Director of Technology-Emirati

Leadership & Technology Strategy

As the Technology Director, you will provide strategic leadership for the organization's technology function, ensuring technology capabilities support business growth, operational resilience, innovation, and regulatory compliance.

Key responsibilities include:

• Define and execute the long-term technology strategy, covering enterprise applications, software engineering, infrastructure, cloud platforms, cybersecurity, enterprise architecture, and IT service management.
• Develop the organization's cloud adoption strategy, ensuring cloud and hybrid environments align with security, regulatory, data sovereignty, performance, and cost optimization objectives.
• Lead, develop, and mentor multidisciplinary technology teams responsible for software delivery, infrastructure, security, operations, and user support while establishing clear ownership, accountability, succession planning, and governance.
• Provide executive oversight on critical technology decisions including enterprise architecture, major incidents, change governance, cybersecurity exceptions, technology investments, and vendor selection.
• Establish departmental objectives, KPIs, and performance metrics to ensure consistent delivery of high-quality technology services and business outcomes.
• Promote innovation and continuous improvement initiatives that enhance operational efficiency and support evolving business priorities.
• Develop, maintain, and enforce technology governance, policies, standards, and operating procedures that align with ISO 27001, ISO 22301, PCI DSS, UAE Information Assurance Standards, applicable UAE regulatory requirements, and other relevant industry frameworks.
• Design an effective operating model that optimizes internal resources, managed services, outsourced partners, robotic process automation (RPA), and AI-enabled capabilities to maximize efficiency.
• Manage strategic technology vendors and partners, working closely with Legal and Procurement to ensure contracts, deliverables, commercial terms, and service performance meet organizational expectations.
• Prepare and manage annual technology operating and capital budgets while supporting investment decisions for strategic technology initiatives.
• Strengthen governance by proactively addressing audit observations, improving internal controls, and embedding risk awareness across all technology operations.
• Conduct periodic Risk and Control Self-Assessments (RCSA) to evaluate control effectiveness, identify improvement opportunities, and coordinate enterprise risk reporting.
• Act as Secretary of the Information Security Committee, contribute to executive leadership forums, and represent the Technology function in regulatory, industry, and cross-functional initiatives.

Technology Delivery & Project Governance

The successful candidate will oversee the complete technology delivery lifecycle, ensuring projects are delivered efficiently, securely, and in alignment with business priorities.

Responsibilities include:

• Direct the full Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), from business analysis and solution design through development, testing, deployment, release, and production support.
• Champion modern DevSecOps practices and delivery automation to improve productivity, governance, traceability, and solution quality.
• Manage technology portfolios, development roadmaps, delivery capacity, and resource planning to ensure priorities remain aligned with organizational objectives.
• Implement rigorous quality assurance practices that minimize production defects and improve solution reliability.
• Govern enterprise change management processes by ensuring appropriate approvals, documentation, traceability, rollback planning, and risk management.
• Ensure every technology initiative has clearly defined scope, ownership, success measures, delivery milestones, governance structures, and risk registers.
• Monitor third-party performance against contractual obligations, service level agreements, security requirements, and key performance indicators while coordinating with Legal and Procurement.

Operations & Service Excellence

You will be responsible for ensuring secure, resilient, and highly available technology operations across enterprise infrastructure, platforms, and business-critical services.

Key responsibilities include:

• Lead the design, implementation, maintenance, and continuous improvement of enterprise infrastructure, networks, systems, and technology platforms.
• Drive operational excellence through advanced monitoring, intelligent automation, AI-enabled observability, proactive alerting, and predictive analytics to maximize availability and performance.
• Monitor infrastructure capacity, scalability, utilization, and performance to proactively resolve issues before business impact occurs.
• Chair the Change Advisory Board (CAB), ensuring technology releases and production changes are implemented safely with minimal operational disruption.
• Continuously optimize enterprise systems, operational processes, and technology platforms to improve governance, efficiency, and risk management.
• Enhance IT service management by improving ticketing processes, workflow automation, service delivery, and stakeholder experience.
• Lead the complete incident management lifecycle, including detection, prioritization, communication, resolution, root cause analysis, lessons learned, and preventive actions.
• Ensure infrastructure, applications, and technology platforms comply with approved security standards, hardening requirements, and enterprise patch management processes.
• Oversee vulnerability management, threat intelligence, SIEM/SOC operations, cybersecurity monitoring, and incident response readiness to protect critical assets.
• Ensure appropriate data protection controls are maintained through encryption, key management, Data Loss Prevention (DLP), and privacy controls.
• Maintain accurate technology asset inventories, software licensing records, and lifecycle management processes to optimize investment and compliance.
• Govern enterprise Identity and Access Management (IAM), ensuring appropriate access controls, periodic reviews, and alignment with security and risk requirements.
• Develop and maintain enterprise disaster recovery, resilience, and business continuity capabilities to ensure critical technology services remain recoverable and aligned with organizational risk appetite.

Requirements

Education & Qualifications

Required

• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related discipline.
• Fluency in English.
• Fluency in Arabic.
• Strong leadership and people management capabilities.
• Excellent communication, presentation, and stakeholder engagement skills.
• Strong influencing and negotiation abilities.

Preferred

• Master's degree or postgraduate qualification in Information Technology or a related field.
• Relevant professional certifications and industry specializations.

Experience & Knowledge

The ideal candidate will demonstrate:

• At least 10 years' experience in a senior technology leadership role reporting directly to executive management (N-1 or N-2).
• Experience managing P&L responsibilities and strategic technology investment decisions.
• A proven record of improving IT performance and operational effectiveness.
• Demonstrated success leading large technology teams and delivering enterprise-wide technology strategies.
• Experience within highly regulated financial services, information services, fintech, or other technology-driven industries.
• Strong understanding of enterprise technology architecture and business applications.
• Experience delivering enterprise technology products and platforms.
• Ability to leverage technology to improve customer experience and business value.
• Strong background in enterprise project and program delivery.
• Proven success leading digital transformation initiatives.
• Commercial awareness with experience managing strategic vendor relationships and technology contracts.
• Experience delivering complex organizational and technology change programmes.
• Strong vendor governance and performance management experience.

Core Competencies

The successful candidate will demonstrate the ability to:

• Lead high-performing teams while contributing as a member of the executive leadership team.
• Manage multiple priorities within a fast-paced, evolving environment.
• Operate independently while exercising sound judgment and accountability.
• Build trusted relationships and influence senior stakeholders.
• Make timely, informed decisions under pressure.
• Apply structured, analytical, and commercially focused problem-solving techniques.
• Foster a culture of innovation, collaboration, transparency, and continuous improvement.
• Translate strategic business objectives into practical technology solutions.
• Communicate effectively with executive, business, and technical audiences.
• Lead organizational change while consistently delivering measurable business value.