Job Title: Head of Corporate Support Services
Location: Abu Dhabi, UAE (Onsite)
Employment Type: Full-time
Role Purpose
Head of Corporate Support Services is a corporate executive responsible for designing, governing, and leading Corporate Support Services operating model to serve all subsidiaries and corporate functions. Role ensures standardization, policy compliance, risk management, and service excellence across enterprise, while enabling subsidiaries to execute efficiently through clear service catalogs, SLAs, and scalable digital workflows.
This position provides strategic and operational leadership across a corporate support services portfolio that may include Human Capital, Procurement & Logistics, Finance Governance & Controls, IT Services, Legal/Contract Governance, Administration/Facilities, and other corporate services as required. Role is accountable for measurable outcomes in cost-to-serve, service quality, compliance, automation, audit readiness, data governance, and enterprise resilience.
Key Responsibilities
Corporate Services Strategy & Operating Model
- Define and implement Corporate Support Services strategy, aligned with corporate objectives, governance requirements, and subsidiary needs across subsidiaries.
- Design and continuously optimize corporate support Services operating model, including roles, service ownership, escalation paths, and country-specific adaptations where legally required.
- Establish and run an enterprise performance system across portfolio: service KPIs/OKRs, productivity, quality controls, and audit readiness.
- Standardize policies, processes, templates, and controls across subsidiaries while ensuring local compliance
Digital Enablement, Automation & Data Governance (Corporate Enablement)
- Build a structured business partnering model to ensure subsidiaries are supported while maintaining corporate governance.
- Lead safe adoption of productivity technologies, including GenAI use cases, aligned to Group policies and regulatory requirements.
- Implement AI/data governance guardrails (approved tools, access controls, data classification) in partnership with IT/security to reduce data leakage and compliance exposure.
- Strengthen cybersecurity posture and IT service management practices to ensure reliability, resilience, and secure-by-design delivery.
Procurement, Commercial & Supplier Governance (Corporate-wide)
- Establish robust corporate procurement governance: strategic sourcing, vendor onboarding, contract lifecycle management, delegation/approval controls, and policy compliance across subsidiaries.
- Implement supplier performance management and supplier risk/continuity (critical vendor mapping, contingency plans, cross-border considerations).
- Consolidate spend visibility and leverage Group scale while respecting local procurement regulations.
Finance Governance & Enterprise Controls (Corporate Oversight)
- Provide executive oversight for financial governance across services scope: management reporting standards, internal controls, policy compliance, audit readiness, and decision support.
- Standardize reporting packs, analytics, and governance forums to strengthen forecasting quality and management insight.
- Coordinate with CFO / Finance leadership to ensure clarity between “finance operations” vs “finance governance” ownership (to avoid overlap).
Legal, Contracting & Contract Governance (Corporate-wide)
- Strengthen contractual risk management through contracting standards, delegations of authority, template governance, and dispute escalation/oversight.
- Establish intake, matter management, and outside-counsel governance (where applicable), ensuring consistent contracting quality across subsidiaries.
- Ensure alignment with local laws and cross-border contracting requirements in each operating country.
People Leadership, Culture & Capability (Group Leadership)
- Build and lead a high-performing leadership team across corporate support services functions.
- Drive workforce planning, succession planning, capability building, and performance management.
- Embed a culture of service, compliance, continuous improvement, and measurable outcomes across all support services delivered to subsidiaries.
Enterprise Risk, Resilience & Business Continuity
- Identify and mitigate operational risks across people, suppliers, technology, finance controls, information/data, and contractual exposures.
- Maintain governance for incident escalation, compliance remediation, and operational readiness.
- Support business continuity planning and resilience for operations and mobilization needs.
Qualifications & Requirements
- Master’s degree required (Business, Finance, HR, Law, IT, Engineering, or related).
- Professional certifications advantageous: CIPD, CIPS, ISO, compliance/risk certifications.
- 15+ years progressive experience in corporate services within complex, multi-entity organizations.
- 5+ years in a senior leadership role managing multiple functions (e.g., HR, IT, Procurement, Finance governance, Legal/contract governance).
- Demonstrated experience operating across multiple countries/entities, balancing corporate standardization with local regulatory requirements.
- Experience in engineering, infrastructure, technology, consulting, or project-based environments preferred.
