Managing Director – Regional Business — Transit-Technology Business

The mandate

The group acquired a regional specialist in passenger information and communications to complement its ticketing and control systems. Customers now see one owner, but internally the businesses maintain separate account teams, delivery methods, engineering authorities and service desks. Several public programmes use components from both, making ambiguity visible during incidents and change requests. The Managing Director will turn legal ownership into one regional business without destabilising live transport systems.

The remit spans approximately 1,125 employees and material partners across Gulf markets, covering commercial, programmes, services, product localisation and country leadership. The executive owns the regional P&L, integration, customer commitments and leadership team. Global product units retain road-map authority; the Managing Director must negotiate priorities and make clear where regional custom work is commercially and technically justified.

Integration has two clocks. Leadership, customer ownership and financial control require early resolution; platform and service convergence must follow safety, contract and migration evidence. The executive needs the judgement to move quickly where ambiguity is costly and slowly where system continuity matters. Synergy is not achieved by transferring unrecorded work to project teams.

Legal-entity and certification boundaries may also constrain the apparent operating model. Product approvals, performance bonds, local licences and customer novations cannot always move when reporting lines change. The Managing Director will maintain a register of which obligations remain with each entity, which consents are required and who carries authority meanwhile. Internal integration language must not imply that contracts, accredited roles or warranty responsibility have transferred before valid documentation.

The acquired business brings a founder-led engineering culture, while the group operates formal project and product governance. The objective is neither wholesale absorption nor protected autonomy. The executive will identify where specialist judgement needs preserved authority and where undocumented founder decisions create unacceptable dependency. Knowledge transfer, retention and succession should be tied to named systems and customer commitments, not broad promises to preserve culture.

Why this seat is open

The merger created a planned new regional role above both legacy businesses. Current leaders remain responsible during transition and will be considered for future positions, but neither automatically inherits the combined mandate. The board wants selection completed before annual customer and product commitments are finalised.

What you will own

• Define the regional strategy, customer promise and operating boundaries of the combined transit portfolio.
• Select one leadership team through fair assessment and remove dual authority over accounts, programmes and service incidents.
• Reconcile contract obligations, change controls, warranties and product dependencies across both businesses.
• Establish integrated customer governance for programmes using multiple platforms.
• Sequence technology and service convergence according to safety, acceptance, data and continuity evidence.
• Validate revenue, cost and cash synergies with finance, including transition and stranded cost.
• Align localisation, supplier and workforce plans with regional contract commitments.
• Build relationships with authorities and partners through one accountable regional voice and rigorous procurement conduct.

The first 12 months

Within 90 days, meet priority authority customers jointly with legacy leaders, review every combined-programme risk and map overlapping account and delivery authority. Present the target organisation, integration sequence and financial baseline. Put immediate incident-command and customer-escalation rules in place without waiting for full system integration.

By month six, appoint the leadership team, integrate commercial and programme governance and complete the first shared service process. Resolve duplicate or conflicting product commitments with global units. Launch controlled convergence only where customer consent, acceptance and rollback are established.

At twelve months, achieve at least 85% of due finance-validated synergies, improve milestone cash collection by 20% and reduce cross-business incident hand-offs by 50%. Priority programmes should meet service and delivery commitments throughout integration, with no material customer surprise. Ninety per cent of employees should have stable reporting lines, and regretted attrition among critical engineering and programme talent should remain below 8%.

What the board will measure

• Public-system continuity and customer confidence during integration.
• Clear regional accountabilities and one credible customer voice.
• Finance-validated value after transition, separation and retention cost.
• Contract and product commitments reconciled before new promises.
• Ethical, evidence-led leadership selection and critical-talent stability.
• Regional P&L, cash and early escalation of customer or regulatory risk.

The person

You have 28+ years in regional business leadership across transit technology, rail systems, smart infrastructure, engineering services or another long-cycle public-technology environment. You have integrated an acquisition while accountable for live customer systems. You understand that a programme can be commercially disputed and still require uninterrupted public service.

The relevant scale is at least AED 3.5 billion of contracts, revenue or accountable portfolio and 800 employees and partners. You can show how you selected leaders, resolved competing product commitments and validated integration value. Gulf public-sector experience is important, together with transparent handling of procurement, localisation and government relationships.

This onsite Dubai appointment entails regional travel and reports to the Group Chief Executive and board.

Compensation and terms

The fixed range is AED 2.8–4.0 million plus annual incentive and long-term incentive tied to regional P&L, service, integration value, cash and leadership. This permanent onsite Dubai role reports to the Group Chief Executive and board. Notice periods up to six months may be accommodated with a suitable interim integration plan.

Confidentiality

The acquirer, acquired specialist, authorities, programmes and technology are confidential. Detailed integration information follows conflict checks, reciprocal fit and written confidentiality. All scale and circumstances are composite; applicants must not canvass public customers, suppliers or employees to identify the transaction.