UAE In-Country Services Technology Lead and MENAP Cluster Lead
Citigroup · Dubai
The UAE In-Country Services Technology Lead and MENAP Cluster Lead is a pivotal leadership role responsible for orchestrating end-to-end technology delivery, governance, and operational resilience across the United Arab Emirates and the broader Middle East and Pakistan (MENAP) cluster.
This position acts as the primary technology executive facing in-country business heads, product leaders, regulatory bodies, internal audit, and regional governance committees. The incumbent provides integrated execution accountability across multiple business franchises (including Institutional Clients Group, Treasury and Trade Solutions, Markets, Corporate Banking, and Commercial Banking).
In addition to strong leadership, governance, and program orchestration capabilities, a solid foundation in hands-on technology development and software engineering is considered a highly complementary and advantageous skill set.
Technical development proficiency empowers the Lead to conduct deep-dive architecture reviews, assess onshoring/localization code-level feasibility, evaluate regulatory technical controls, and accelerate production incident root-cause investigations.
Key Responsibilities & Core Pillars
Pillar 1: Cross-Franchise Technology Initiatives & Delivery Orchestration
- End-to-End Delivery Accountability: Lead and direct multi-franchise technology programs, aligning global and regional technology delivery roadmaps with local country priorities.
- Integrated Dependency Management: Proactively identify, track, and remediate technical, operational, and organizational dependencies across distributed global delivery teams, local technology partners, and third-party vendors.
- Execution Governance: Establish robust program governance metrics, KPIs/milestones, risk registers, and executive steering committees to ensure transparent delivery reporting and on-time execution.
Pillar 2: Regulatory Engagement, Audits & Governance Forums
- Regulatory Authority Faceoff: Lead technology engagements with local and regional regulators (e.g., Central Bank of the UAE, DFSA, FSRA, and regional authorities across the MENAP footprint).
- Audit & Compliance Management: Drive internal and external technology audits, regulatory inspections, peer reviews, and Continuous Comprehensive Compliance (CCC) / Regulatory Control Framework (RCF) forums.
- Mandated Action Closure: Maintain rigorous oversight over Corrective Action Plans (CAPs) and audit remediation items, ensuring timely, verifiable, and sustainable closure.
- Regulatory Testing: Coordinate and supervise mandatory regulatory vulnerability assessments, penetration tests, and disaster recovery/business continuity testing.
Pillar 3: Product & Business Stakeholder Faceoff
- Strategic Technology Advisory: Act as the trusted technology partner and advisor to in-country and cluster Business Executive Officers, Product Managers, and Operations Heads.
- Requirements Alignment & Prioritization: Bridge business strategy with technology capabilities, translating commercial objectives into prioritized technology demand and actionable backlogs.
- Innovation & Enablement: Evaluate emerging market trends and identify technology opportunities to enhance client experience, process efficiency, and digital capabilities.
Pillar 4: Local Regulatory & Market Mandates (Localization & Onshoring)
- Data Onshoring & Sovereignty: Drive architecture and infrastructure localization initiatives to satisfy national data privacy, residency, and onshoring regulations across UAE and MENAP.
- Local Market Readiness: Ensure technology platforms comply with local clearing systems, central bank reporting pipelines, tax/invoicing standards, and local-language (e.g., Arabic) UX/UI requirements.
- Regulatory Technical Controls: Ensure all localized adaptations comply with strict institutional security, cryptographic, and access-control policies.
Pillar 5: Local Technology & Business Application Owner (BAO) Ownership
- BAO Stewardship: Assume end-to-end Business Application Ownership (BAO) and technology ownership for local applications and integration layers.
- Operational Resilience & Incident Coordination: Serve as the senior escalation point for local critical (P1/P2) production incidents, orchestrating rapid triage, root-cause resolution, and stakeholder updates.
- Local Subject Matter Expertise: Act as the in-country SME for local processing workflows, integration architectures, core banking connectivity, and middleware.
Required Qualifications & Experience
Education & Experience
- Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree: Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or related discipline.
- 8-10 + Years of Experience: Progressive technology leadership experience within global banking, financial services environments.
- Regional Experience: Proven experience operating within UAE and MENA banking environments and navigating regional regulatory frameworks (CBUAE, DFSA, FSRA, SAMA, etc.).
Technical & Engineering Competencies
- Software Development Background: Solid foundation in modern programming languages/frameworks (e.g., Java, Spring Boot, Python, .NET, Go) and web architectures.
- Architecture & Integration: Knowledge of microservices, REST/SOAP APIs, enterprise service buses (ESB), message queues (Kafka, MQ), and relational/NoSQL databases.
- Cybersecurity & Compliance: Good understanding of data protection principles, encryption in transit/rest, secure SDLC, OWASP standards, and disaster recovery strategies.
Leadership & Managerial Attributes
- Stakeholder Management: Exceptional track record of executive-level communication and relationship building with business heads, regulators, and audit committees.
- Crisis Leadership: Demonstrated ability to remain composed, structured, and decisive during high-severity production incidents and regulatory audits.
- Matrix Management: Proven ability to influence and lead cross-functional, distributed teams across multiple geographies and cultural environments.
- Communication: Fluency in English is mandatory; professional Arabic language proficiency is a distinct advantage.
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Job Family Group:
Technology------------------------------------------------------
Job Family:
Applications Development------------------------------------------------------
Time Type:
Full time------------------------------------------------------
Most Relevant Skills
Please see the requirements listed above.------------------------------------------------------
Other Relevant Skills
For complementary skills, please see above and/or contact the recruiter.------------------------------------------------------
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