AI Chief Specialist - AI Planning & Enablement

Role purpose

Strategy and portfolio

• Align and update AI and data science strategies with Authority plans and government priorities.
• Maintain the integrated initiative portfolio, roadmap, prioritization, and resource allocation within approved budgets.
• Conduct feasibility studies covering expected benefits, costs, alternatives, and total cost of ownership.
• Define benefit measurement frameworks and KPIs to track and validate post-implementation outcomes.
• Assess scaling, reuse, and reinvestment opportunities and prepare business cases and recommendations.
• Develop the data readiness roadmap and a data product registry for lifecycle management.

Operations and governance

• Manage intake, registration, review, and approval mechanisms for AI use cases from RTA sectors and stakeholders.
• Prioritize cases using expected value, feasibility, data availability, readiness, risk, and cost.
• Prepare scopes of work, deliverables, success measures, and acceptance criteria with stakeholders.
• Provide technical advice and conduct technical and market studies to support AI adoption decisions.
• Manage vendor requirements, scopes, RFIs, proposal evaluation, recommendations, and contracting procedures.
• Track vendor performance, contractual KPIs, milestones, service levels, quality, continuity, risks, costs, and renewal or termination decisions.
• Monitor portfolio progress, budget adherence, risks, dependencies, and deliverables; report periodically and recommend corrective actions.

Enablement and improvement

• Deliver awareness and capacity-building initiatives to improve institutional understanding of AI and data science.
• Refine planning processes, evaluation frameworks, and enablement mechanisms to improve efficiency and governance.
• Mitigate AI and data initiative risks and apply controls in line with UAE privacy rules and RTA data maturity requirements.
• Apply ethical AI practices and comply with data privacy and security regulations throughout the lifecycle.
• Monitor emerging AI, machine learning, generative AI, and smart transportation technologies.

Qualifications and experience

• Master's degree in computer science, artificial intelligence, data science, machine learning, or a closely related technical field from an accredited university.
• Nine years of progressive professional experience with a master's degree, or 11 years with a bachelor's degree.
• Expertise in AI/ML strategy, feasibility assessment, TCO analysis, and AI project portfolio management.
• Strong understanding of UAE government digital transformation frameworks and data governance regulations.

Working conditions

• Work is primarily office-based, with occasional travel to RTA facilities, vendor offices, or government entities for meetings, assessments, and project reviews.
• Extended hours may be required during critical project milestones, portfolio reviews, or strategic planning cycles.