Head of Data & Digital Delivery at National Foods Limited…

Job PurposeLead the Data Digital Delivery pillar within DDT, driving the design, delivery, and governance of enterprise data platforms, analytics, AI/automation, and digital capabilities. Leads development of the enterprise Lakehouse, analytics, AI/ML models, digital platforms (SFA/DMS, B2B/D2C), automation, and API ecosystem. This role transforms the NFL into a data-driven and AI-enabled organization by standardizing data products, governing semantic layers, and ensuring digital platforms deliver measurable commercial value.Job ResponsibilitiesLead the vision, strategy, and enterprise adoption of digital, data, and AI capabilities aligning with business growth, commercial priorities, and DDT transformation roadmap.Define and govern the architecture, roadmap, and multi-year evolution of the Data Lakehouse, ensuring scalability, stability, and alignment with enterprise needs.Develop and enforce data governance, quality, security, and compliance standards across semantic models, data pipelines, APIs, and analytics environments.Oversee end-to-end delivery of analytics, BI, and reporting platforms (Power BI, dashboards, semantic layers), ensuring data accuracy, reliability, and performance.Drive development, deployment, and lifecycle management of AI/ML solutions including forecasting, optimization, segmentation, predictive analytics, and AI copilots.Lead automation strategy and delivery using RPA, workflow automation, and AI agents to unlock organizational efficiency and productivity gains.Ensure digital platforms (SFA, DMS, eB2B, D2C, field sales tools) deliver measurable commercial value, high user experience, and strong integration with core systems.Establish and lead portfolio governance for all digital/data initiatives ensuring prioritization, alignment with OKRs, risk oversight, and value realization.Define and track KPIs such as MAPE improvement, OOS reduction, automation hours saved, adoption rate, digital uptime, and ROI metrics.Supervise planning, development, testing, deployment, and post-go-live stabilization of all digital/data projects ensuring timely delivery and sustained adoption.Evaluate proposals, business cases, and innovation opportunities to determine feasibility, cost-benefit, strategic fit, and expected ROI.Bridge the gap between technical teams and business stakeholders, translating business needs into digital/data solutions and ensuring clear communication of outcomes.Lead continuous improvement initiatives by enhancing digital workflows, analytics maturity, data usage, and decision-making capabilities across business units.Cultivate strong relationships with cloud providers, data/AI vendors, platform integrators, and consulting partners ensuring optimized performance and value delivery.Negotiate vendor contracts, license agreements, SLAs, and service obligations, ensuring cost efficiency, performance guarantees, and vendor accountability.Champion data literacy, digital fluency, and AI adoption through structured change management, communication campaigns, and capability-building programs.Work closely with business functions (Sales, Finance, SCM, Marketing, Exports, HR) to identify digital opportunities, enhance user experience, and embed analytics in decision-making.Develop and manage multi-million PKR budgets covering digital platforms, analytics, AI/ML, and automation, ensuring cost-effective execution of initiatives.Conduct cost-benefit analyses and optimize cloud and platform spend, identifying savings opportunities via rationalization, scaling policies, and FinOps.Ensure compliance with data governance, cybersecurity, privacy, and regulatory standards, coordinating with IT Governance, EA, and Cybersecurity teams.Lead adoption of secure practices across digital/data platforms, ensuring SoD controls, audit readiness, encryption, access governance, and DR capabilities.Stay ahead of emerging technologies (GenAI, RPA, Low-code platforms, IoT, Vision AI) and recommend opportunities for digital innovation and competitive advantage.Drive innovation discovery and experimentation cycles, managing pilots, PoCs, and scale decisions in collaboration with Tech Strategy InnovationPromote cross-functional collaboration and knowledge sharing to enhance internal digital capabilities and minimize vendor dependency.Develop and implement talent strategies for digital and data teams, including hiring, skill development, succession planning, and career growth.Foster a performance-driven culture by defining clear KPIs, setting goals, reviewing performance, and coaching teams.Represent the Data Digital Delivery function in leadership councils, steering committees, and cross-functional programs, ensuring strategic alignment and enterprise integration.Minimum Qualifications And ExperienceBachelors degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or related field; Masters preferred.15 years in data engineering, analytics, and digital delivery, including 5 years in senior leadership.Proven experience in