Middle East CIO — Infrastructure (Regional Leadership)

Position overview

Gladwin International Leadership Advisors is representing a confidential organisation in Infrastructure & Real Estate on a senior CIO leadership mandate anchored in Middle East. The remit explicitly spans Malaysia, India, USA.

This is a sector or practice-head mandate combining deep domain credibility with commercial ownership of a vertical P&L or global practice line.

The client values executives who build repeatable operating mechanisms, not heroic firefighting that resets every quarter.

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Context you will inherit

• Market & sector: Talent retention on long-duration remote projects — building leadership cultures that can attract and retain quality talent in non-metro project locations
• Geographic spine: Primary hub Middle East with explicit corridor responsibility across Malaysia, India, USA.
• Organisation stage: Customer concentration in a handful of strategic accounts shapes both opportunity and reputational risk.
• Stakeholders: Key interfaces include headquarters strategy, regional risk and legal, local regulators (where material), and anchor channel partners.
• Secondary lens: Navigating regulatory and environmental clearance processes — requiring leaders with strong government relations, legal acumen, and policy understanding

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The mandate (12–24 month arc)

1. Identity & access: Clean up excessive privileges and stale accounts — foundational for both security and audit.
2. End-user support: Reduce ticket backlog through root-cause fixes, not perpetual firefighting.
3. Asset lifecycle: Refresh hardware and end-of-life software on a predictable cadence.
4. Business continuity: Tabletop exercises that surface real gaps in dependencies and communications.
5. Innovation intake: Lightweight process for business-led experiments that don’t bypass architecture guardrails.
6. Vendor concentration: Mitigate single-supplier risk for critical platforms.

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Responsibilities (representative)

• Improve IT demand management and portfolio governance with the executive committee.
• Upgrade vendor management — SLAs, penalties, and outcome-based contracts.
• Sponsor integration discipline post-M&A for systems and data.
• Build IT financial transparency — chargeback or showback where helpful.
• Develop IT leadership team with mix of supplier management and internal delivery strength.

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Leadership profile

• Judgment: High signal-to-noise under pressure; ethical clarity; willingness to halt initiatives that break risk appetite.
• Education: Strong undergraduate grounding; MBA / advanced degree / professional qualification common at this level.
• Communication: Executive presence in English; additional languages valued where market-relevant.
• Service leadership: IT organisation trusted for reliability, cost transparency, and partnership.
• Geographic muscle: Comfort operating from Middle East with regular engagement across Malaysia, India.

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Team & culture

You inherit a mixed-tenure team — pockets of excellence beside roles that need upgrade. The mandate is to raise the bar without demoralising the organisation: clear standards, fair process, and visible wins that prove the new pace is achievable.

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Success measures (examples)

• Value creation: EBITDA / cash trajectory vs. owner or board case — especially under stress scenarios.
• Execution: On-time delivery of named transformation milestones; reduction in repeat incidents or audit findings.
• Leadership: External hires and internal promotions that stick; reduction in key-person concentration.
• Innovation: Launched offers or capabilities that move the needle on differentiation, not pilots that stall.

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First 90 days (orientation arc)

• Days 1–30: Map cash, covenant, and customer concentration risks before announcing initiatives.
• Days 30–60: Align owners and board on a 12-month value story — financial and non-financial.
• Days 60–90: Launch two quick operational fixes that build credibility with frontline managers.
• Deep-dive on talent — who is load-bearing, who is blocking, where external hire is mandatory.
• Socialise a simple KPI tree so every function sees how their metrics roll up.

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Stakeholder map (illustrative)

• Internal: Executive committee, functional peers, shared services leads, and programme PMOs.
• External: Key suppliers, technology partners, and joint-venture boards where applicable.
• Board / owners: Expect deep dives on risk, liquidity, talent, and transformation — slides light, substance heavy.

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Travel & mobility

Multi-hub rhythm — plan for weekly or bi-weekly cross-border travel during integration or transformation peaks.

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Compensation

Package aligned to CIO benchmarks in Infrastructure & Real Estate — typically fixed, variable, benefits, and mobility where applicable. Structure detailed at shortlist.

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Application process

Gladwin International is managing this search confidentially. Shortlisted candidates will engage in structured conversations with the firm’s partners before client introduction. Please apply through the careers portal with a concise note on why this geography, sector, and remit fit your trajectory.

We review every submission personally; unsolicited outreach to the end client is discouraged and may disqualify candidacy.

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Reference: infrastructure-real-estate · CIO · Middle East · Gladwin International Leadership Advisors