Principal Lead, Service Management

About the Role

This position leads the IT Service Management (ITSM) function at First Abu Dhabi Bank, establishing governance frameworks, standards, and assurance mechanisms to ensure resilient, secure, and business-aligned technology service delivery across the enterprise. The role is responsible for driving service quality, operational resilience, service continuity, change enablement, configuration management, and performance oversight, guaranteeing the stability, compliance, and customer focus of critical banking services.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and implement the enterprise ITSM strategy, roadmap, and operating model in alignment with FAB’s business, technology, and resilience goals.
• Oversee the bank’s IT service continuity and operational resilience, including governance of disaster recovery, conducting testing programs, recovery assurance, and regulatory compliance readiness.
• Set governance, standards, and surveillance for Change Enablement, Configuration Management, Service Quality Management, and Service Performance Management.
• Enhance end-to-end service visibility and mapping to improve service ownership, manage dependencies, assess impacts, and support resilience decision-making.
• Act as a leadership representative for ITSM, operational resilience, and assurance at executive, governance, audit, and regulatory meetings.
• Identify, manage, and escalate operational risks, control weaknesses, vulnerabilities, and cross-functional dependencies affecting critical business services.
• Collaborate with senior stakeholders from Technology, Business, Risk, Compliance, Audit, and supplier teams to enhance service reliability and customer outcomes.
• Promote data-focused service management by leveraging service intelligence, automation, observability, AI, and AIOps to boost operational insights, proactive risk detection, and performance.
• Lead and nurture high-performing teams fostering accountability, collaboration, continuous improvement, and adherence to FAB values.
• Support digital transformation initiatives by embedding resilient-by-design principles into technology delivery, agile practices, and lifecycle management.
• Manage ITSM budgets and resource allocations to align investments with service quality, resilience, and regulatory needs.
• Supervise strategic supplier performance and commercial relationships to ensure tools and partnerships deliver optimal value and outcomes.
• Secure funding and sponsor ITSM maturity enhancement projects including continuity, automation, AIOps, and workforce capability development.

Qualifications and Experience

• Over 12 years of IT service delivery experience, with a minimum of 5 years in senior leadership roles.
• Proven expertise implementing ITIL-based service management frameworks within large, complex organizations.
• Comprehensive understanding of IT operations and service management specific to banking or financial services.
• Deep experience working with critical banking systems, digital platforms, and regulatory compliance.
• Demonstrated capability managing major incidents, performing root cause analysis, and directing risk-controlled change management.
• Successful track record in building and mentoring geographically diverse, high-performing teams.
• Experience driving cultural transformations towards a customer-centric mindset within IT.
• Proven skills in managing third-party providers and vendor relationships to meet SLAs and optimize costs.
• Strong stakeholder engagement experience, including interactions with C-level executives and cross-functional groups.
• Hands-on involvement in IT transformation projects encompassing automation, cloud adoption, and AI in service delivery.
• Experience leading continual service improvement (CSI) efforts to align IT services with business objectives.

Professional Skills

• Expertise in developing and executing ITSM strategies aligned with organizational goals.
• Strong decision-making capabilities, particularly in high-pressure situations.
• Excellent communication skills for engaging senior leadership, technical teams, and business units.
• Proficient interpersonal skills for conflict resolution and negotiation.
• In-depth knowledge of IT infrastructure, application delivery, monitoring, and service management technologies.
• Familiarity with cloud platforms, automation tools, and AI-enabled IT service solutions.
• Ability to analyze complex service metrics and extract actionable insights.
• Focus on root cause identification and implementation of sustainable fixes.
• Experience managing critical incident response and rapid restoration processes.
• Skilled in developing and maintaining disaster recovery and business continuity plans.

Education and Certifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Business, or Information Technology.
• ITIL Foundation certification (version 4 preferred); advanced ITIL certifications highly desirable.

Preferred Additional Qualifications

• Certifications in Agile, Scrum, or DevOps methodologies (e.g., Certified Scrum Master, DevOps Foundation) are beneficial.
• Additional certifications such as CISM, CISA, or PMP are advantageous.
• Knowledge of UAE and international banking regulations, data privacy, and security standards.
• Experience with ITSM tools like ServiceNow and PagerDuty.
• Familiarity with automation and monitoring tools used in enterprise-scale IT environments.
• High emotional intelligence and resilience for managing diverse teams and high-pressure circumstances.
• Strong customer-oriented approach committed to outstanding service quality.
• Capability to balance strategic direction with hands-on operational leadership.