Director - Digital Center of Excellence

Role Overview

Director - Digital Center of Excellence at AD Ports Group. This role leads digital product strategy and execution across the organization's product portfolio, taking primary responsibility for stakeholder coordination and multi-product program delivery.

Role Purpose

To establish vision and drive execution of market-leading digital products across multiple squads while serving as the central point of coordination between product owners, engineering teams, and senior leadership. The role combines strategic product leadership with operational program management to align portfolio priorities, manage dependencies, and deliver innovative solutions that meet customer and market demands.

Key Responsibilities

Product Vision & Strategy

• Develop innovative and market-leading products in liaison with the Chief Digital and Information Officer and Product Owners.
• Establish the overall vision and roadmap for products across the different squads in the portfolio.
• Lead market research and competitor analysis to understand customer preferences, best practices, and market trends.
• Build and manage innovative products strategy and long-term plans.

Product Management & Delivery

• Manage and facilitate product adoption and lifecycle from concept to launch.
• Define Digital Cluster product specification, features, and deliverables based on market demand.
• Oversee product testing and quality control to validate results.
• Review and set priorities across products to meet customer release expectations.
• Act as the single point of contact for demand management for the squads.

Stakeholder & Vendor Management

• Enforce Product Owners in the portfolio to align on roadmaps, priorities, and dependencies through operational coordination and facilitated discussions.
• Provide guidance to liaise with other teams in bringing new and innovative ideas for products in Digital Cluster to life.
• Build strong relationships with external vendors, directly resolve issues, and manage backlogged products to retain high customer engagement.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Lead cross-functional teams to streamline processes and implement best practices to drive operational excellence.
• Participate in discussions inside and across squads on behalf of the portfolio.
• Drive initiatives to instill a spirit of engaged urgency across squads and ensure that team efforts are aligned towards the portfolio KPIs.

People Management

• Conduct regular 1:1s with product owners and squad members.
• Serve as a sparring partner for individual product owners to solve operational questions.

Risk & Performance Management

• Assess risks in product development and develop risk mitigation strategies to minimize potential liabilities.
• Provide regular reports to senior management on cluster product development performance, including financial, operational, and market-related data.
• Control the budget of new products and recommend alternatives to meet expectations.

Data & Analytics

• Build a comprehensive Data Analytics warehouse for the Cluster in alignment with Corporate Guidelines and Cluster Market Needs and Demands.

Strategic Planning

• Take a leading role in discussions about squad visions, scopes, KPIs, and resources to ensure that the cluster is working towards the same goals by minimizing redundancy.
• Ensure team members' goals, objectives, and KPIs meet management expectations.

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Marketing, Engineering, or related field.
• Master's degree is a plus.
• Minimum 15 years of experience in a similar role.
• Experience as business manager in relevant product, customer, or enabler segment.
• Deep knowledge of relevant domains and products.
• Solid knowledge of industry trends and pain points.
• Experience in agile development, with specific product owner or similar experience preferred.
• Experience working with engineering teams preferred; cross-functional teams a plus.

Skills & Competencies

• Excellent English language skills.
• Arabic language skills are an added advantage.
• Confident in building and managing the backlog of work.
• Ability to manage complex products.
• Ability to manage parallel product development.
• Enhanced business acumen with challenger mindset.
• Passion to challenge status quo to find new solutions and drive out-of-the-box ideas.
• Loves and embraces change.