MIS Manager – Transformation & Global Systems

Our client is looking for a senior MIS leader to transform, restructure and strengthen the Group's technology environment and MIS operating model across multiple countries and businesses. This is not a traditional IT infrastructure or maintenance role. The MIS Manager will be expected to assess the organization from both a top-down strategic perspective and bottom-up operational perspective, identify structural and technology gaps, challenge legacy practices, and translate management direction into a practical transformation roadmap. The successful candidate should have experience entering environments where systems, processes, responsibilities and governance may not yet be fully standardized. The individual must be comfortable creating structure from ambiguity, making decisions within complete information, managing resistance to change, and driving transformation through to execution. While this is a senior management role, the individual must retain sufficient technical depth to challenge technical decisions, diagnose critical issues and personally step in when necessary. Key Responsibilities 1. MIS Transformation & Organizational Restructuring • Lead the assessment and transformation of the Group's existing MIS organization, technology landscape, processes and operating model. • Identify structural gaps, duplicated activities, fragmented systems, inefficient processes, control weaknesses and key-person dependencies. • Define the future-state MIS operating model and develop a prioritized transformation roadmap. • Restructure roles, responsibilities, reporting lines, workflows and governance where required. • Lead consolidation, migration, integration and standardization initiatives while ensuring business continuity. • Move the organization away from reactive IT support toward a more structured, scalable and business-aligned MIS function. 2. Top-Down Strategy & Bottom-Up Execution • Translate Senior Management's business direction into technology priorities, investment decisions and executable plans. • Work directly with country teams, technical teams and end users to understand operational realities rather than relying solely on management-level reporting. • Connect strategic objectives with ground-level execution and identify gaps between intended processes and actual practices. • Challenge existing assumptions and legacy practices where they no longer support the business. • Provide Senior Management with clear visibility of technology risks, priorities, dependencies, resources and transformation progress. • Be prepared to go into operational detail when required to understand the root cause of problems and drive resolution. 3. Global MIS Governance & Standardization • Establish a Group-wide MIS governance framework covering infrastructure, systems, applications, security, access, data, technology assets and service management. • Define clear accountability and decision rights between Headquarters, country operations and external service providers. • Standardize technology architecture, policies, operating procedures and controls across multiple countries and business units. • Reduce unnecessary technology fragmentation and improve Group-level visibility and control. • Establish appropriate KPIs, service standards and management reporting to measure MIS effectiveness. 4. Enterprise Systems Integration & Optimization • Own the overall architecture and integration strategy across servers, storage, file systems, identity and access management, email, business applications, APIs, databases and cloud platforms. • Lead end-to-end integration and optimization initiatives across Linux, Windows and MacOS environments. • Establish scalable hybrid solutions covering technologies such as Active Directory/LDAP, SSO, MDM, file sharing, databases, APIs and automation. • Identify interoperability, performance and reliability issues across platforms and drive sustainable solutions rather than temporary fixes. • Evaluate existing systems objectively and determine whether they should be retained, enhanced, integrated, consolidated or replaced. • Ensure system architecture remains scalable and appropriate for future business growth. 5. Linux & Open-Source Technology Leadership • Take overall ownership of the Group's Linux server and open-source technology environment, including architecture, security, availability, performance and lifecycle management. • Establish standards for deployment, configuration, hardening, patching, monitoring, automation, backup, recovery and technical documentation. • Evaluate and introduce suitable open-source technologies where they provide stronger operational, security, scalability or cost advantages. • Ensure open-source solutions are implemented within appropriate governance, security and support frameworks rather than deployed independently without organizational control. • Maintain sufficient hands-on technical capability to review configurations, challenge proposed solutions, diagnose critical issues and intervene directly when circumstances require. • Reduce dependency on individual technical resources by establishing proper documentation, automation, knowledge transfer and operational standards. 6. Technology Architecture & Infrastructure • Oversee the Group's network, server, endpoint, cloud and enterprise infrastructure architecture. • Ensure infrastructure across different countries is reliable, secure, scalable and appropriately standardized. • Lead modernization and consolidation of legacy or fragmented infrastructure. • Establish technology lifecycle and capacity-planning disciplines to support future organizational growth. • Review major technology investments and ensure solutions are commercially and technically appropriate rather than driven solely by vendor recommendations. 7. Information Security, Risk & Business Continuity • Establish Group-level standards for identity and access management, endpoint security, p…