Head of Data & Digital Delivery

Job Purpose

Lead the Data & Digital Delivery pillar within DDT, driving the design, delivery, and governance of enterprise data platforms, analytics, AI/automation, and digital capabilities. Leads development of the enterprise Lakehouse, analytics, AI/ML models, digital platforms (SFA/DMS, B2B/D2C), automation, and API ecosystem. This role transforms the NFL into a data-driven and AI-enabled organization by standardizing data products, governing semantic layers, and ensuring digital platforms deliver measurable commercial value.

Job Responsibilities

• Lead the vision, strategy, and enterprise adoption of digital, data, and AI capabilities aligning with business growth, commercial priorities, and DDT transformation roadmap.
• Define and govern the architecture, roadmap, and multi-year evolution of the Data Lakehouse, ensuring scalability, stability, and alignment with enterprise needs.
• Develop and enforce data governance, quality, security, and compliance standards across semantic models, data pipelines, APIs, and analytics environments.
• Oversee end-to-end delivery of analytics, BI, and reporting platforms (Power BI, dashboards, semantic layers), ensuring data accuracy, reliability, and performance.
• Drive development, deployment, and lifecycle management of AI/ML solutions including forecasting, optimization, segmentation, predictive analytics, and AI copilots.
• Lead automation strategy and delivery using RPA, workflow automation, and AI agents to unlock organizational efficiency and productivity gains.
• Ensure digital platforms (SFA, DMS, eB2B, D2C, field sales tools) deliver measurable commercial value, high user experience, and strong integration with core systems.
• Establish and lead portfolio governance for all digital/data initiatives ensuring prioritization, alignment with OKRs, risk oversight, and value realization.
• Define and track KPIs such as MAPE improvement, OOS reduction, automation hours saved, adoption rate, digital uptime, and ROI metrics.
• Supervise planning, development, testing, deployment, and post-go-live stabilization of all digital/data projects ensuring timely delivery and sustained adoption.
• Evaluate proposals, business cases, and innovation opportunities to determine feasibility, cost-benefit, strategic fit, and expected ROI.
• Bridge the gap between technical teams and business stakeholders, translating business needs into digital/data solutions and ensuring clear communication of outcomes.
• Lead continuous improvement initiatives by enhancing digital workflows, analytics maturity, data usage, and decision-making capabilities across business units.
• Cultivate strong relationships with cloud providers, data/AI vendors, platform integrators, and consulting partners ensuring optimized performance and value delivery.
• Negotiate vendor contracts, license agreements, SLAs, and service obligations, ensuring cost efficiency, performance guarantees, and vendor accountability.
• Champion data literacy, digital fluency, and AI adoption through structured change management, communication campaigns, and capability-building programs.
• Work closely with business functions (Sales, Finance, SCM, Marketing, Exports, HR) to identify digital opportunities, enhance user experience, and embed analytics in decision-making.
• Develop and manage multi-million PKR budgets covering digital platforms, analytics, AI/ML, and automation, ensuring cost-effective execution of initiatives.
• Conduct cost-benefit analyses and optimize cloud and platform spend, identifying savings opportunities via rationalization, scaling policies, and FinOps.
• Ensure compliance with data governance, cybersecurity, privacy, and regulatory standards, coordinating with IT Governance, EA, and Cybersecurity teams.
• Lead adoption of secure practices across digital/data platforms, ensuring SoD controls, audit readiness, encryption, access governance, and DR capabilities.
• Stay ahead of emerging technologies (GenAI, RPA, Low-code platforms, IoT, Vision AI) and recommend opportunities for digital innovation and competitive advantage.
• Drive innovation discovery and experimentation cycles, managing pilots, PoCs, and scale decisions in collaboration with Tech Strategy & Innovation
• Promote cross-functional collaboration and knowledge sharing to enhance internal digital capabilities and minimize vendor dependency.
• Develop and implement talent strategies for digital and data teams, including hiring, skill development, succession planning, and career growth.
• Foster a performance-driven culture by defining clear KPIs, setting goals, reviewing performance, and coaching teams.
• Represent the Data & Digital Delivery function in leadership councils, steering committees, and cross-functional programs, ensuring strategic alignment and enterprise integration.

Minimum Qualifications And Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or related field; Master’s preferred.
• 15+ years in data engineering, analytics, and digital delivery, including 5+ years in senior leadership.
• Proven experience in Lakehouse, cloud platforms (Azure/AWS/GCP), API frameworks, AI/ML, and automation.
• PMP/Agile certifications preferred.
• Experience in FMCG or manufacturing industries is desirable.

Professional Knowledge And Certifications

• Cloud/Data Platform Certifications (Azure, AWS, GCP)
• AI/ML, RPA, and Automation Certifications
• Project Management Professional (PMP®) – PMI
• Agile / Scrum Certification (e.g., Certified ScrumMaster, PMI-ACP)
• ITIL v4 Foundation / Intermediate
• COBIT (Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies)

Location

Karachi, Pakistan