Design and Critical Thinking
Zakaria Alsahafi
Director, Advanced Analytics ,Digital Catalyst
Riyadh
Summary
Experienced IT leader ready to bring 10+ years of experience and take on challenging new role. Diligent, forward-thinking and adaptable to dynamic company, customer and project needs. Successful at motivating teams to meet demanding timelines.
Overview
17
17
years of professional experience
5
5
years of post-secondary education
Work History
Director of Solution Development and Integration
RSG-Red Sea Global
08.2023 - Current
- Develop and execute comprehensive strategies for solution development and integration, ensuring alignment with organizational goals.
- Identify and evaluate emerging technology solutions with the potential to address bussines challenges and opportunities.
- Integration of various systems and technologies within the organization, ensuring seamless interoperability and functionality.
- Develop and oversee the implementation of 52 solutions, managing a budget of +300 million SAR for solution development and integration projects, while ensuring efficient resource allocation and cost-effective execution.
- Track and measure the impact of developed solutions, analyzing data to demonstrate return on investment and identify areas for improvement.
- Establish and enforce QA standards and procedures to ensure the quality and reliability of software and systems.
Director, Advanced Analytics
Decision Support Center
06.2022 - 08.2023
- Establishment and execution of Data & Analytics strategy and roadmaps including the enterprise data warehouse, big data, BI & analytics, and data governance.
- Build & deploy Machine Learning/AI pipelines .
- Act as a subject matter expert in advanced analytics and bring best in class, innovative ideas to test and measure performance and impact programs.
- Develop sophisticated data products (visualizations, models, insights etc.) for business users.
- Leading the initiatives involving exploration and analysis of data across a variety of data platforms.
- Lead data architects and data engineers to architect and deliver the solutions that fulfill the Business information needs and align with the information vision and strategy
Application Director
TAWAL- Telecommunications Towers Company
06.2020 - 06.2022
- Established three Application Departments functions for Enterprise Architecture (EA) , Solution Development and IT Quality Assurance
- Analyze and select best in class technology stacks and methodologies for iterative Agile software development.
- Define Enterprise Architecture principles , standards and governance.
- Deliver and maintain scalable and modern mobile Apps and Web applications platforms.
- Build Application development strategy and roadmaps.
- Adapt industry best practices and standards in architecture design, implementation, testing and deployment. (TOGAF,Scrum ,CMMI, SPIG, ISO and TCoE , TMFourm , SIT , OpenAPI..etc).
- Managed Outsourcing Engagement for high profile mission-critical application.
- Managed multi-vendor environments and monitored program metrics.
- Maintained interface and alignment with client's business objectives.
Head of IT Development
Saudi Credit Bureau - SIMAH
03.2019 - 06.2020
- Collaborated with business unit team members to design new applications system to enhance client requirements for mobile computing capabilities.
- Worked closely with business analysts, development teams and infrastructure specialists to deliver high availability solutions for mission-critical applications.
- Manage and execute software development projects
- Designs, implements, and maintains software cost estimating.
- Provide project management and technical leadership for every aspect of software.
- Supervise architecture plus lead efforts to develop technical roadmap of all projects..
- Involve in strategic plans to accomplish technical as well as business with leadership chain, team and with customers.
- Evaluate projects, develop and update schedules plus supervise project status.
Head of Applications and Data Warehouse(DWH)
Saudi Credit Bureau - SIMAH
03.2014 - 04.2019
- Manage software managements life-cycle.
- Followed quality standards and procedures to minimize errors and maximize customer satisfactions.
- Supervised and led employees to high performance levels in cross-functional matrix management structure.
- Developed standard operating procedures and document workflows for current and future process steps.
- Improved quality processes for increased efficiency and effectiveness.
- Generated MIS reports, maintaining dimensional as well as relational data structures and managing operational data store and data warehouse.
- Designed data models for complex analysis needs.
- Established and secured enterprise-wide data analytics structures.
IT Specialist
Saudi Credit Bureau - SIMAH
09.2009 - 02.2014
- Working with Standard & Poor’s (S&P) at NYC , as technical leader for National Data Pooling project and under the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) supervision.
- Analyzed requirements and designed, developed and implemented software applications.
- Implemented BI solution framework for end-to-end business intelligence projects.
- Created and implemented database designs and data models.
- Tested programs and databases to identify issues and make necessary modifications.
- Designed and implemented TSQL queries for reporting and complex solution development.
- Maintained complex T-SQL queries, views and stored procedures in multi-database environment with little supervision.
Database Administrator
Allianz Saudi Fransi
06.2008 - 09.2009
- Designed and implemented TSQL queries for reporting and complex solution development.
- Developed and produced high-standard database solutions to meet stability, reliability and performance metrics.
- Documented and analyzed business reports for prompt communication, follow-up and ongoing support.
- Administered, supported and monitored databases by proactively resolving database issues and maintaining servers.
Cooperative Program (COOP)
Advanced Electronics Company Ltd - AEC
01.2008 - 06.2008
- R&D Department :
Worked on MADAR system project for advanced fleet management and tracking system.
