verification, and core banking integrations.

Regulatory, Compliance & InfoSec Readiness

• Plan delivery around the client's regulatory obligations, including SAMA outsourcing requirements, cybersecurity and data protection controls, and the approval steps the client must complete before go-live.
• Lead Synapse's contribution to client regulatory documentation, such as outsourcing submissions, roles and responsibilities matrices, and access and data handling evidence.
• Partner with client InfoSec and IT teams through security reviews, penetration test findings, access management, and on-premises deployment approvals, and keep these off the critical path wherever possible.

Senior Client Relationship & Governance

• Own senior client relationships throughout delivery, including Chief Risk Officers, Chief Credit Officers, CIOs, CISOs, and business sponsors.
• Set up and run project governance: working groups, steering committees, milestone reviews, and escalation paths agreed in the project charter.
• Lead difficult conversations with confidence and respect, including scope disputes, delays, and change requests, balancing client priorities against contractual commitments.
• Manage scope, change control, and milestone acceptance rigorously, including the sign-off evidence that triggers milestone invoicing.
• Identify expansion opportunities (new products, use cases, and Doxter adoption) and work with the commercial team to progress them.

Portfolio Delivery & Internal Leadership

• Run a portfolio of concurrent KSA engagements with accurate, real-time visibility of health, risks, and decisions in ClickUp, our delivery platform.
• Act as the senior coordination point between clients and Synapse Engineering, Forward Deployed Engineering, Product, Data, QA, and Leadership.
• Run delivery readiness checks before commitments are made, so internal teams are resourced and aligned before dates reach the client.
• Support pre-sales and contracting by reviewing scope, statements of work, and timelines for deliverability before they are signed.

Team Building & Delivery Standards

• Mentor and guide Project Managers and Junior Technical Project Managers working on KSA engagements.
• Contribute to hiring and onboarding as our KSA delivery team grows.
• Turn recurring patterns from KSA implementations into reusable assets: credit policy templates, regulatory document packs, project charter and plan templates, and playbook updates.

Experience

• 6 to 10 years of experience in project or programme management, implementation management, or client delivery, with at least 3 years leading projects for banks, finance companies, or fintechs.
• Proven track record delivering credit, lending, or risk technology in financial institutions, such as loan origination systems, decision engines, credit scoring, collections, or core banking credit modules.
• Direct experience delivering in Saudi Arabia, with a working understanding of how Saudi banks and finance companies run projects, approvals, and procurement.
• Experience managing or mentoring other project managers.

Credit, Risk & Regulatory Knowledge

• Strong working knowledge of the credit lifecycle: origination, underwriting, credit policy, scorecards, limits, approval authorities, and portfolio monitoring.
• Able to read and challenge a credit policy document and explain its implementation implications to business and technical audiences.
• Familiarity with the Saudi regulatory landscape for financial institutions, including SAMA requirements on outsourcing, cybersecurity, and consumer and data protection.
• Familiarity with the Saudi credit and data ecosystem, such as credit bureau and national identity and income verification services.

Delivery & Leadership Skills

• Advanced command of delivery methodologies (waterfall, agile, and hybrid), and the judgement to choose the right one for a regulated client.
• Disciplined in governance, scope management, change control, and milestone acceptance.
• Highly credible with senior and executive stakeholders; comfortable leading steering committees and resolving escalations.
• Strong commercial awareness of how delivery decisions affect margin, client satisfaction, and renewals.

Communication

• Full professional fluency in both Arabic and English (written and spoken). This is mandatory.
• Comfortable with Saudi business culture and communication norms.
• Produces executive-ready reports, steering committee decks, and project documentation independently.

Nice to Have

• PMP, PgMP, Prince2 Practitioner, or an equivalent advanced certification.
• Background in a bank's credit, risk, or retail lending function before moving into delivery.
• Experience with AI, machine learning, or document intelligence products.
• Experience with on-premises deployments in banking environments.
• Experience with ClickUp, Jira, or a similar delivery platform.

What We Value

We are building the foundation of a global delivery team, and we hire for character as much as capability. Everyone on the team is expected to bring: