Project Governance and Readiness Lead

Oman Investment Authority

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Governance & Framework Structuring

• Establish and maintain the governance framework: processes, roles/RACI, decision criteria, Stage-Gate structures, and evidence requirements aligned with OIA and MDO expectations.
• Ensure consistent use of governance requirements across projects and lifecycle phases, with transparency and traceability.
• Act as custodian for all Project Controls & Readiness (PCR) documents (manuals, procedures, standards, guidelines, templates), including updates, approvals, and communication.

Assurance, Compliance Checks, and Portfolio Decision-Making

• Strengthen decision quality through structured assurance reviews and readiness assessments ahead of ISGRC decisions.
• Conduct periodic compliance checks / assurance audits of governance implementation across projects under development (pack quality, traceability, register discipline, reporting integrity).
• Provide portfolio governance insights to leadership to support prioritization and investment decisions: pipeline visibility, gate readiness, key exceptions, and recommendations.
• Escalate non-compliances and aging actions with clear owners, due dates, and corrective actions.

Stage-Gate Documentation, Audit & Compliance

• Own end-to-end stage-gate documentation, audit, and compliance processes across all MDO projects, ensuring consistent application of gate criteria, documentation standards, and approval protocols from Gate 0 through Gate 5.
• Develop, maintain, and apply gate checklists, readiness criteria, and documentation templates for each stage-gate, ensuring all required deliverables are complete and compliant before any gate review is convened.
• Coordinate and administer gate review meetings, ensuring all required gate deliverables are submitted on time, reviewed formally, and recorded in the gate decisions register.
• Validate the completeness and quality of gate packages prepared by the Studies & Delivery team prior to submission to the Director Project Controls & Readiness, CPTO, and Investment Committee.
• Conduct periodic stage-gate compliance audits on all active projects, produce formal audit reports identifying governance gaps, and track the resolution of all audit findings to closure.
• Maintain a gate decisions register tracking all gate approvals, conditions, deferrals, and follow-up actions across the portfolio.

G3 to G4 Execution Readiness Assessment

• Lead the formal execution readiness assessment process for all projects transitioning from Feasibility (Gate 3) to Execution (Gate 4), ensuring that all readiness criteria across technical, commercial, contractual, regulatory, and organisational dimensions are formally assessed and documented.
• Develop and maintain execution readiness frameworks and assessment checklists covering engineering completion, procurement strategy, contractor mobilisation, permitting status, regulatory approvals, and operational integration readiness.
• Coordinate readiness assessments with the Studies & Delivery team, Director Project Controls & Readiness, and all relevant MDO functions, producing a consolidated readiness status report with clearly identified gaps and remediation plans.
• Track and monitor the closure of all readiness gaps identified during assessment, escalating unresolved issues to the Director Project Controls & Readiness prior to gate submission.
• Ensure that execution readiness findings are formally incorporated into the Gate 4 submission package and that no project advances to execution with unresolved material readiness gaps.

Investment Paper Completeness Management

• Manage the completeness check process for all investment papers and Project Investment Notes, ensuring that submissions comply with OIA's investment governance requirements before they are presented to the Investment Committee or Board.
• Develop and maintain a structured completeness checklist for OIA investment papers, covering all required technical, financial, commercial, ESG, legal, and governance elements.
• Coordinate cross-functional inputs to investment papers from Finance, Legal, ESG, Exploration, and Studies & Delivery teams, tracking the status of all required contributions and escalating delays to the Director Project Controls & Readiness.
• Support the Director Project Controls & Readiness and CPTO in the preparation of Board-level project submissions, ensuring all governance documentation is accurate, complete, and internally consistent.
• Maintain a log of all investment submissions, Board decisions, and associated conditions or requirements.

Post-Implementation Reviews & Lessons Learned

• Own the Post-Implementation Review (PIR) process for all projects reaching Gate 5, ensuring PIRs are completed within six months of project closure and that findings are formally documented, approved, and disseminated.
• Facilitate cross-functional PIR workshops, ensuring that key lessons relating to study quality, cost and schedule performance, governance effectiveness, contractor performance, and readiness management are captured comprehensively.
• Own and maintain MDO's lessons-learned database, ensuring that PIR findings and lessons from all project phases are systematically recorded, categorised, and made accessible to future project teams.
• Ensure that lessons-learned findings are actively applied to MDO's Stage-Gate governance framework, gate checklists, readiness assessment criteria, and risk management methodology for future projects.
• Report on lessons-learned integration to the Director Project Controls & Readiness on a periodic basis, demonstrating how previous findings have been embedded in current governance and controls processes.