Business Operations Digital Transformation Senior Manager

Role Overview

As a Business Operations Digital Transformation Senior Manager at Saudi Ground Services (SGS), you will play a pivotal role in driving the company’s digital transformation agenda in alignment with its Digital Airport strategy. This position requires a strategic leader who can bridge executive priorities with operational execution, ensuring seamless integration of technology, processes, and people to deliver measurable business outcomes. You will oversee the end-to-end digital transformation of ground handling operations, from turnaround and baggage management to service capture, billing, rostering, and mobile workforce enablement. Your leadership will be instrumental in optimizing efficiency, enhancing productivity, and fostering a digital-first culture across the organization.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership

• Digital Roadmap Development: Translate CEO and executive priorities into a comprehensive digital roadmap that aligns with SGS’s Digital Airport strategy, ensuring clear alignment with business objectives and measurable outcomes.
• Future-State Process Design: Define and implement next-generation digital processes for critical ground handling functions, including turnaround optimization, baggage handling, service capture and billing, workforce rostering, and mobile workforce enablement.
• Performance Metrics & ROI: Establish and track key performance indicators (KPIs) such as on-time delivery percentages, adoption rates, SLA improvements, turnaround time reductions, cost savings, productivity gains, and return on investment (ROI) to validate the success of digital initiatives.
• Vendor Strategy & Management: Develop and execute a robust vendor strategy by selecting, guiding, and monitoring technology partners. Ensure that Statements of Work (SOWs), Service Level Agreements (SLAs), and performance metrics are aligned to accelerate delivery and mitigate risks.
• Budget & Resource Optimization: Propose and manage operational digital transformation budgets, optimizing spend while securing critical internal and external skills to ensure timely and risk-free delivery.

Operational Execution

• Project Management Office (PMO): Oversee a streamlined PMO framework within Operations Digital Transformation, including stage gates, risk and issue management, RAID logs, and benefits tracking to ensure projects are delivered on time and within budget.
• Enterprise Architecture Alignment: Define and enforce standards for system integrations, APIs, and data flows across critical platforms such as Inform, EPG, SAP, DCS, WakeCap, IoT, AI/RPA, and analytics tools to ensure seamless interoperability and data integrity.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Lead collaboration with operations, HR, finance, commercial, technology services, and airline partners to ensure alignment, effective execution, and seamless integration of digital initiatives.
• Change Management & Adoption: Drive structured change initiatives through comprehensive communication and training plans, fostering a digital-first culture and ensuring high adoption rates across all operational stations.
• End-to-End Initiative Execution: Oversee the full lifecycle of airport digital initiatives, from inception, design, build, testing, and cutover to hypercare support, ensuring seamless delivery and minimal disruption to operations.
• Data & Integration Management: Manage integrations across Inform, EPG, SAP, DCS, WakeCap/IoT, mobility applications, and analytics platforms to ensure data quality, real-time processing, and actionable insights for continuous improvement.
• Executive Reporting & Escalation: Conduct weekly executive stand-ups to review progress, resolve dependencies, and escalate vendor or internal delays with clear ownership and actionable deadlines.
• Delivery Standards & Compliance: Enforce rigorous delivery standards, including definition of done, test coverage, User Acceptance Testing (UAT) sign-off, cybersecurity hardening, and operational readiness checks prior to go-live. Ensure compliance with NCA, SDAIA, and GACA regulations, and maintain audit readiness with comprehensive documentation.
• Performance Monitoring & Continuous Improvement: Develop and maintain dashboards for turnaround performance, baggage handling efficiency, resource utilization, and billing accuracy. Use data-driven insights to enhance processes and drive operational excellence. Provide Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), administrative guides, Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity Planning (DR/BCP) steps, and support models to ensure smooth transitions and sustained performance.
• Post-Go-Live Evaluation: Measure and analyze post-implementation outcomes related to efficiency, SLA compliance, cost reduction, and customer experience against the original business case. Implement corrective actions as necessary to achieve desired results.
• Lessons Learned & Enhancement Backlog: Capture and document lessons learned from each release, maintaining a prioritized backlog of enhancements to support rapid improvement cycles and future digital initiatives.

People Management

• Outsourced Team Leadership: Manage outsourced delivery teams by setting clear performance measures, ensuring compliance with SGS standards, and holding teams accountable for SLAs and KPIs.
• Internal & External Collaboration: Foster effective collaboration between internal staff and outsourced resources to maintain seamless execution, knowledge transfer, and cultural alignment.
• Vendor-Managed Employee Oversight: Oversee the onboarding, training, and day-to-day performance of vendor-managed employees to ensure consistent service quality, adherence to SGS policies, and alignment with organizational goals.

Qualifications & Experience

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Technology, or an equivalent field. An MBA is considered a plus.

Professional Certifications

• No mandatory certifications; however, relevant certifications in project management (e.g., PMP, PRINCE2), digital transformation, or technology domains are advantageous.

Experience

• Minimum of 10 years of relevant professional experience, with at least 5 years in a managerial or leadership role.
• Proven track record in leading digital transformation initiatives, preferably within the aviation, logistics, or ground services sectors.
• Hands-on experience with enterprise systems such as SAP, Inform, EPG, DCS, IoT platforms, and analytics tools.
• Strong background in project management, change management, and vendor relationship management.
• Demonstrated ability to drive cross-functional collaboration, manage complex integrations, and deliver measurable business outcomes.