Head of Applications

Starlinks Group; As Sudiyah; On-site; OMR 54,000 - 85,000; Full time

Job summary

Starlinks Group in Saudi Arabia/GCC seeks an executive leader to own the enterprise application landscape, including ERP, WMS, TMS, order management, and AI-enabled automation across logistics, warehousing, distribution and last-mile operations. You will lead the application roadmap, engineering teams, and vendor partners to deliver measurable value.

You will drive multi-year strategy, architecture governance, and secure, highly available solutions that support 24/7 operations while partnering

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Software Engineering, or related field.
• Master’s Degree or MBA preferred.
• Professional certifications such as TOGAF, PMP/PRINCE2, ITIL 4, or cloud and security certifications preferred.

Responsibilities

• Define and own the multi-year application and digital roadmap, aligned with business strategy and growth in KSA and GCC.
• Maintain the enterprise application architecture and portfolio, rationalizing duplicates and prioritizing by value, risk and cost.
• Translate business needs from Warehousing, Transport, Distribution, Solutions, Commercial and Finance into clear product and delivery priorities.
• Lead end-to-end delivery of application programs from requirements to deployment, on time and within budget.
• Oversee implementation of new customer operations, onboarding and system integrations (WMS, TMS, ERP, customer solutions).
• Establish delivery methodologies (Agile/DevOps) and track velocity, defects and on-time delivery.
• Ensure high availability, performance and stability of critical applications supporting 24/7 operations.
• Define and monitor SLAs and incident/change management with Operations, Infrastructure and vendors.
• Drive root-cause analysis and preventive actions to reduce downtime and disruption.
• Set standards for solution architecture, APIs and integrations with customers, carriers and partners.
• Ensure data quality, governance and reliable data flows for analytics and decision-making.
• Partner with Data/Analytics to enable dashboards and operational insights across logistics.
• Identify and deliver AI/automation opportunities (AI-powered scanning, warehouse automation, IoT, route optimization).
• Evaluate emerging technologies and run proofs of concept; scale successful initiatives.

Skills

ERP

WMS

TMS

APIs

Data Analytics

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related

Master's Degree or MBA

Tools

TOGAF

PMP/PRINCE2

ITIL 4

AWS

Azure

CISSP/CISM

Job description

Lead the strategy, design, delivery and continuous improvement of Starlinks’ enterprise application landscape, including ERP, WMS, TMS, order management, customer and driver platforms, integrations and AI-enabled automation, to enable efficient, scalable and digitally differentiated logistics, warehousing, distribution and last-mile operations across Saudi Arabia and the GCC. The role owns the application roadmap, engineering and delivery teams, and vendor partners, ensuring secure, highly available, business-aligned solutions that deliver measurable operational and commercial value.

Main Job Responsibilities

Define and own the multi-year application and digital roadmap, aligned with Starlinks’ business strategy, customer commitments and growth plans across KSA and the GCC.

Maintain the enterprise application architecture and portfolio, rationalizing duplicate or legacy systems and prioritizing investments by business value, risk and cost.

Translate business needs from Warehousing, Transport, Distribution, Solutions, Commercial and Finance into clear product and delivery priorities.

Solution Delivery & Program Management

Lead end-to-end delivery of application programs, from requirements and design through build, testing, deployment and adoption, on time, within budget and to quality standards.

Oversee implementation of new customer operations, onboarding and system integrations, including WMS, TMS, ERP and customer-specific solutions.

Establish delivery methodologies (Agile/DevOps, release and change management) and track delivery metrics such as velocity, defect rates and on-time delivery.

Application Operations & Service Reliability

Ensure high availability, performance and stability of business-critical applications supporting 24/7 warehouse, fulfilment and last-mile operations.

Define and monitor SLAs and incident, problem and change management processes with Operations, Infrastructure and vendors.

Drive root-cause analysis and preventive actions to reduce downtime, recurring incidents and operational disruption.

Set standards for solution architecture, APIs and integration with customers, carriers, marketplaces, e-commerce platforms and government or regulatory systems.

Ensure data quality, master data governance and reliable data flows to support analytics, reporting and decision-making.

Partner with the Data and Analytics teams to enable dashboards, KPIs and operational insights across the logistics value chain.

Identify and deliver innovation opportunities such as AI-powered scanning and computer vision, warehouse automation integration, IoT, route optimization and process automation.

Evaluate emerging technologies and run proofs of concept, scaling those that demonstrate clear operational and commercial benefit.

Collaborate with automation and material-handling partners to integrate software and equipment into seamless warehouse operations.

Vendor, Budget & Commercial Management

Manage software vendors, system integrators and technology partners, including selection, contract negotiation, performance and SLA governance.

Own the applications budget (CAPEX and OPEX), forecasting, cost optimization and business-case development for new investments.

Track and report realized benefits, cost savings and ROI from application initiatives.

Governance, Security & Compliance

Ensure applications comply with information security policies, data protection and privacy requirements, and applicable Saudi regulations and customer audit standards.

Embed secure-by-design practices, access control, backup and disaster recovery in all application solutions in partnership with Information Security.

Maintain documentation, architecture standards and audit readiness across the application portfolio.

Team Leadership & Stakeholder Management Lead

coach and develop a multi-disciplinary team of application managers, solution architects, developers, business analysts and QA, building a high-performance engineering culture.

Build strong relationships with business leaders and executive stakeholders, providing regular updates on roadmap progress, risks and value delivered.

Manage resourcing, capability building and succession planning, and attract and retain top technology talent.

Requirements

Education

Bachelor’s Degree: In Computer Science, Information Systems, Software Engineering, or a related field;Required

Master’s Degree or MBA

In a relevant field;Preferred

Certifications

• Professional certifications such as TOGAF, PMP/PRINCE2, ITIL 4, or cloud and security certifications (AWS, Azure, CISSP/CISM) ; Preferred

License

• Not applicable (N/A)

Experience

• Total Professional Experience: 10–15 years :Required
• Senior Leadership Experience: Minimum 5 years managing application, development, or digital delivery teams:Required
• Industry Experience: Experience in logistics, supply chain, 3PL/4PL, warehousing, or e-commerce fulfilment technology (ERP, WMS, TMS): Preferred
• Regional Experience: Proven track record of delivering large-scale, multi-site application and integration programs in the GCC or Saudi market:Preferred

Languages

• English – Full Professional Proficiency
• Arabic – Native or Bilingual Proficiency

Summary

Experience Required: 10 year(s) minimum

Major: Information technology

Executive management

Required Skills

enterprise applications: erp (sap/oracle), wms, tms, oms and crm platforms logistics, supply chain & warehousing operations (3pl/4pl, freight, distribution, last-mile) integration & api architecture (rest, edi, middleware) and data & analytics platforms software development lifecycle, agile/devops and solution architecture

Languages

en – Full Professional Proficiency AR – Native or Bilingual Proficiency