Education
(BSc) in Computer Science Degree - Computer Science
King Saud University
Riyadh 08.2003 - 07.2008
Skills
- Software Development Life Cycle
BI and Data Warehouse(ETL,CDC,MDM,MFT,DQM)
Agile Frameworks
Budgeting and Financial controls
DevOps CI/CD
Cloud Native Architecture
RPA Process Automations
Application Containerization (OpenShift)
Test automation
Security Automation SAST and DAST (SonarQube)
Cyber Security Framework and Architecture
Big Data Modeling and Management
Data warehouse Modeling and Design
AI & ML Solutions
Software
Strategic Planning and Execution
Developing Talent and Teams
Providing Leadership
Leading Change
Driving Success/ Driven
Adjusting to Change/Adaptable
Focusing on Customers/Customer Focused
Certifications & Training
- MIT Program-AI and Machine Learning: Building Data Science Solutions
- Critical Thinking for Better Judgment and Decision-Making
- Cloud Architecture: Design Decisions
- AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C02): 2 Storage Design
- Micro-services design pattern.
- Agile Scrum Project Management.
- Introductions to the Big Data and Hadoop file system
- Big Data Modeling and Management Systems.
- Data Wherehouse Modeling and Design
- Data Driven Performance- Balanced Scored Cards.
- Cisco Certified Network Associate Routing & Switching (CCNA).
- PMP Project Management.
- UiPath RPA Platform.
- Microsoft Certified Technology Professional (MCTP).
- Microsoft Certified in SQL Server 2008.
- Leadership Training for Management.
- Applying Innovations.
- Introductions of Blockchain technology
Accomplishments
At DSC:
- Conduct gap assessments and benchmarks for Data and Analytics department.
- Define and align Data and Analytics strategy , required capabilities and roadmaps.
- Build & deploy Machine Learning/AI pipelines for three bussines use cases .(using NLP ,prediction methods, Google BERT , Python ,Alteryx ).
- Design and build data architecture for Structured, unstructured and Geospatial data.
- Build & deploy Lakehouse, ETL and BI pipelines .
- Establish and activate national data governance requirements (NDMO,DMO) .
At TAWAL -STC :
- Managing TAWAL digital hacks and initiatives programs.
- Established Application Department teams and functions at TAWAL for Enterprise Architecture (EA) , Solution Development and IT Quality Assurance sections.
- Define Enterprise Architecture EA principles , Standards and governance.
- Build best in class technology stacks and methodologies for iterative Agile software development.
- Building CI/CD pipelines using multi-chain DevOps (Open Source) tools to reach full automation from feature branch to full release to production.
- Define and build outsourcing and managed services strategies.
- Adapt industry best practices and standards in architecture design, implementation, testing and deployment. (TOGAF, Scrum ,CMMI, SPIG, ISO 27001 ,TCoE , TMFourm , SIT , OpenAPI..etc).
- TAWAL awarded for ISO27001 and TMFourm conformance certifications.
- Building Microservices independently and exposing them as APIs through Google APIgee.
- Build Messaging and integration solution (Google APIgee and Kafka)
- Define Mobile APP Architecture.
- Build Employee and Landlord Mobile APPs using React Native .
At SIMAH:
- Plan and execute IT digital transformations strategy.
- Develop Software development strategy and roadmap.
- Transform old and legacy systems to modernized software.
- Developed modern software concepts like micro-services, containerized,DevOps ,SPA and mobile computing.
- Develop SIMAH One-stop Shop Portal - SIMAHPro.
- Develop SIMAH new Mobile-Apps (IOS and Android ).
- Design and build Enterprise Data Warehouse and BI strategy/roadmaps.
- Build SIMAH National Trade Repository (SNTR) fulfilling the objectives and commitments of the G20 summit.
- Design and Build Data management lifecycle process using SAP IQ, Microstrategy and Informatica Data Platforms (Power Center,B2B Data Exchange , Manage File Transfer ,Data Exchange , MDM , and Data Quality).
- Large-scale implementations of secure Data Integrations Services integrated with more than 250 legal entities from different Industries.(Banking and Finance ,Telecom, Government ..etc ).
- Handling and process large data volumes within agreed SLA response. (+30 TB data size , 70-TPS transactions and more than 70 DQ and bussines rules processed using scalable and disrupted deployment process.)
- Develop credit portfolio platform (P360).
- Supporting Credit Data Modeling teams using EDW,Matlab and SAS.
- Implementing ITIL V3 and ITSM standards in SIMAH.
- Build SIMAH CRM , Billing and ERP Systems.
Timeline
Director of Solution Development and Integration
RSG-Red Sea Global
08.2023 - Current
Director, Advanced Analytics
Decision Support Center
06.2022 - 08.2023
Application Director
TAWAL- Telecommunications Towers Company
06.2020 - 06.2022
Head of IT Development
Saudi Credit Bureau - SIMAH
03.2019 - 06.2020
Head of Applications and Data Warehouse(DWH)
Saudi Credit Bureau - SIMAH
03.2014 - 04.2019
IT Specialist
Saudi Credit Bureau - SIMAH
09.2009 - 02.2014
Database Administrator
Allianz Saudi Fransi
06.2008 - 09.2009
Cooperative Program (COOP)
Advanced Electronics Company Ltd - AEC
01.2008 - 06.2008
(BSc) in Computer Science Degree - Computer Science
King Saud University
08.2003 - 07.2008
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