Head of Information Technology

Job Purpose

Strategy & Governance

• Define and maintain the IT strategy, target architecture, and 3-year roadmap aligned with business growth, regulatory needs, and budget targets.
• Establish IT governance, SDLC, DevSecOps, change management, and ITIL service management processes.
• Own cloud adoption strategy (Azure required) with multi-cloud guardrails (AWS/Alibaba Cloud as pluses), landing zones, reference architectures, and policy-as-code.
• Partners with Digital, Data, Cybersecurity, and Finance to balance innovation with risk, integrating data governance and FinOps.

Infrastructure & Cloud Platforms

• Lead end-to-end infrastructure operations: networks, data centers, DR/BCP, end-user computing, identity & access management, and Zero Trust principles.
• Design and manage Azure enterprise footprint (IaaS/PaaS), including Azure AD/Entra ID, AKS, Storage, Networking, Backup, and Monitoring.
• Oversee multi-cloud interoperability and connectivity (e.g., AWS VPC, Alibaba Cloud VPC/VSwitch as pluses).
• Implement SRE/Observability (APM, logs, metrics, traces) and capacity planning; drive automation (IaC—Terraform/Bicep), patching, and hardening.

Enterprise Applications & Integrations

• Own the lifecycle of SAP (required)—e.g., S/4HANA, SAP RE-FX, SAP SuccessFactors, SAP Ariba/Fieldglass, SAP Analytics Cloud (as applicable).
• Oversee Oracle (as a plus) applications where relevant (EPM, ERP, HCM), ensuring integration patterns and data consistency.
• Govern Salesforce/CRM, CAFM/CMMS, Property Management, Leasing, Billing, and Customer Experience platforms in coordination with business owners.
• Establish robust integration architecture (ESB/iPaaS, APIs, event streaming) and master data management (MDM) standards
• .

Security, Risk & Compliance

• Partner with CISO/InfoSec to enforce security baselines across cloud, endpoints, network, and applications; implement CIS/NIST/ISO 27001 controls.
• Own DR strategy, RPO/RTO commitments, and cyber incident readiness; ensure compliance with local regulations and data residency requirements.
• Embed Privacy-by-Design and secure SDLC across all delivery workstreams.

Delivery Excellence & Vendor/Partner Management

• Lead a blended team of internal staff and strategic partners/SIs, managing SLAs, KPIs, and commercial performance.
• Drive program/project delivery for upgrades, migrations, and new capabilities (e.g., SAP S/4HANA transformations, Azure modernization).
• Optimize run costs via FinOps, license management, and contract negotiations across Microsoft, SAP, and other enterprise vendors.

People Leadership & Ways of Working

• Build and mentor high-performing teams (architecture, platforms, applications, operations).
• Promote Agile/DevOps, a product mindset, and a continuous-improvement culture.
• Champion a customer-centric service ethos across all business units and properties.
• Occupational and workplace Health and Safety responsibilities:
• In addition to all job specific responsibilities, all employees are required to adhere to all Aldar Estates health, safety and environmental (HSE) policies, procedures, practices, and relevant legal and statutory health, safety and environmental requirements and obligations. All employees are personally responsible to familiarize themselves with these policies, procedures, practices, updates, etc. Aldar Estates HSE department regularly updates existing and introduce new policies, procedures and practices and each employee is personally responsible to ensure they stay updated and compliant with all such updates and new additions.
• Information Security responsibilities:
• Comply with Aldar Estates Information Security Policies
• Be aware of and fulfil their information security responsibilities.
• Ensure whoever handles sensitive company information have taken the Security Awareness Training
• Know how to report a security incident (to IT ServiceDesk or InfoSec).
• Not Disable his/her OS firewall and/or Antivirus
• Restrict use to authorized purposes, Protect access accounts, privileges and associated passwords.
• Accept accountability of his/her individual user accounts, and maintain confidentiality.

Education & Qualification

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related discipline.
• Master’s degree preferred

Experience and Skills

• Industry Experience (No. of years):
• 7–10+ years of experience in enterprise IT environments, preferably within real estate services or asset-intensive industries.
• Position/functional experience (No. of years):
• 2–5 years in a leadership role managing enterprise infrastructure, cloud platforms, and core business applications.
• Competencies and Skills:
• Strategic IT Leadership and Planning
• Technology Governance and Risk Management
• Enterprise Systems and Cloud Management
• Vendor and Financial Management
• Stakeholder Engagement and Communication
• People Leadership and Team Development
• Continuous Improvement and Service Excellence

Key Performance Indicators

• IT service availability, reliability, and security compliance
• Successful delivery of IT initiatives against scope, cost, and timelines
• Optimization of IT operational and capital expenditure
• Business stakeholder satisfaction with IT services
• Team capability development and operational maturity