Chief Product Officer — Transit-Technology Business

The mandate

The business provides fare, passenger-information, operations and account-based travel products across Gulf cities. Product priorities have historically followed contract awards, producing separate mobile journeys, operator tools and authority reports for each deployment. As the company concentrates investment in fewer strategic cities, the road map still contains obligations and enhancements for the former footprint. The CPO must decide what becomes common product, what remains supported obligation and what exits responsibly.

The remit spans approximately 700 employees and material partners across product management, design, research, product operations, analytics and localisation. Engineering and programme delivery have separate leaders. The CPO owns product outcomes, portfolio sequence and customer discovery and has authority to decline requests that lack strategic fit, contractual requirement or funded exception.

Public transit product decisions affect passengers who may have limited digital access, tourists, people with disabilities, drivers, controllers and authority staff. Reuse cannot mean imposing one idealised app journey. Arabic and English, fare policy, identity and accessibility require thoughtful configuration. The appointee must distinguish these needs from local preference and measure whether users can complete essential tasks under real operating conditions.

City rationalisation also creates data and service obligations. Balances, travel history, open concessions and statutory records cannot be abandoned when a local interface retires. Product transition must include communication, alternatives, support and evidence that vulnerable users are not excluded.

Product economics must reflect contract acceptance and ongoing support, not just engineering capacity. A feature may be adopted by passengers but still generate expensive authority reporting or manual operations; another may be contractually required despite low visible use. The CPO will work with finance and programmes to show lifecycle cost, funded obligation and measurable public value, giving the portfolio a reasoned basis for continuing non-commercial capabilities.

Authority procurement creates timing constraints. Road-map commitments can enter tenders years before implementation and survive staff changes on both sides. The product office will keep a commitment ledger linking each promised capability to proposal text, assumptions, approval and expiry. It must distinguish an evaluated option from a binding requirement before either is repeated to another customer.

Why this seat is open

An executive review found no single owner able to arbitrate contract, city and common-product priorities, creating an urgent, unplanned CPO seat. Product leaders remain within units; this role will integrate and assess them. The first portfolio decisions are due before the next authority planning cycle.

What you will own

• Define passenger, operator and authority product domains with core, configurable and contract-specific boundaries.
• Rationalise the road map against strategic cities, active obligations, adoption and lifecycle cost.
• Create discovery with passengers, drivers and control-room users, including accessibility and language needs.
• Govern authority requests through value, contract, regulatory and reuse evidence.
• Design product transitions for withdrawing cities, covering balances, data, communication and support.
• Establish adoption, task completion, service exception and economic measures beyond feature delivery.
• Align product and programme leaders before customer commitment and acceptance.
• Build senior product capability able to challenge stakeholders and own outcomes after launch.

The first 12 months

Within 90 days, inventory active products, variants, contracts and user journeys across the city portfolio. Observe essential tasks in stations and control rooms and identify stranded obligations. Present keep, configure, fulfil-and-retire or stop recommendations, with a product authority model and near-term road-map decisions.

By month six, launch a common passenger or operator journey in two priority cities, retire first low-value variants and complete one city transition without unresolved balances or accessibility loss. Introduce outcome reviews and funded exception approval. Product operations should focus on adoption and defect causes rather than manual work that hides missing product capability.

At twelve months, concentrate 80% of product investment on strategic, reusable capability, reduce supported variants by 25% and improve completion of the priority passenger journey by 15%. Product-related service contacts should fall by 25%, common-platform adoption in selected cities should exceed 75%, and every withdrawing city should meet documented customer, data and contract closure criteria.

What the board will measure

• Product investment concentrated on chosen city and user outcomes.
• Lower variation and lifecycle burden while contractual service remains reliable.
• Accessibility, language and inclusion under real-world use.
• Responsible product retirement and city transition.
• Authority requests governed before road-map commitment.
• Leadership depth and working alignment with engineering and programmes.

The person

You have 22–28 years in product leadership for transit, payments, travel, government technology or another high-availability public platform. You have rationalised a product estate while active contracts and diverse user needs remained. You can say no to senior customers and still preserve long-term trust.

Your experience should cover at least 500 employees and partners and products supporting more than AED 2.5 billion in contracts or transactions. You can identify a variant you retired, an accessibility insight that changed design and a customer request you funded separately. Gulf localisation and public-authority exposure are important.

This onsite Dubai role includes customer-site travel and reports to the Group Chief Executive or designated sponsor.

Compensation and terms

The fixed range is AED 1.9–2.7 million plus annual incentive and long-term incentive tied to product focus, adoption, transition, economics and leadership. This permanent onsite Dubai role reports to the Group Chief Executive or designated executive sponsor. Notice up to six months will be considered against urgent portfolio decisions.

Confidentiality

The company, authorities, cities, contracts and product estate remain confidential. Details follow reciprocal fit, conflict screening and a signed undertaking. Public scale and circumstances are blended; applicants must not contact transport bodies, passengers, suppliers or employees to infer the client.