Senior Programme Manager in Belfast

Imagine catching criminals before they strike - that’s exactly what Napier’s AI-powered platform does! By analysing transactions and customers in real time, Napier AI’s technology empowers financial institutions to spot suspicious activity, like money laundering, and stops it in its tracks. Napier AI’s technology works like a digital detective, combining AI with smart analytics to outthink criminals and protect people’s money from becoming criminal proceeds. It’s not just about stopping crime - it’s about making the financial world safer and more trustworthy for everyone.

Collaboration, innovation and wonderful people are just some of the reasons to bring your career to Napier. Our culture is shaped by our core values that promote equality, creativity, and opportunity in everything we do. After successfully securing PI investment to fuel our ongoing growth and to further invest in our AI products, we are currently building out our Tech Hub in Belfast - this is a super exciting time to join Napier in Belfast as we expand.

The Role:

You will lead Napier AI's most complex and highest-value enterprise delivery programmes including Tier 1 bank implementations. From there you will take portfolio leadership of Napier's strategic Tier 1 accounts as we scale that tier of the business. These programmes operate under regulatory and contractual hard deadlines, multi-party governance (bank, Napier, hyperscaler, third-party integrators), and executive-level scrutiny on both sides. You will be brought in at critical phases, expected to establish authority quickly, restore delivery confidence where needed, hold the commercial line, and land go-live cleanly.

This is a senior, customer-facing role that carries programme accountability end to end. You will be the single senior Napier delivery point of contact with the client's programme director and executive sponsor. You will be trusted internally to hold Product, Engineering, Platform, and Professional Services to their commitments to ensure customers realise value from their investment in Napier's platform.

Your day to day:

• Programme Leadership
  • Own end-to-end delivery of Napier's largest enterprise programmes, including Tier 1 National and European bank engagements.
  • Establish and run programme governance: steering committees, executive status reviews, RAID discipline, decision logs.
  • Define and defend the acceptance criteria for go-live and any regulatory or contractual milestone.
  • Coordinate delivery across Napier's Professional Services, Product, Engineering, Platform, Support, and Customer Success functions.
• Client and Executive Stakeholder Management
  • Act as the single senior Napier delivery contact with the client's programme director, delivery leads, and executive sponsors.
  • Chair steering committees and executive status forums with authority and credibility.
  • Prevent client escalations bypassing programme governance.
  • Represent Napier at client executive escalations, industry regulator interactions where relevant, and third-party (hyperscaler, SI) governance.
• Commercial Governance
  • Own programme P&L, forecast, and margin.
  • Run formal change control against every scope movement, defect classification, and delivery obligation.
  • Defend Napier against uncapped commitments, one-sided release triggers, and unbounded acceptance criteria.
  • Hold the defect versus change request line: no product commitment leaves Napier without your sign-off.
  • Escalate commercial and contractual risk to the CCO before it becomes a client-facing position.
• Delivery Excellence and Risk Management
  • Maintain the end-to-end programme plan, dependency map, and critical path.
  • Own the risk register and drive mitigations with named accountable owners.
  • Establish and maintain go/no-go readiness assessment against agreed criteria.
  • Drive continuous improvement in Napier's delivery methodology from evidence in the field.
• Third-Party Regulatory Instruments
  • Manage the operational side of any escrow, source-code deposit, or equivalent regulatory instrument on your programmes, working with Napier Legal, Engineering, and the third-party agent.
  • Manage client expectations on trigger events, deposit content, and verification cycles.
• Customer Outcomes and Transition
  • Ensure customers achieve successful implementation, adoption, and business value realisation.
  • Manage a clean transition from delivery into Customer Success and Support with complete documentation and no orphaned commitments.

Do you have what it takes?

Essential

• 12+ years leading large-scale enterprise software delivery programmes, with at least 5 years at senior programme director or equivalent level.
• Direct financial crime compliance domain experience: AML, KYC, Transaction Monitoring, Sanctions Screening, or Case Management platforms. Not adjacent, not learned on the job during a stint - deep and current.
• Delivered at least one enterprise implementation into a Tier 1 or systemic bank in the UK, EU, or US, chairing steering committees at C-1 level.
• Proven turnaround experience: taken over a live enterprise programme mid-flight, restored client confidence, re-baselined credibly, and landed a successful outcome.
• Cloud-based enterprise SaaS platform delivery experience, ideally including hyperscaler-hosted environments (Azure, AWS, or GCP).
• Multi-vendor programme experience across client, primary vendor, hyperscaler, and system integrator.
• Strong commercial and contractual instincts: has run defensive change control, held scope, defended margin, and defeated attempts to reclassify enhancements as defects.
• Experience of programmes with regulatory or contractual hard deadlines (go/no-go gates, DORA, PRA/FCA supervisory dates, or equivalent).
• Presence and credibility at C-1 and C-suite client levels.

Highly Desirable

• Experience of escrow, source-code deposit, or equivalent third-party regulatory instruments in a live client engagement.
• Experience across multiple geographic regions (EMEA, Americas, APAC).
• Programme management certifications (MSP, PgMP, PMP, Prince2) - useful, but not a substitute for the experience above.
• Experience in Private Equity-backed software companies operating to a defined value creation plan.

About You

You bring calm authority and structured judgement to programmes under pressure. You are equally comfortable in a technical defect triage, a commercial change control meeting, and a bank executive steering committee. You know when to push and when to protect, and you are willing to hold uncomfortable positions internally to protect the commercial and delivery outcome. You do not need consensus to act. You do need clarity of accountability, direct access to executive decision-making, and the trust to run your programme.

Why Napier?

• Comprehensive private healthcare through AXA covering optical, audio & dental.
• 25 days of annual leave + bank holidays, your birthday and a wellness day.
• Dedicated pension plan through Aviva.
• Life Insurance 4x your annual salary.
• Enhanced Maternity & Paternity leave.
• Income protections policy.
• Work from anywhere for up to 1 month.
• Access to our employee wellbeing programme.
• Gym membership discounts.
• Flexibility in work schedules and locations, ensuring a work-life balance. This role can be fulfilled either with a hybrid approach or fully in-office – depending on your preference.
• An open and flexible culture that allows you to work in the best way for you.

Please note applicants must have the right to work in the United Kingdom. We are unable to offer sponsorship or take over sponsorship of employment visas at this time.