Head of Digital & AI
Skills
About This Role
Overview
Head of Digital & AI — Abu Dhabi, UAE
Lead the end-to-end digital and AI transformation of a major UAE group.
We're partnering with a leading Abu Dhabi-based holding group to appoint a **Head of Digital & AI** — an executive role accountable for the full digital and AI agenda across the enterprise.
This is a rare mandate with board-level sponsorship, a defined operating model, and a well-resourced delivery partnership.
Reports to the Chief Information & AI Officer with two direct reports (one dotted).
The role ensures the enterprise evolves from a systems-centric IT organization to a product-led, AI-enabled business — while retaining decision rights, IP ownership, and operational accountability in-house.
What you'll own:
*Digital & AI Strategy Ownership*
- Define and execute the enterprise Digital & AI strategy aligned to business objectives, safety, operational resilience, and growth.
- Translate board-level strategy into multi-year roadmaps across enterprise systems, digital platforms, and AI products.
- Act as executive sponsor for the transition to an AI-enabled, product-led operating model.
*Enterprise Business Solutions Leadership*
- Own the enterprise application landscape (ERP, HRMS, AMOS, Digital Ocean, GRC, ESG) and processes spanning crew, fleet, finance, procurement, compliance, and analytics.
- Ensure enterprise systems are digitized, integrated, standardized, data-ready, and AI-enablement ready.
- Govern system modernization, vendor roadmaps, and lifecycle decisions (build/buy/retire).
*AI Target Operating Model Ownership*
- Own and evolve the AI Target Operating Model: Interface Team, Delivery Squads, and Run & Operate.
- Enforce clear separation of duties across portfolio and value ownership, delivery execution, operational reliability, and security/governance/risk.
- Enforce the decision-rights model approved by SteerCo.
*AI Portfolio, Product & Value Governance*
- Sponsor the AI Product Portfolio across Everyday AI and Enterprise AI.
- Chair portfolio-level stage gates: investment prioritization, architecture and data readiness, governance and risk approval, operational acceptance and scaling.
- Ensure all AI initiatives have clear business cases, measurable KPIs, and ongoing value realization tracking.
*Delivery Partnership & Vendor Orchestration*
- Act as executive counterpart to the primary AI delivery partner for capability build and delivery.
- Define boundaries between client-side control/governance/run and partner-led delivery acceleration.
- Ensure the delivery partner operates within architecture standards, security and data governance guardrails, and defined acceptance and handover criteria.
- Prevent long-term vendor dependency through capability transfer and internal enablement.
*Governance, Risk & Compliance Oversight*
- Ensure Responsible AI, data protection, security, and regulatory compliance are embedded by design across enterprise systems, digital platforms, and AI solutions.
- Sponsor AI governance councils and escalation forums.
- Maintain audit-ready assurance across all digital and AI initiatives.
*Organization, Talent & Culture*
- Build and lead high-performing digital and AI teams across product, data, engineering, governance, and change leadership.
- Sponsor the AI Champions program and enterprise-wide adoption initiatives.
- Drive cultural shift toward product thinking, automation-first mindset, and data-driven decision making.
- Key decision rights (accountable):
- Enterprise digital and AI roadmap approval.
- AI portfolio funding and prioritization.
- Architecture and platform standards.
- AI governance stage-gate approvals.
- Operational go-live authorization for critical digital and AI systems.
- Delivery partnership scope and escalation authority.
- What you bring:
- 15+ years in enterprise digital transformation leadership covering enterprise systems leadership, data & AI programs at scale, and operating model design and execution.
- Proven experience running large, complex vendor ecosystems in regulated environments.
- Bachelor's or Master's in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related discipline.
- Executive presence — able to engage confidently at board and SteerCo level and translate strategy into multi-year delivery.
- Preferred certifications:
- PMI-CPMAI or AI Business Leadership certifications
- TOGAF or equivalent Enterprise Architecture
- Cloud and AI platform certifications (Azure preferred)
**Employment Type:** Full-time
**Experience:** 15+ years
**Salary Range:** 45,000 - 53,000 (AED per month)
Pay: AED45,000.00 - AED53,000.00 per month
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