Lead Data Platform | Enterprise IT | Dubai

Job Requisition ID: 68001 

No two days are the same at Al-Futtaim, no matter what role you have. Our work is driven by the desire to make a difference and to have a meaningful impact with the goal of enriching everyday lives. Take our engaging and supportive work environment and couple it with a company culture that recognises and rewards quality performance, and what do you get? The chance to push the limits every single day.

As a humble family business that started on the banks of the Dubai Creek in the 1930s, Al-Futtaim has expanded to a presence in 31 countries, a portfolio of over 200 companies, and 42,000 employees. You’ll find us in industries ranging from automotive and retail, to finance and real estate, and connecting people with international names like Lexus, Ikea, Robinsons, and Adidas. Our team is proudly multicultural and multinational because that kind of diverse representation gives us the global mindset to grow and impact the people, markets, and trends around us.

Come join us to live well, work better, and be the best.

About the Role

The role is accountable for implementing Data Platform development best practices in a Azure environment by designing appropriate solutions supporting the customer’s business needs as part of the overall Data Platform programme across the group.

The role is accountable for providing direction and guidance to a team of specialists to support and deliver business solutions in their domain expertise aligned with IT strategy.

About the Responsibilities

Support and Maintenance of Solutions

• Ensure development, test and delivery of Data Platform & middleware solutions align with global standards.
• Collaborate with the business in identifying integration requirements and create corresponding technical specifications
• Develop solutions using defined development standards, procedures, and design specifications
• Ensure Change Controls are developed, tested & released according to an agreed schedule and ensure all high business impact changes are escalated as appropriate
• Expected to be involved both in support activities and a number of development activities.
• Exhibits the ability to understand Azure and interface with the functional Teams for the development of solutions

Leadership & Team Management

• Lead a lean, skilled and fully engaged team; coach, develop and motivate them to achieve set objectives and deliver maximum contribution
• Establish clear objectives, roles and accountabilities of the team
• Promote and support your talent within EIT
• Resources assigned to project teams, to be managed as appropriate to the needs of application support priorities
• Motivate team members to maintain excellence in service delivery and have opportunities for professional development
• Promote and fast-track your talent within EIT

Design and Evolution of Solutions

The successful candidate will demonstrate the ability to manage all aspect of the business requirements and blueprinting process including:

• Solution design and gap analysis
• Able to evaluate new functionality; recommending and implementing them
• Developing and documenting the detailed solution design

Delivery of Programme/Project solutions/Request for change

• Accountable for the development design and of solutions in Data Platform development
• Develop technical specifications for solutions 
• Ability to build integration solutions involving Data Platform and non-Data Platform systems
• Ensure that product upgrades, enhancements, and future roll out projects meet business requirements and goals, fulfil end user requirements
• Operating in a programme context, including liaising with the Data Platform functional and development teams and working with people and organisations from different regions/cultures

Continuous Improvement

• Work with other functional teams within EIT and the Business to identify opportunities for implementation of integration solutions which can replace the existing custom developments and thereby building a central repository of all interfaces
• Identify and recommend new technologies to management, as well as detail potential applications and implications for the business
• Expected to provide positive influence on junior members of the Data Platform Development team and be capable of advising on additional process optimization/improvement opportunities

About the Requirements

Education:

A degree in Computer Science or related discipline

Minimum Experience and Knowledge: 

A minimum of 7 – 10 years’ experience in the design, development, testing, debugging, delivery and support of Data Platform solutions

Managed minimum 3 full Data Platform project life cycles of significant size, scope and complexity

Knowledge of Azure will be highly regarded

Experience in Azure Data Factory, Airflow, Informatica, Talend, or Databricks will be highly regarded

Working knowledge of Systems Development Lifecycle (SDLC)

Data Warehouse experience (Kimball, Inmon, Data Vault 2.0) will be highly regarded

Experience with various messaging systems, such as Kafka or RabbitMQ

Experience in managing offshore development / vendor management

Experience of working in the Retail/Automotive/Real Estate/Trading industries will be highly regarded

Products:  Azure Data Factory, Airflow, Informatica, Talend, Databricks, Azure Data Lake, Azure Synapse, Snowflake, MSSQL, SSIS

Job-Specific/Technical Skills:

Business Needs Analysis, Solution Design and Documentation

Providing support and maintenance for the Data Platform

Development and support of middleware and Integration solutions

We’re here to provide excellent service but a little help from you can ensure a five-star candidate experience from start to finish.

Before you click “apply”: Please read the job description carefully to ensure you can confidently demonstrate why this opportunity is right for you and take the time to put together a well-crafted and personalised CV to further boost your visibility. Our global Talent Acquisition team members are all assigned to specific businesses to ensure that we make the best matches between talent and opportunities. We not only consider the requisite compatibility of skills and behaviours, but also how candidates align with our Values of Respect, Integrity, Collaboration, and Excellence.

As part of our candidate experience promise, we also want to make ourselves available to you throughout the application process. We make every effort to review and respond to every application.