Senior Specialist - AITC

About: Alef Group is a pioneer in developing meaningful and connected communities that celebrate creativity, innovation, and cultural pride through investment and strategic joint ventures, seeking a highly motivated, results-driven Senior Specialist - AITC to join our team in Sharjah. Job Purpose: The Senior Specialist - AITC is responsible for planning, managing, and maintaining the company’s IT infrastructure and infrastructure support services across offices and project sites. The role oversees servers, networks, storage, cloud infrastructure, end-user computing, infrastructure security, backup, and disaster recovery to ensure reliable, secure, and cost-effective operations. The position leads infrastructure service delivery, capacity planning, technology upgrades, and vendor management. Business application ownership, implementation, customization, functional support, and application integrations are outside this role’s scope; coordination with application owners is limited to underlying infrastructure, connectivity, access, and recovery dependencies. Key Accountabilities: Infrastructure Strategy & Planning • Support the Head of IT in developing and executing the infrastructure roadmap aligned with business requirements, resilience, security, and growth. • Assess infrastructure capacity, lifecycle risks, and connectivity needs across offices and project sites; recommend upgrades and cost optimization. • Plan infrastructure budgets, refresh cycles, cloud capacity, and upgrade projects with defined technical standards and controlled implementation schedules. IT Infrastructure & Operations • Manage servers, virtualization, storage, cloud infrastructure, LAN/WAN, wireless networks, firewalls, internet connectivity, and end-user devices. • Oversee infrastructure monitoring, availability, capacity, and performance; manage incidents, root-cause analysis, and controlled changes to minimize business disruption. • Supervise infrastructure and end-user support services against agreed service levels, escalating business application issues to the relevant application owners. • Manage backup operations, restoration tests, and infrastructure disaster recovery exercises against agreed recovery time and recovery point objectives, coordinating dependencies with application owners. IT Service Management (ITSM) & Continual Improvement • Establish and manage ITIL-aligned ITSM practices for infrastructure and end-user support, covering incident, major incident, problem, service request, change, and release management for infrastructure services. • Maintain service catalogues, SLAs, operational-level agreements, escalation procedures, and knowledge articles; monitor response and resolution performance and drive corrective actions and continual service improvement. • Maintain infrastructure asset and configuration records in the configuration management database (CMDB); ensure changes include risk assessment, approvals, testing, rollback plans, and post-implementation reviews. Cloud, Identity & Infrastructure Platforms • Oversee on-premises and cloud infrastructure provisioning, configuration, operating system administration, and platform lifecycle management. • Manage directory services, identity infrastructure, DNS, DHCP, and approved access provisioning in line with security policies and authorization requirements. • Provide secure hosting, connectivity, and infrastructure readiness for business systems; application configuration, functionality, integrations, and support remain with application owners. Cybersecurity & Data Protection • Implement infrastructure security policies, network segmentation, access controls, and system hardening in coordination with cybersecurity and governance teams and applicable UAE data protection requirements. • Coordinate infrastructure vulnerability assessments and penetration testing; track remediation and support security incident response and audit evidence requirements. • Ensure timely operating system, firmware, and infrastructure security updates, endpoint protection, and encryption through approved change and maintenance procedures. • Implement and maintain assigned infrastructure controls supporting the ISO/IEC 27001 Information Security Management System (ISMS), in coordination with cybersecurity and governance owners; maintain control evidence, support risk assessments and internal and external audits, and close assigned findings and corrective actions. AI Governance & Infrastructure Controls • Support the development and implementation of AI governance policies with cybersecurity, governance, legal, and business owners; maintain an inventory of approved AI services and coordinate infrastructure and security risk reviews before enablement. • Implement approved identity, access, connectivity, data protection, and logging controls for AI services; restrict unauthorized AI tools and protect confidential information in line with approved policies. • Monitor AI service access, infrastructure consumption, security events, and policy exceptions; maintain audit evidence, escalate incidents, and support user awareness of secure and responsible AI use. AI application ownership, model development, and validation of business outputs remain with designated owners. Vendor & Project Management • Manage infrastructure vendors, cloud and connectivity providers, maintenance contracts, renewals, and service-level agreements (SLAs). • Evaluate technical proposals and negotiate infrastructure hardware, platform licenses, cloud services, and support costs in coordination with procurement. • Lead infrastructure deployments, migrations, network upgrades, and site-readiness projects within approved scope, budget, timelines, and handover requirements. Team Leadership & Development • Lead and develop assigned infrastructure engineers and support resources, including outsourced service providers. • Assign tasks, monitor performance, and ensure alignment with departmental goals. • Encourage continuous learning, infrastructure certifications, technical knowledge transfer, and operational coverage within the support team. Reporting & Documentation • Maintain infrastructure architecture, network diagrams, asset inventories, configuration records, operating procedures, and recovery runbooks. • Report infrastructure availability, service levels, incidents, capacity, backup and recovery results, security remediation, costs, and project status. • Provide recommendations to senior management on infrastructure risks, resilience, lifecycle investment, and service improvement priorities. Educational Qualifications, Work Experience, and Skills Required: Educational Qualification & Certifications: • Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or related field (Master’s preferred). Relevant cloud infrastructure, networking, virtualization, or IT service management certifications are desirable. • ITIL Foundation certification is preferred. ISO/IEC 27001 Foundation, Implementer, or Internal Auditor certification is desirable. Work Experience: • 7–10 years of progressive IT infrastructure and operations experience, with at least 3–5 years in a supervisory role covering infrastructur

Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or related field (Master’s preferred). Relevant cloud infrastructure, networking, virtualization, or IT service management certifications are desirable. ITIL Foundation certification is preferred. ISO/IEC 27001 Foundation, Implementer, or Internal Auditor certification is desirable. 7–10 years of progressive IT infrastructure and operations experience, with at least 3–5 years in a supervisory role covering infrastructure.

Plan infrastructure budgets, refresh cycles, cloud capacity, and upgrade projects with defined technical standards and controlled implementation schedules. Manage servers, virtualization, storage, cloud infrastructure, LAN/WAN, wireless networks, firewalls, internet connectivity, and end-user devices. Oversee infrastructure monitoring, availability, capacity, and performance; manage incidents, root-cause analysis, and controlled changes to minimize business disruption. Supervise infrastructure and end-user support services against agreed service levels, escalating business application issues to the relevant application owners. Manage backup operations, restoration tests, and infrastructure disaster recovery exercises against agreed recovery time and recovery point objectives, coordinating dependencies with application owners. Establish and manage ITIL-aligned ITSM practices for infrastructure and end-user support, covering incident, major incident, problem, service request, change, and release management for infrastructure services. Maintain service catalogues, SLAs, operational-level agreements, escalation procedures, and knowledge articles; monitor response and resolution performance and drive corrective actions and continual service improvement. Maintain infrastructure asset and configuration records in the CMDB; ensure changes include risk assessment, approvals, testing, rollback plans, and post-implementation reviews. Oversee on-premises and cloud infrastructure provisioning, configuration, operating system administration, and platform lifecycle management. Manage directory services, identity infrastructure, DNS, DHCP, and approved access provisioning in line with security policies and authorization requirements. Provide secure hosting, connectivity, and infrastructure readiness for business systems; application configuration, functionality, integrations, and support remain with application owners. Implement infrastructure security policies, network segmentation, access controls, and system hardening in coordination with cybersecurity and governance teams. Coordinate infrastructure vulnerability assessments and penetration testing; track remediation and support security incident response and audit evidence requirements. Ensure timely operating system, firmware, and infrastructure security updates, endpoint protection, and encryption through approved change and maintenance procedures. Implement and maintain assigned infrastructure controls supporting the ISMS, in coordination with cybersecurity and governance owners; maintain control evidence, support risk assessments and internal and external audits, and close assigned findings and corrective actions. Support the development and implementation of AI governance policies with cybersecurity, governance, legal, and business owners; maintain an inventory of approved AI services and coordinate infrastructure and security risk reviews before enablement. Implement approved identity, access, connectivity, data protection, and logging controls for AI services; restrict unauthorized AI tools and protect confidential information in line with approved policies. Monitor AI service access, infrastructure consumption, security events, and policy exceptions; maintain audit evidence, escalate incidents, and support user awareness of secure and responsible AI use.