Corporate Programs Lead — Full-time

Significa Capital is hiring a Corporate Programs Lead to serve as the lead professional on a retained Innovation, Strategy & Venture Programs engagement with a major corporate client. You will own the engagement end-to-end — setting the delivery agenda, leading the on-the-ground team, and acting as the primary day-to-day interface between the client's senior leadership and Significa.

This is a senior, client-facing leadership role. You will translate strategy into running programmes — multi-vertical accelerators, hackathons and academies, a venture clienting pipeline feeding a corporate venture capital capability, ecosystem partnerships, and board-grade reporting — while directing a coordinator and program vendors, owning budgets, and keeping Partner and Director time focused on the highest-value strategic decisions. As Significa's portfolio of engagements evolves, you may lead or rotate across client mandates.

Engagement Leadership & Client Relationship • Act as the lead professional and primary day-to-day point of contact for the client's senior leadership, owning the relationship and the engagement's overall success. • Set the engagement delivery agenda and 90-day action plans; align scope, priorities, and resourcing with Significa's Partners and Director. • Lead the on-the-ground team — directing the Project Coordinator and program vendors — and represent Significa in client, executive, and board settings. • Identify and shape opportunities to deepen and expand the engagement.

Program Delivery & Operations • Own the end-to-end design, build, and delivery of innovation programmes — accelerators, hackathons, academies, innovation challenges, and startup cohorts — from architecture through to demo day. • Translate strategic frameworks into detailed delivery plans: milestones, workstreams, owners, budgets, dependencies, and risk logs. • Run programme governance — milestone tracking, stakeholder cadences, status reporting, and timely issue/risk escalation.

Venture Clienting & CVC Pipeline • Lead the venture clienting programme: startup-to-business-unit matchmaking, proof-of-concept scoping, pilot tracking, and adoption measurement. • Manage the pipeline from venture-client engagement toward CVC readiness; own deal-flow and pipeline records. • Drive CVC operations — deal-flow management, evaluation, investment-committee preparation, and portfolio-monitoring inputs, alongside Significa's investment team.

Startup & Ecosystem Management • Lead startup scouting, screening, selection, and cohort management; chair evaluation panels and apply selection methodologies. • Direct mentorship and advisory delivery to portfolio and pipeline startups. • Build and own relationships across the innovation ecosystem — startups, hubs, universities, regulators, and technology partners.

Partnerships & Stakeholder Coordination • Lead the partnerships programme: ecosystem mapping, partner identification, and structuring of co-investment and in-kind arrangements. • Orchestrate cross-stakeholder coordination across client departments, government bodies, and vendors.

Media Agency & Program Visibility • Oversee the outsourced media agency on the client's behalf: brief development, editorial-calendar alignment, output quality assurance, and event media coordination.

Board-Level Reporting & Executive Preparation • Own board-ready reporting — innovation scorecards, programme dashboards, quarterly strategic reviews, and executive briefing materials. • Synthesise programme data into clear narratives; lead rehearsal and preparation for executive and board sessions.

Budget, Commercial & Quality Governance • Own programme budgets and the pre-execution business-case and budget-sheet process for each service line. • Uphold Significa's quality-assurance, confidentiality, and reporting standards across all deliverables.

• Bachelor's degree in business, engineering, technology, or a related field; postgraduate qualification (MBA or equivalent) preferred. • 10+ years' experience across innovation programme leadership, management consulting, corporate venture, or strategy delivery — including substantial experience leading client engagements or major programmes end-to-end and managing teams. • Proven track record as the lead/owner of complex, multi-stakeholder innovation or venture programmes (accelerators, hackathons, academies, venture clienting, or CVC). • Strong commercial and programme-management discipline: engagement planning, governance, budget ownership, risk management, and reporting. • Executive presence and senior stakeholder management — credible as the primary interface with C-level and board audiences. • Excellent written and verbal communication in English and Arabic, including board-grade documents and presentations. • Proficiency with project-management and reporting tools (e.g., MS Project, Asana, Monday, or ClickUp) and advanced PowerPoint and Excel.

• PMP, PRINCE2, or Agile/Scrum certification. • Direct experience in telecom, technology, or financial services. • Hands-on experience building or running venture clienting, corporate venture capital, or startup investment programmes. • Familiarity with the MENA innovation/startup ecosystem and with large, government-affiliated or corporate enterprise dynamics. • Prior consulting or client-services delivery experience at a senior level.