Head of Product & Delivery
BlackStone eIT · Dubai
BlackStone eIT is seeking a strategic and results-driven Head of Product & Delivery to lead our product development and delivery teams. This leadership role will be responsible for overseeing the entire product lifecycle, from ideation to launch and ongoing improvement, while ensuring efficient delivery and high-quality outcomes. The successful candidate will align product strategy with business goals, foster collaboration across teams, and drive innovation to meet customer needs.
Key Responsibilities:
- Lead and manage the product and delivery teams, providing vision, motivation, and support.
- Develop and execute product strategies that align with company objectives and market demands.
- Oversee project delivery processes to ensure timely, high-quality product releases.
- Collaborate with stakeholders to define product roadmaps, priorities, and success metrics.
- Implement best practices in Agile and other delivery methodologies to optimize performance.
- Establish and monitor KPIs to assess product and delivery team effectiveness.
- Drive continuous improvement initiatives to enhance product quality and customer satisfaction.
- Manage resource allocation and budgeting to maximize efficiency and outcomes.
- Maintain strong communication across departments, fostering a collaborative and innovative culture.
- - Programme delivery across all active workstreams: executive portal, data platform, governance, AI agents, crisis management systems
- - Sprint execution: planning, backlog management, Definition of Done, mid-sprint check-ins, sprint reviews with live demos
- - External vendor coordination: tracking classification vendor milestones against your integration needs; tracking agentic platform delivery against your data readiness timeline
- - Stakeholder management: milestone reports to senior leadership, weekly status updates, requirements conversations with internal business owners
- - Scope discipline: deciding what gets cut when time is at risk, deferring gracefully, tracking deferred work
- - Resource management: contractor onboarding, work package definition, daily task allocation, quality review
- - User acceptance testing: designing and facilitating UAT with non-technical end users and senior leadership
- - Delivery risk management: identifying risks before they become blockers, maintaining a cleared backlog that proceeds when external dependencies are slow
- - Office representation: authorized to represent the Data & AI Office at all levels when technical leadership is unavailable
Requirements
- Bachelor's or Master’s degree in Business, Computer Science, Engineering, or related field.
- Minimum 10+ years of experience in product management and delivery leadership roles.
- Proven track record of successfully managing product portfolios and delivery teams.
- Strong knowledge and experience with Agile methodologies and software development lifecycles.
- Excellent leadership and people management skills with the ability to build and mentor high-performing teams.
- Exceptional strategic thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making abilities.
- Strong communication and stakeholder management skills.
- Experience with project management tools and product management platforms.
- Ability to manage multiple projects and priorities in a fast-paced environment.
- Experience in the technology or software industry is highly preferred.
- Required Skills & Experience
- - Has shipped working software to real users under a hard deadline — owned the outcome, not just managed the timeline
- - Agile/sprint delivery in small engineering teams (2–8 people) producing working output, not status updates
- - Technical fluency: can read an OpenAPI spec, evaluate engineering estimates, identify scope creep, and challenge "it's complex" when it's really "I haven't started"
- - Vendor management: has managed external delivery engagements and held vendors accountable to milestones
- - Writing functional requirements with testable acceptance criteria
- - UAT design and facilitation for non-technical executives
- - Risk identification and escalation — knows the difference between a delay and a blocker
- - Stakeholder communication at C-suite level — can write a one-page status note that senior leadership reads and trusts
- - Programme management across multiple concurrent workstreams (3–5 simultaneous)
- - Task tracking tools (GitHub Projects, Linear, Jira)
- - Experience operating as a deputy or chief of staff to a technical executive
- - Experience in government, sovereign, or institutional environments is a strong plus
Benefits
- Paid Time Off
- Performance Bonus
- Remote Job