Program Director

Work Location : Dubai

Job Purpose:

• Manage the delivery of large scale strategic programs associated with Transformation agenda of the Organization. Responsible for activities associated with Digital & Integration Technologies, by ensuring smooth functioning, in order to achieve the department goals and objectives

Key Responsibilities:

• Collaborate with senior internal & external stakeholders to study and understand external market trends, emerging challenges, economic, and industry data, to identify market opportunities and threats. 
• Provide strong leadership to teams responsible for delivery of programs which are of strategic nature for the Technology Business Strategy
• Make effective contribution and provide direction to teams, in conceptualization and design of strategic platforms and solution
• Be responsible for delivery of large scale complex programs such as strategic road maps for the organization, for Core Programs, Digital Programs, and Architecture Programs etc. 
• Overseas all aspects of initiatives/programs throughout project lifecycles to ensure completion within the defined scope, quality, and time and cost constraints. 
• Serve as a key advisor, identify and direct enterprise-wide integration and separation strategy and oversee execution of related deliverables for businesses, in customer engagement platform technologies
• Engage with senior business stakeholders on regular basis to discuss emerging business strategies and accordingly provide thought leadership to other technology senior colleagues
• Efficiently manage technology annual capex portfolio for programs pertaining to customer engagement platform technologies, in line with the approved delegation of authority.
• Manage problem resolution and risk mitigation for escalated issues, problems and risks as needed. 
• Coordinate the selection, implementation, and upgrade of the business’s software/applications and services. 
• Lead the process and team members in the analysis, enhancement, and tailoring of current practices and existing systems in order to increase operating efficiencies as well as reduce and cut costs within the business
• Work to ensure consistency and quality in delivering large and complex programs under this portfolio 
• Develop departmental goals, plans and standards consistent with the technological, clinical, administrative, legal and ethical requirements/objectives of the organization.
• Identify optimization potentials, such as leveraging shared capabilities between processes, increasing the adoption of technology or simplifying products / services, to drive long-term efficiency improvements, in partnership with the business
• Monitor all strategic project implementations to ensure a user focus is being maintained.
• Develop relations with business community and the out sourced service providers
• Plan and coordinate the resources and capabilities required to design new or changed services
• Establish KPIs framework and balance scorecard. Provide regular status reports to management on application status and other metrics
• Manage off-shore, outsourced vendor to an SLA and execution of critical situations
• Ensure compliance with the approved policies, procedures, SLAs and regulatory requirements to maintain quality standards and ensure risk mitigation.
• Coach, train and develop team skills by identifying training needs and assign appropriate learning platform to the team. 
• Review team performance and deliverables in line with the approved KPI’s to ensure meeting desired objectives. 
• Ensure all assigned tasks and projects are executed within the approved policies, procedures and SLAs of the department

Work Experience:

• Minimum 18 years of work experience in similar role in a senior IT position within a fast-paced and constantly evolving environment, preferably working as a Head of Digital banking or customer engagement platforms. 
• Strong knowledge in current technical market trends, including cloud, cognitive, digital, microservices / APIs
• Experience with a wide variety of productivity and business software and have a proven track record of creative solution delivery and delivery on business needs
• Demonstrate an intimate understanding of network infrastructure technologies, inclusive of security solutions
• Understanding of telecommunications and have vast experience in disaster recovery planning and implementation as well as data storage solutions
• Experience with performance metrics and measures, customer assessment, cost/benefit analysis, benchmarking, process mapping/simulations, data collection, problem identification
• In-depth knowledge of tools, concepts, methodologies and techniques of business process reengineering, change management
• Extensive knowledge of banking and industry regulations, technology governance standards, program management methodologies and frameworks
• Experience in value stream mapping, digital customer journey mapping, among other process tools Excellent strategic, analytical, and problem-solving skills

Technical Competencies:

• Hands on experiences to deliver large scale programs and solutions in following technology domains. 
• -Conversational Banking
• -Architecture Standards and Frameworks 
• -Digital Banking Solutions
• -AI and Machine Learning Technologies
• -Micro services and API Solutions
• -CRM Solutions
• -Business Banking 
• -ATMs Technologies

Educational Qualification :

• Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering or Computer Science or equivalent experience in a strong technical IT environment (Preferred Master’s Degree in Computer Science)