Senior Program Manager, Digital Strategy

Job Purpose:

The Senior Program Manager, Digital Strategy is ADNOC’s enterprise orchestrator and value guardian, entrusted to convert the Group’s digital strategy into measurable, high-impact outcomes across multiple entities. Mandated to architect, govern, and accelerate the delivery of complex, cross-entity digital programs, this role synthesizes executive vision into actionable program roadmaps, robust governance frameworks, and sustained value realization. As the principal execution advisor to the Manager/VP, Group Digital Strategy & Transformation, the Senior Program Manager steers investment choices, adjudicates trade-offs, and de-risks execution—commanding enterprise influence through program boards, investment councils, and design authorities.

The role institutionalizes program excellence by embedding standardized stage gates, OKRs, benefits ledgers, lean portfolio management, secure-by-design, and policy/control-as-code guardrails compressing time-to-value, elevating predictability, and safeguarding license-to-operate. Accountable for P&L-relevant benefits realization, schedule and cost predictability, risk posture, and adoption outcomes, the Senior Program Manager directly strengthens ADNOC’s competitiveness, resilience, and digital leadership by ensuring every digital program is traceably linked to strategic value and enterprise transformation.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES:

Business Strategy:

• Translate, architect, and operationalize ADNOC’s enterprise digital strategy into robust, actionable program roadmaps defining and validating clear value hypotheses, establishing rigorous and measurable KPIs/OKRs, and mapping complex cross-entity dependencies to guarantee seamless alignment with the Group’s enterprise blueprint, regulatory imperatives, and transformation priorities.
• Advise, influence, and secure pivotal decisions at program boards and steering committees on program scope, funding allocation, sequencing, and risk appetite delivering decision-grade options underpinned by quantified benefits, cost-benefit analyses, and risk profiles to empower informed, value-driven executive choices and strategic trade-offs.
• .Integrate, synchronize, and optimize multi-domain portfolios including Data, Cybersecurity, Cloud & Advanced Computing, Connectivity & Industrial Communications, and Applications eliminating duplication, rationalizing investments, and maximizing enterprise-wide reuse, interoperability, and synergies to accelerate value realization, drive operational excellence, and amplify ADNOC’s strategic impact.
  
  

Leadership:

• Lead and coach Program/Project Managers, Product/Value Owners, and analysts; mentor UAE Nationals and build a succession bench.
• Act as deputy to the Manager/VP in program governance, presenting updates, adjudicating priorities, and securing decisions on scope, funding, and sequencing.
  
  

Budgets & Operational Plans:

• Own and maintain program business cases with NPV/IRR, payback, and unit-cost impacts; align funding tranches to value milestones.
• Optimize spend via staged funding, demand shaping, right-sizing vendor scope, and leveraging shared services to lift return on digital investments.
  
  

Performance Management:

• Publish executive scorecards and heatmaps tracking benefits realization, delivery predictability (lead/cycle time), decision SLA adherence, and risk posture.
• Trigger corrective and preventive actions (CAPA) to verified closure; prevent value leakage and scope drift through rapid replanning.
  
  

Organization Structure and People Development:

• Standardize delivery playbooks, stage-gate criteria, and evidence capture for audit; organize communities of practice to elevate program craft.
• Define role taxonomy and development pathways for program management, benefits/value management, and PMO integration.
  
  

Innovation and Continuous Improvement:

• Run design sprints and controlled pilots with exit criteria; industrialize successful patterns as reusable accelerators and platform capabilities.
• Continuously improve governance cadences (PI planning, ARB touchpoints) based on retrospectives and assurance findings.
  
  

Policies, Processes, and Procedures:

• Embed policy-as-code and control-as-code gates within CI/CD, release readiness, and change control to ensure first-time-right, compliant releases.
• Maintain audit-ready evidence across procurement, vendor management, and technical standards; govern exception/waiver workflows with expiry and compensating controls.
  
  

Health, Safety, Environment (HSE), and Sustainability:

• Sequence deliveries to protect safety-critical operations; validate cutover plans and rollback strategies for operating assets.
• Align programs to GreenOps targets (energy/carbon efficiency) and sustainability objectives where applicable.
  
  

Risk Management:

• Maintain an integrated program risk register (delivery, regulatory, cyber/OT, vendor concentration) with quantified impacts and treatment plans.
• Coordinate with Cybersecurity, Legal/Compliance, HSE, Internal Audit, and Business Continuity for assessments, audits, and regulatory engagements.
  
  

Management Reports:

• Provide monthly/quarterly reports on milestone attainment, benefits capture, risk/issue status, standards compliance, and technical debt trends.
• Table decision papers with scenario analysis, ROI, and risk sensitivity; document lessons learned and verify CAPA closure.
  
  

COMMUNICATIONS & WORKING RELATIONSHIPS:

Internal:

• Manager & VP, Group Digital Strategy & Transformation; Group Digital Executive leadership.
• Enterprise & Domain Architecture, Cybersecurity (CISO/Assurance), Data Office, Cloud & Advanced Computing, Connectivity & Industrial Comms, Applications Delivery.
• PMO/Portfolio Office, Finance, Procurement, Legal & Compliance, HSE/Operations, Risk & Internal Audit.
• Group Company CIOs/Business Directors and product/platform owners
  
  

External:

• Strategic advisors/consultancies; hyperscalers and OEMs; systems integrators and delivery partners.
• External auditors/assessors; standards bodies and regulator interfaces (as required).
  
  

QUALIFICATIONS, EXPERIENCE, KNOWLEDGE & SKILLS:

Minimum Qualification:

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems, or Business.
• Master’s degree/MBA (Preferred).
  
  

Minimum Experience & Knowledge & Skills:

• 8 -10+ years leading complex, multi-entity digital programs with material budget authority; 5+ years in cross-functional program leadership.
• Proven delivery of enterprise-scale programs with measurable benefits; mastery of LPM/Agile at Scale, OKRs, business casing, and benefits realization.
• Strong grasp of enterprise architecture, cyber/privacy guardrails, and IT/OT regulatory environments; executive influence and decision framing.
  
  

Professional Certifications:

• PgMP, MoP (Management of Portfolios), SAFe LPM/RTE, PMP/PRINCE2, ITIL 4, Prosci/Change, TOGAF (advantageous).
  
  

TECHNICAL COMPETENCIES:

• Digital Program Strategy & Road mapping; Portfolio Synchronization; OKR/Benefits Management; Earned Value & Forecasting;
• Risk & Assurance Governance; Secure-by-Design/DevSecOps Guardrails; Vendor & Commercial Management; Executive Scorecards;
• Change & Adoption Engineering; Tooling (Planview/Clarity/Jira Align, MS Project, Power BI).