Head of IT Infrastructure & Managed Services Delivery

Role Summary :

The Head of IT Infrastructure & Managed Services Delivery is accountable for designing, operating, securing, and continuously evolving a highly available, multi-country, enterprise-grade IT infrastructure that supports retail, B2B, e-commerce, and multiple other business verticals.

This role ensures that core infrastructure servicesend-user computing, network, data center, cloud, security, and IT operationsare delivered as SLA-driven, 247 managed services, capable of supporting millions of customer interactions, high-volume digital transactions, and business-critical internal platforms without disruption.

The position is foundational to business continuity, revenue protection, regulatory compliance, and customer experience, and acts as the backbone upon which all applications and digital initiatives operate.

Core Purpose of the Role :

- Provide a resilient, scalable, and secure infrastructure foundation for all businesses under Sharaf DG

- Enable always-on operations across countries, time zones, and business verticals

- Deliver infrastructure as a service to internal and external customers, governed by clear SLAs and measured outcomes

- Balance performance, cost optimization, risk management, and future readiness across hybrid and multi-cloud environments

Key Responsibilities :

1. Infrastructure Strategy, Architecture & Roadmap :

Define and execute a unified IT infrastructure strategy covering :

- End-user computing

- Enterprise networks (LAN, WAN, Wi-Fi)

- Data centres and on-prem infrastructure

- Hybrid and multi-cloud platforms (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS)

Own the infrastructure technology roadmap, ensuring alignment with :

- Business growth

- Digital and e-commerce scale requirements

- Regulatory and security obligations

- Ensure infrastructure designs are vendor-neutral, scalable, and future-proof, avoiding lock-in.

2. 247 Infrastructure Operations & Availability :

- Own round-the-clock availability of all critical infrastructure services supporting retail stores, warehouses, offices, digital platforms, and external customers.

Ensure infrastructure supports :

- High-availability e-commerce and transaction platforms

- Business-critical internal systems

- Continuous operations with no single points of failure

- Govern NOC/SOC, monitoring, alerting, escalation, and incident response models to ensure predictable and measurable uptime.

3. Managed Services & SLA-Driven Delivery :

- Operate IT infrastructure as a managed services organization, not a support function.

Define, enforce, and continuously improve :

a. SLAs, OLAs, and KPIs

b. Incident, problem, change, and capacity management

- Deliver infrastructure services to :

a. Internal customers (business applications, analytics, operations)

b. External or partner-facing platforms where applicable

- Ensure service continuity across countries and business units with consistent service quality.

4. Hybrid Cloud, Multi-Cloud & Hosting Services :

- Own infrastructure hosting services across :

a. On-prem and co-location data centers

b. Public cloud platforms

c. Hybrid integration models

- Ensure infrastructure can :

a. Scale elastically during peak retail and promotional periods

b. Support disaster recovery, high availability, and geo-redundancy

- Govern cloud consumption, resilience design, and recovery strategies, including tier-based criticality and cost trade-offs.

5. Cost Optimization, Asset & License Management :

- Own end-to-end infrastructure cost governance, including :

a. Cloud cost management and optimization

b. Hardware and software asset management

c. License compliance and optimization

- Lead license audits, renewals, vendor rationalization, and cost-saving initiatives

- Ensure infrastructure spend is transparent, justified, and aligned to business value, not just technical usage.

6. Security, Compliance & Risk Governance :

- Ensure infrastructure complies with ISO 20000, ISO 27001, and internal security baselines.

- Own infrastructure security posture across :

a. Network security

b. Endpoint security

c. Identity and access management

d. Monitoring, logging, and incident response

- Work with internal security teams and MSSPs while maintaining clear accountability for infra security controls.

7. Vendor, Partner & Contract Management :

- Own strategic and operational vendor management for :

a. Cloud providers

b. Managed service partners

c. Network, security, and infrastructure vendors

- Ensure vendors deliver against :

a. Contractual SLAs

b. Performance metrics

c. Security and compliance requirements

- Prevent vendor dependency by ensuring knowledge ownership remains internal.

8. Process Standardization, Automation & AI Enablement :

- Drive standardization of infrastructure processes across regions and business units.

- Leverage AI and automation for :

a. Monitoring and anomaly detection

b. Capacity and trend analysis

c. Approval workflows (procurement, changes, access)

- Use AI as an operational intelligence tool, not as experimental technology.

9. Infrastructure Transformation & Continuous Improvement :

- Continuously assess infrastructure maturity, identify gaps, and uplift services to best-in-class benchmarks.

- Lead infrastructure modernization programs without disrupting live business operations.

- Ensure the infrastructure organization evolves with business scale, security threats, and technology shifts