The Senior Manager of Digital Products will own the strategy, delivery and day-to-day operation of Expo City Dubai's digital product ecosystem the website, mobile app, digital city map and blog together with the data infrastructure, automations, vendor relationships and governance that support them. This is a hands-on technical leadership role: the role holder shapes long-term digital strategy while directly executing CMS updates, building automations, running analytics and facilitating workshops across teams, acting as the connective layer between business functions and digital delivery.
The role holder will have deep hands-on expertise in headless CMS platforms (Contentful or equivalent), including content modelling, taxonomy and bilingual (EN/AR) governance, alongside proven ability to design and build automation and data workflows using platforms such as Airtable, Make.com and third-party APIs. A strong understanding of modern web architecture (Jamstack — e.g. Nuxt.js, Vercel), APIs, structured data and analytics platforms (GA4, SEO and app analytics) will ensure the Head of Digital Products is able to set the strategy, objectives and success metrics, build the roadmap, and influence business and technology stakeholders to achieve our goals.
The Senior Manager of Digital Products will remain cognisant of the changing digital landscape across web, apps, maps and emerging channels including AI and LLM-driven discoverability and will implement effective operational solutions allowing audiences to find, use and enjoy the content produced.
The role is pivotal in maintaining a consistent, well-governed digital presence across all touchpoints, establishing content governance across teams and ensuring digital channels fully integrate with the overall marketing program while enabling commercial lead generation.
The position manages the external development agency and all digital platform vendors, and carries line management responsibility for the digital content function. This position reports directly to the Vice President - Marketing.
The main responsibilities for this role include:
Strategic Responsibilities
- Define and own the long-term strategy and roadmap for Expo City Dubai's digital products website, mobile app, digital city map and blog aligning product direction with departmental goals of visitation, participation, brand reach and commercial growth.
- Identify, evaluate and pilot emerging capabilities such as AI/LLM discoverability, AI-assisted content workflows and personalisation, including their governance.
- Provide strategic direction to key stakeholders on digital performance what is working, what is not, and what needs to change backed by analytics and user insight.
- Build business cases and prioritise the roadmap across competing stakeholder demands; make quick decisions when required while identifying technical debt and ensuring it is addressed in future releases.
- Own the digital platform budget and vendor strategy, including contract negotiation, renewals, licensing and cost optimisation across CMS, hosting, mapping, analytics and tooling.
- Plan for the growth of the function, keeping an eye on commercial lead generation and opportunities to extend digital products in support of revenue-generating business units.
- Collaborate with various work streams, product managers, technology, and business leaders across the organization.
Operational Responsibilities
- Own and actively work within the headless CMS (Contentful): content modelling, taxonomy and metadata governance, bilingual EN/AR structures, editor permissions, publishing QA and platform housekeeping directly executing CMS updates and troubleshooting content-related frontend issues.
- Design, build, maintain and document the automation and data layer connecting digital platforms Airtable bases, Make.com scenarios and API integrations (CMS, analytics, CRM, mapping and third-party services) enabling data syncs, lead management, reporting pipelines and operational workflows.
- Manage the external development agency retainer: priorities, scoping, ticketing, estimates, releases and escalations; protect retainer scope and ensure delivery quality.
- Own digital analytics across GA4, app analytics, SEO tooling, AI/LLM referral tracking and CSAT/behavioural tools; produce the monthly digital channel performance report for leadership with insight-led narrative.
- Plan and facilitate workshops across Marketing, Comms, Commercial, Events, Free Zone and Operations teams for requirements gathering, content governance, customer journey mapping and AI adoption and translate outcomes into delivery plans.
- Establish and enforce content governance across teams: ownership models, workflows, SLAs, bilingual standards and editorial quality across web, app and map.
- Coordinate POI, venue, event and commercial content pipelines with their respective business owners, ensuring accuracy and completeness across digital surfaces.
- Keep abreast of SEO and AI-discoverability requirements (structured data/schema, metadata, redirects) working closely with analytics and SEO partners.
- Safeguard the digital estate: domain and redirect management, app store account governance, security incident response, brand impersonation takedowns with Legal, data protection compliance and infrastructure continuity decisions with IT/DevOps.
- Coordinate with the wider marketing team — CRM, performance and digital analytics to drive traffic, increase reach, acquire new customers/end users, and convert.
- Ensure digital content and campaigns are brand consistent across all digital touchpoints.
People Responsibilities
- Lead the team responsibly and proficiently, providing effective line management to direct reports;
- Set objectives and evaluate performance of individual direct reports and actively manage key personnel issues;
- Ensure that all staff acquire the required skills and knowledge through appropriate learning and development programs;
- Provide visible leadership to the division and across the organization to key stakeholders;
- Build internal digital and AI capability across the Marketing function through training, playbooks and enablement programs;
- Lead and develop the relationship with agency delivery teams, providing functional direction, quality standards and clear priorities.
Knowledge, Qualifications and Skills required
Essential
8+ years of relevant experience in digital product, platform or digital experience roles, including 3+ years leading digital products end to end as well as:
- Bachelor's degree in a digital, design, computer science or related field (or equivalent experience)
- Proven hands-on experience with a headless CMS (Contentful or equivalent) including content modelling, taxonomy and governance
- Demonstrated experience building no-code/low-code automations (Make.com, Zapier or similar) and structured data tools (Airtable)
- Understanding of modern web technologies and architecture (HTML, CSS, APIs, Jamstack e.g. Nuxt.js, Vercel and structured data/schema)
- Strong analytics capability: GA4, SEO tooling, app analytics and performance reporting for senior leadership
- Strong skills in strategy and planning, and vendor management, including contract negotiation, renewals and licensing
- Familiar with design thinking methodology and able to plan and run stakeholder workshops across multiple teams
- Able to work with Agile or lean methodology
- Strong strategic, problem solving and thought leadership skills
- Ability to thrive in a high paced environment and manage multiple priorities simultaneously
- Demonstrated ability to lead projects requiring synthesis of large amounts of complex data into meaningful conclusions
- Ability to navigate, collaborate and influence cross-functional partners
Desirable
Proficiency in Arabic
