Head of Applications

Job Purpose 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 Application Strategy & Roadmap 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. Architecture, Integration & Data 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. Innovation, Automation & AI 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. 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: Fluent : Required • Arabic: Intermediate: Preferred