Global Project Management Office Senior Specialist (M/F) - CMA CGM Head Office

Led by Rodolphe Saadé, the CMA CGM Group, a global leader in shipping and logistics, serves more than 420 ports around the world on five continents. With its subsidiary CEVA Logistics, a world leader in logistics, and its air freight division CMA CGM AIR CARGO, the CMA CGM Group is continually innovating to offer its customers a complete and increasingly efficient range of new shipping, land, air and logistics solutions.

Committed to the energy transition in shipping, and a pioneer in the use of alternative fuels, the CMA CGM Group has set a target to become Net Zero Carbon by 2050.
Through the CMA CGM Foundation, the Group acts in humanitarian crises that require an emergency response by mobilizing the Group’s shipping and logistics expertise to bring humanitarian supplies around the world.

Present in 160 countries through its network of more than 400 offices and 750 warehouses, the Group employs more than 155,000 people worldwide, including 4,000 in Marseilles where its head office is located.

Context and Job Responsibilities

The Senior PMO is a cornerstone of program governance. Their role is not merely to produce monitoring documentation, but to unite teams around strategic, financial, and timeline objectives.
CMA CGM favors an “activist” PMO model: beyond reporting, the Senior PMO is directly involved in certain key aspects of program delivery (risk management, communication, and team capacity building) while leaving initiative owners responsible for execution.
The Senior PMO must constantly question the value of meetings, templates, and deliverables, systematically asking: “How does this advance the program’s objectives?”

Key Responsibilities

Cross-Functional Coordination and Steering

● Maintain a cross-functional view of the program to identify material impacts between initiatives and anticipate interdependencies.
● Organize decision-making: bring together the right stakeholders to address bottlenecks.
● Consolidate work plans, objectives, and progress across all program initiatives.

Performance and Risk Management

● Implement and maintain a simple and effective monitoring and reporting system (milestones, metrics).
● Proactively identify risks and areas of concern at the program level to enable rapid resolution.

● Prepare decision-making materials and coordinate the preparation of steering committee (SteerCo) meetings.

Prioritization and Allocation of Effort

● Apply a prioritization matrix (importance/urgency vs. complexity) to determine the level of involvement required for each initiative.
● Distinguish between high-stakes strategic decisions (to be handled directly) and reactive or administrative tasks (to be delegated to the PMO team).
● Adjust your support approach based on the maturity and dynamics of each project team (autonomy, enhanced support, close oversight, and applying pressure when necessary).

Communication and Stakeholder Relations

● Communicate regularly and proactively with executives and key stakeholders regarding the program’s progress and risks.
● Manage the flow of information between the program, support functions, and the steering committee.
● Contribute to the approval of strategic messages disseminated throughout the organization, without usurping the sponsors’ responsibility.

Capacity Building and Team Facilitation

● Support project managers in developing their skills (methodology, tools, best practices).
● Liaise with experts from other departments to address identified skill gaps.
● Contribute to recruitment, workload management, and the continuity of the PMO team.

Decision-Making Excellence

● Promote high-quality decision-making: clear processes, defined responsibilities, and stakeholder buy-in.
● Adapt the decision-making approach to the nature of the issue: thorough consideration for structural decisions that are difficult to reverse, and delegation and speed for reversible decisions.
● Encourage constructive debate and the “disagree and commit” principle to avoid deadlocks.

Desired Profile

Education and Experience

● Engineering degree, business school degree, or equivalent; training in project/program management is a plus (PMP, Prince2, or equivalent).
● At least 8 to 10 years of experience in managing complex programs and/or in consulting, ideally with experience in a transformation PMO environment.
● Experience in the maritime, logistics, or transportation sector is a plus but not required.

Key Skills

● Cross-functional leadership and the ability to bring together teams without a direct reporting relationship.
● Excellent communication and analytical skills, with the ability to present confidently to an executive committee.
● Methodological rigor in program management (planning, reporting, risk management, and dependency management).
● Ability to prioritize and balance focus on strategic issues with the delegation of operational tasks.
● Comfortable in an ambiguous, demanding, and ever-changing environment; ability to move issues forward even with incomplete information.
● ● Proficiency in project management and reporting tools (Office/Google Suite, PPM tools, dashboards).
● Fluent in French and English, both written and spoken (international environment).

Personal Qualities

● Service-oriented mindset and a facilitative rather than controlling approach.
● Ability to assert oneself and challenge others constructively (“intentional inquiry”).
● Resilience and pragmatism in the face of unforeseen events and tensions between teams.

What CMA CGM Offers

● A central role within a strategic transformation program for the Group.
● Direct exposure to the executive committee and the executive sponsors of the initiatives.
● An international environment within one of the world’s leading maritime transport and logistics companies.

Come along on CMA CGM’s adventure !