Director Information Technology & Digital

Job Objective:

To oversee, lead and evolve all aspects related to IT Infrastructure, digital services, application development capabilities in order to ensure effective day-to-day management of IT systems.

Key Responsibilities/Duties:

Strategic Contribution:

•  Design and lead the execution of IT & Digital segment strategy and translate it into successful departmental business projects or initiatives to support growth / success in the Technology sector.

• Guide the preparation and monitoring of the IT & Digital department business plans and annual budget, in line with the company’s objectives.

• Control expenditure against approved divisional budget on a regular basis and investigate and reconcile any significant variances to ensure effective cost control.

• Monitor departmental performance KPIs and profitability, providing relevant progress updates to the Chief, as needed, to remain aware of the overall IT & Digital performance.

IT & Digital Consumer and Enterprise Enablement Applications:

• Lead the applications team to deliver optimal business value in a service delivery model through understanding the business needs from practical and working knowledge of business processes.

• Partner with the stake holders to align and prioritize current and future initiatives in support of the business objectives. Ensures IT Applications teams meet commitments in planning and execution work necessary to deliver successful project outcomes.

• Collaborate with all IT teams to ensure production applications meet performance, reliability and quality objectives.

• Participates in developing the  system and technology plans; assess cost and feasibility of system requests and ensuring the plan supports both strategic and tactical needs.

• Collaborate with internal customers and senior company leadership to ensure commitment and support for IT Application Development initiatives and programs. Accountable for assessing and measuring success of programs and service delivery.

• Evaluate the application portfolio and update the application roadmap to simplify and enhance functionality and/or transition to packaged solutions to improve supportability, time to market and business value.

• Develop and apply consistent, standardized development processes. Enhance software development strategy through past experience and industry standards to ensure sound management and controls are used in providing application solutions to STC’s business.

• Foster innovation by encouraging associates to bring forth creative solutions. Explore alternative solutions and, in collaboration with associates, determine solutions which support the direction and mission of the organization.

• Lead and take responsibility for the solutions designs for the Enterprise Enablement Application (e.g. ERP, ServiceNow) and consumer applications to ensure its alignment with overall Technology & Digital Enterprise architecture.  

• Supervise the development of code in order to implement designed solutions in the IT & Digital department.

• Ensure continuous liaison with Operations to allow effective releases pertaining to Consumer Applications.

IT Infrastructure:

• Review and evaluate existing designs within STC to determine current capability and introduce potential improvement initiative for IT Infrastructure services.

• Lead the design and implementation of business continuance and disaster recovery plans / processes to protect business IT infrastructure and promote recovery in the Technology sector.

• Drive research initiatives to remain abreast of regional and international trends in the IT Infrastructure services design methods.

Data Engineering:

• Supervise the development of meta data repository and the delivery of data lake to ensure that analytics requirements are met across the Technology sector.

• Promote collaboration across business sectors in order to support data-engineering needs and provide professional expertise / advice on data-related issues.

People Management:

• Provide effective leadership across the IT & Digital department, by setting individual objectives, reviewing performance, developing, and motivating employees in line with the company’s policies, culture, and work ethics, to unleash their potential and maximize performance at individual and functional level.

• Coordinate the activities of the team to ensure that all work is carried out efficiently, in line with the annual business plans, policies and procedures.

• Approve the workforce plan and oversee staff hiring, performance management and training activities to attract, develop and retain talent for the IT & Digital segment.

Change management and continuous improvement:

• Lead the identification of opportunities for continuous improvement of the function’s systems, processes, and practices considering international best practices, improvement of business processes and cost optimization.

• Approve functional change plans with a focus on leading strategic innovation by developing new solutions or improving existing ones to drive change, meet future digitalization needs and support company’s growth. 

• Research relevant regional and global market trends to stay up to date with best practices and drive relevant initiatives for improvements.

Reporting and Compliance:

• Ensure that all functional reports are prepared timely and accurately and meet STC Bahrain’s organizational requirements, in adherence to the company’s policies and quality standards.

• Participate in various relevant committees and present annual and periodic reports, contributing to speedy and high-quality decision making.

• Ensure compliance to all policies and procedures, as well as to controls related to quality, health, safety, environmental management, guaranteeing employee and assets safety and legislative compliance.

Academic/Other Qualifications & Experience:

Minimum requirement:

• Bachelor’s degree in IT, Computer Science or any other related field

• Proficiency in English language

Preferred:

• Master’s degree in Business Administration, IT, Computer Science or any other related field or MBA

• Proficiency in Arabic language

Minimum 16 years of multifunctional experience in Technology and Digital function, with at least 10 years in a leadership position at a senior management level, ideally in the Telecommunications sector.