EVP – Supply Chain — Digital Bank

The mandate

A listed digital bank has discovered that its core renewal depends on a narrow set of technology, infrastructure, hardware and specialist-service providers. Long lead times, constrained components and scarce implementation capacity threaten migration waves. Procurement reports savings, yet delivery teams see expediting, excess buffers and limited substitutes. The executive committee needs a supply strategy that protects service without converting every uncertainty into inventory or costly exclusivity.

The EVP – Supply Chain will influence a banking perimeter of approximately AED 62,550 million in loans and deposits and lead around 1,100 employees and material partners. Scope includes strategic sourcing, supplier operations, technology and infrastructure procurement, demand planning, inventory, logistics, contract performance, third-party resilience and supply input to the core renewal. Reporting accountability rests with the Group Chief Executive or designated executive committee sponsor.

The first requirement is a dependency baseline. Hardware, network equipment, security devices, licences, cloud commitments, implementation partners and operational consumables need service consequence, lead time, concentration and replacement time. Supplier spend alone understates exposure: a modest contract can stop customer onboarding or a migration if it supports a single control point.

Demand must link to the programme schedule. Forecasts should distinguish committed need, scenario capacity, safety stock and speculative orders. The EVP will connect architecture, deployment waves, site readiness and customer volumes so orders are neither late nor stranded after design changes. Finance should see cash timing and cancellation exposure alongside technical demand.

Dual sourcing is an operating capability, not a second name on a framework. Alternatives require approved specifications, security assessment, integration testing, data rights, trained operators and deployable capacity. Where true substitution is uneconomic, the bank needs buffers, reserved capacity, design change or tested recovery. Each mitigation should state the disruption it covers and the time bought.

Supplier economics will include total consequence. Unit price, implementation, change fees, service effort, financing, obsolescence and exit cost belong in one view. The executive will challenge volume discounts that deepen concentration and contracts whose nominal service credits cannot compensate for customer loss or regulatory breach.

Inventory needs explicit ownership. Critical spares and deployment equipment should carry location, condition, ageing, compatibility and consumption evidence. Buffers will be calibrated to lead-time and failure scenarios. Surplus stock caused by a revised roadmap should be redeployed, returned or impaired promptly rather than hidden in programme cost.

Supplier performance will operate at executive level for material dependencies. Reviews should join delivery, quality, resilience, security, commercial and innovation evidence. Repeated waivers need a dated resolution or a sourcing decision. Escalation routes must reach both parties before a missed milestone becomes a public service event.

The core renewal also creates transition risk. Legacy and target suppliers may run concurrently, with incentives that do not align. Exit assistance, knowledge transfer, data return and asset disposal need acceptance criteria. Savings can be recognised only as old obligations, emergency cover and duplicate capacity genuinely end.

Supply leadership will combine commercial judgement with operational fluency. Category owners should understand the services their contracts enable; programme managers must respect competitive and contractual constraints. Succession will reduce dependence on a few negotiators who hold undocumented supplier history.

Why this seat is open

This planned replacement allows the incumbent to lead through an agreed handover while the renewal remains active. The four-to-six-month appointment window protects continuity and permits full diligence before the bank reaches its next major sourcing and migration decisions.

What you will own

• Map material supply dependencies by service consequence and replacement time.
• Influence supplier choices across an AED 62,550 million banking perimeter.
• Connect demand, ordering, inventory and cash to core-renewal milestones.
• Build tested dual-source or alternative resilience for concentrated suppliers.
• Reset contracts around quality, change, security, service and exit evidence.
• Lead approximately 1,100 employees and partners with clear category accountability.
• Govern critical inventory, obsolescence, logistics and operational acceptance.
• Present disruption scenarios, mitigations and residual exposure to capital sponsors.

The first 12 months

The opening 90 days should identify service-critical dependencies and reconcile programme demand with orders and inventory. Meet the 30 stakeholders most consequential to supply assurance, including architecture, operations, cyber, finance, suppliers, logistics and migration leaders. Assess the team and agree board thresholds for concentration and lead-time exposure.

Months four to nine should qualify priority alternatives, renegotiate fragile commitments and remove obsolete stock or duplicate capacity. Establish supplier scorecards and test recovery routes during a realistic deployment scenario. First value may come through avoided delay, lower expediting, released working capital or a concentration risk reduced before failure.

By year end, supply assurance, inventory productivity and dual-source readiness should show stable progress. The value case must remain within 10% of approval and forecasts should reconcile deployment, cash, service and workforce assumptions over three quarters. Priority supply risks require independent closure evidence; severe escalations cannot remain unresolved beyond 30 days.

What the board will measure

• Service-critical dependencies covered by tested mitigation or accepted exposure.
• Forecast accuracy from migration demand through orders, inventory and cash.
• Lead-time, delivery, quality and change performance for material suppliers.
• Inventory ageing, compatibility, utilisation and released working capital.
• Nine in ten pivotal employees retained and immediate cover across seven in ten direct roles.
• Contractual exit, data return and knowledge transfer proven before legacy retirement.

The person

You are an EVP Supply Chain, Chief Procurement Officer or Operations Leader with 18–22 years in banking or a similarly regulated, technology-dependent enterprise. You have secured a major platform or infrastructure transition through supplier disruption and can quantify both resilience and economic outcomes.

Your accountable P&L, book, budget or portfolio has been at least AED 36,300 million, and you have led 775 or more people. Your results remained evident across two reporting periods after the intervention.

You understand digital banking dependencies, supplier assurance, inventory and contractual leverage. You can distinguish prudent resilience from unmanaged buffers and challenge a technical specification that creates avoidable concentration.

Compensation and terms

Fixed compensation is AED 1.3–1.8 million plus annual incentive. The permanent Dubai appointment is onsite, supports international relocation and permits notice of up to six months.

Confidentiality

The bank, incumbent, suppliers and renewal architecture remain protected. Qualified candidates will receive identifying information only under mutual confidentiality.