Head of Transformation - RELOCATE TO ABU DHABI

We are hiring a Head of Transformation to lead one of the UAE's most ambitious change programs in our client's history. This is an enterprise wide, AI enabled transformation with genuine ExCo sponsorship, and they need a leader who can build the governance engine that drives it 🚀

Discover the company

You will join a large, well backed organisation investing heavily in reshaping how it operates, from operating model through to technology and ways of working. AI sits at the heart of the agenda, but this is far bigger than a set of pilots. The business is putting real money and real executive attention behind a transformation designed to define its next decade 🌍

Discover the role

The mandate is to design, stand up and run the Transformation Office from scratch. Think of it as building the central nervous system of the entire program. Governance, prioritisation, benefits realisation and the executive decision making cadence all sit with you.

To be clear, this is not a project management seat. You will hold a genuine top table mandate, reporting into executive leadership and shaping the transformation in your own image rather than inheriting someone else's design.

Discover the responsibilities

• Design and build the Transformation Office, including the governance model, stage gates, steering cadence and dependency management across more than fifteen workstreams
• Own value assurance, connecting program milestones to measurable P&L impact through a benefits framework the CFO signs off on
• Prepare, challenge and drive decisions at ExCo and board level, including escalating, restructuring or stopping work streams that are failing
• Mobilise and sequence resources across business and technology, holding workstream leads accountable for outcomes
• Embed AI driven initiatives within enterprise governance so they run with the same rigour as every other value stream 🤖

Discover the requirements

This search is intentionally selective. Our client is looking for career transformation pedigree, not someone who has managed a handful of AI projects.

You will likely have:

• A career built inside a top consultancy or an equivalent transformation practice, progressing from consultant through to Principal, Associate Partner or Partner
• 12 to 20 years of experience, with your career rooted in technology and digital transformation, designing and running Transformation Offices or Enterprise PMOs from zero
• Experience governing programs spanning many workstreams, significant budgets and hundreds of mobilised FTEs
• Deep governance craft across stage gates, benefits tracking, steering design and value assurance. You have built these frameworks, not just operated inside them
• Gravitas at ExCo and board level, with the confidence to challenge senior stakeholders and own difficult escalations 💬
• Exposure to AI transformation is a genuine plus, but your seniority must be founded on leading large scale digital change, not a handful of AI projects

If you grew up inside a top consultancy, have built transformation engines that actually deliver value, and want a bigger mandate with real backing behind it, this is your next move 🎯