Cards Transformation Program Lead

Job Title: Cards Transformation Program Lead

Client: Leading Banking & Payments Institution

Employment Type: 12-month contract

Location: Riyadh, KSA

Experience Level: 15-20 years

Our client, a global payments consulting firm, is engaged with a leading bank in Saudi Arabia and is seeking an accomplished Cards Transformation Program Lead to drive the delivery of a large-scale cards transformation program across consumer, corporate, and SME portfolios.

This role requires a seasoned consulting professional with extensive experience leading strategic transformation initiatives from concept through execution. The successful candidate will oversee governance, portfolio growth, customer value management (CVM), digital enablement, product enhancements, analytics, and operational improvements while partnering closely with executive stakeholders to deliver sustainable commercial and operational outcomes.

This is an exciting opportunity to play a key role in shaping a leading card issuer's loyalty proposition in one of the GCC's fastest-growing payments markets.

• Lead the end-to-end execution of a complex cards transformation engagement spanning multiple interconnected work streams.
• Establish effective governance frameworks, identifying, tracking, and mitigating program Risks, Assumptions, Issues, and Dependencies to ensure effective governance and successful delivery of complex transformation initiatives
• Build and manage integrated program roadmaps, defining milestones, responsibilities, deliverables, and success measures.
• Monitor and manage risks, issues, dependencies, and scope changes while maintaining delivery momentum.
• Prepare executive-level communications, progress updates, and decision-support materials for senior leadership.
• Support the implementation of portfolio strategies across consumer, corporate, and SME card businesses.
• Drive initiatives focused on spend growth, customer acquisition, activation, engagement, retention, profitability, and CVM performance.
• Monitor portfolio performance across key metrics, including customer activity, spend behavior, digital adoption, attrition, profitability, and campaign effectiveness.
• Assess opportunities to improve portfolio economics while balancing customer value, risk considerations, and operational feasibility.
• Recommend strategic actions that enhance portfolio performance and long-term growth.
• Oversee new product launches, value proposition enhancements, pricing initiatives, loyalty program improvements, and portfolio optimization activities.
• Enhance customer experiences across onboarding, servicing, dispute handling, campaign management, and ongoing account engagement.
• Drive digital transformation initiatives aimed at improving customer adoption, usage, engagement, and overall experience.
• Ensure products and services remain competitive, customer-centric, and aligned with market expectations.
• Support performance reviews and optimization initiatives following product launches and program implementations.

• Structure complex business challenges into actionable workplans, analytical frameworks, and decision-ready recommendations.
• Lead market assessments, competitive benchmarking exercises, customer research initiatives, and strategic analyses.
• Develop business cases, revenue forecasts, investment evaluations, and cost-benefit assessments to support decision-making.
• Identify portfolio gaps, customer opportunities, operational inefficiencies, and performance improvement levers.
• Convert data-driven insights into practical recommendations and executable transformation plans.

• Partner with business, operations, technology, risk, compliance, analytics, and external stakeholders to ensure successful execution.
• Lead multidisciplinary teams to deliver business-focused solutions aligned with strategic objectives.
• Manage organizational change across people, processes, systems, governance structures, and operating models.
• Support capability development through training, playbooks, operating procedures, and knowledge transfer activities.
• Drive adoption and…