Senior Transformation and Systems Business Partner — ME
- Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Posted 5 days ago
About the role
The Role
The Senior Transformation and Systems Business Partner will act as the strategic liaison between the COO, the IT department, regional Finance and HR functions, and the real estate business units across the Middle East (residential agency, commercial agency, property management, valuation and consultancy) as part of a once-in-a-generation modernisation of its finance and operations platform across the Middle East.
This is a hands-on transformation leadership role for an experienced consulting or major programme delivery professional who combines strong ERP/CRM platform knowledge with the ability to drive change through people, governance and stakeholder engagement across a fast-paced, multicultural region.
Key Responsibilities
Strategic Leadership & Transformation
Lead the ERP-enabled transformation of the Savills ME business (UAE, KSA, Oman, Bahrain and Egypt), owning business readiness, adoption and benefits realisation for the Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics 365 F&O and D365 Sales rollout.
Report to and advise the COO of Savills ME, providing clear, honest reporting on progress, risks, costs and decisions required, and chairing or supporting regional governance forums.
Act as the primary point of contact between IT, Finance, HR and key business units, aligning technology strategy with business goals and translating strategic objectives into prioritised initiatives.
Develop technology roadmaps in partnership with business leaders, aligning initiatives with operational priorities and long-term business objectives.
Provide strategic advice to senior leadership on technology investment, platform selection, implementation approach and transformation opportunities.
Build belief in the benefits of the programme and secure sustained ME leadership alignment, competency, trust and commitment.
Business Analysis & Process Ownership
Drive ownership of business processes across all ME business lines, co-creating best-practice processes on an 80/20 basis, based on L3/L4 process maps with end-to-end impacts across systems (specifically Valuations & Property Management).
Lead discovery workshops with business stakeholders to understand current processes, pain points, strategic objectives and future requirements.
Document, analyse and prioritise business, functional and non-functional requirements, ensuring alignment with wider business strategy.
Facilitate workshops and playback sessions to validate requirements, build stakeholder consensus and confirm proposed solutions meet business needs.
Act as the bridge between business stakeholders and technical teams, translating operational requirements into clear solution requirements.
Programme & Project Management
Re-establish and maintain effective programme governance: PID, plans, RAID logs, decision logs, authority matrix, status reporting, change control, stage gates and closure documentation.
Ensure proper business representation in the steering group, with named business owners accountable for processes, decisions and sign-off.
Manage programme budgets, vendor statements of work, dependencies and change requests, escalating risks and issues with recommended actions.
Coordinate cross-functional project teams comprising business stakeholders, software vendors, consultants and internal IT teams.
Oversee business-side readiness for UAT, data migration sign-off, cutover, go-live and hypercare, ensuring business acceptance criteria are defined, met and formally signed off.
Ensure new or changed services are transitioned effectively to business-as-usual, with support model, documentation and knowledge transfer in place, including coaching of internal team members.
Capture lessons learnt and embed improvements into subsequent phases of the regional programme.
Technology, Data & Vendor Management
Act as the senior business-side counterpart to the technical delivery partner, holding them to agreed scope, quality, deliverables and commercial commitments without duplicating their delivery role.
Own the regional data readiness agenda: agreed data structures (chart of accounts, departments, dimensions, attributes), clear taxonomies and clean, complete, year-on-year comparable data, working closely with Group data and reporting teams.
Maintain a mapped view of the ME technology landscape, including systems outside the core stack, ensuring integration impacts are understood and managed with the delivery partner.
Evaluate and recommend new technologies and tools that support business processes across the real estate sector, optimising the use of current systems and technology.
Negotiate optimal commercial terms with third-party vendors, collaborating with Savills EME and Global teams to seek economies of scale.
Monitor supplier performance against agreed service levels, driving continual improvement and holding vendors accountable for outcomes.
Champion the adoption of developing AI technologies within programme delivery, identifying practical opportunities to apply AI tools to planning, reporting, analysis, documentation and process improvement.
Change Management & Adoption
Lead business change, communications and engagement: planned comms ahead of workshops, sustained interaction between meetings, persona/segmentation of user groups, and aligned messaging from the delivery team.
Co-champion CRM leadership and adoption across the region, establishing and enforcing consistent CRM usage standards.
Deliver and coordinate workshops, demonstrations and training sessions to build user confidence and maximise adoption of new technology solutions.
Gather post-implementation feedback and work with stakeholders to continually improve processes and system utilisation.
Skills, Knowledge and Experience
Transformation & Consulting Experience is essential.
Proven track record leading ERP-enabled business transformation programmes, with extensive project and change management experience gained as part of a reputable management consultancy organisation.
Minimum 5 years' experience delivering transformation across the Middle East, ideally spanning multiple GCC/ME jurisdictions, with a clear understanding of the stakeholder engagement and ways of working required for regional delivery from a Dubai base.
Experience operating alongside a system integrator / delivery partner in a business-side leadership capacity, holding the partner accountable to scope, quality and commercial commitments without owning technical delivery.
Strong track record operating on major transformation assignments (consulting engagement or fixed-term contract), where rapid mobilisation, delivery focus and stakeholder confidence are critical.
Strong business process background: process ownership models, best-practice adoption and end-to-end impact analysis across finance and operational systems.
Demonstrated strength in change management: communications planning, stakeholder segmentation, training readiness, adoption measurement and post-go-live embedding, including CRM adoption disciplines.
Strong understanding of real estate business operations, processes and technology needs is highly advantageous.
Technical Skills
Strong working knowledge of the Microsoft Dynamics 365 ecosystem (F&O and Sales/CRM), sufficient to direct outcomes, challenge a delivery partner and make informed trade-offs without needing to own technical delivery.
Salesforce experience is beneficial; familiarity with property management systems (Yardi, MRI, etc.), CRM solutions, ERP systems and cloud-based platforms is an advantage.
Working understanding of financial data governance: chart of accounts, financial dimensions, taxonomies, master data, and what it takes to deliver reporting the business trusts.
Proficiency in project management methodologies and tools, including working knowledge of Prince2, Agile and hybrid delivery approaches, applying the most appropriate methodology to each initiative.
Strong data analysis and reporting skills, with the ability to translate business needs into technical solutions.
Leadership & Soft Skills
Credible at C-level: comfortable reporting to a regional COO, chairing senior governance forums and aligning country leadership teams across UAE, KSA, Oman, Bahrain and Egypt.
Confident managing complex plans, dependencies, risks, budgets and reporting across multiple concurrent workstreams and countries.
Comfortable working at pace, under pressure and with a high degree of autonomy, while maintaining strong governance and delivery discipline.
Demonstrates a positive, proactive and pragmatic approach, with the ability to encourage, challenge and align teams across the region.
Strong problem-solving capabilities and a customer-focused mindset, able to work effectively in a fast-paced, multicultural environment.
Genuine interest in, and proactive approach to, the adoption of developing AI technologies, staying abreast of new tools and encouraging their practical use across the programme team.
Education & Eligibility
Bachelor's degree in Business Management, Information Technology, Computer Science or a related field.
An MBA or relevant certification (e.g. PMP, PRINCE2, ITIL) is a plus.
Eligible and available to work in the UAE, based on-site in Dubai, with travel across the ME region as required.